This morning on the dock the buzz was all about returning to the patterns that worked so well in practice. The reason is the weather is like it was then, which was nasty.
The star lures during practice were topwaters for everyone but Brandon Lester. While everyone else rejoiced in the chance to throw moving lures, and especially topwaters, Lester was doing the exact opposite.
“During practice I went with a finesse approach,” he said. “I plan on doing that today.”
The ideal conditions for Lester’s pattern are cloudy skies and light winds, or no wind at all.
“I don’t need the wind,” he stressed.
He won’t have much of that with only a 5 mph breeze in the forecast for the drizzly day.
So while everyone else is slinging topwaters, spinnerbaits and other moving lures, Lester will be finesse fishing with 6-pound test line, a spinning reel and more than likely, a drop shot rig. That setup served him well during the season on both sides of the B.A.S.S. competition equation, in these Opens and the Elite Series.