2007 Major – Bassmaster Memorial: Tactics

Tactics of the Final 6 anglers in the Bassmaster Memorial

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Tactics for the final six anglers in the Bassmaster Memorial:

1. Dave Wolak (22-0)

Punching holes in thick grass beds and working slight openings and edges in and around grass beds with a 1/2-ounce Title Shot jig, coupled with either a Yum Craw Pappy 3 3/4-inch or a Gonzo Grub tube, both green-pumpkin in color, on 50-pound test Power Pro braid with a 7-foot, 6-inch GLoomis IMX rod paired with a Team Diawa Excaliber baitcasting reel.

"I'm probably mixing it about half-and-half, between punching grass and working the holes and break lines in the grass beds."

2. Peter Thliveros (20-13)

Targeting grass beds and grass lines with a Zoom Super Fluke (watermelon and watermelon/red) with a Smart-Pegged 1/16th-ounce Tru Tungsten sinker 12 inches above the lure, on 12-pound test Trilene Gold fluorocarbon line with a 7-foot, 3-inch American Hibdon Hammer rod and an Abu Garcia Rivo STX reel.

"Absolutely it helped me (Saturday) to take a look at the lake (last Wednesday). The places I picked were some of the good areas that had lots of fish on them."

3. Steve Kennedy (20-3)

Targeting grass lines with a five-inch Kinami Flash soft plastic in watermelon seed color, Texas-rigged with no weight, on 10-pound test Fluoroclear P-Line, with a 5/0 round bend offset Gamakatsu hook, cast with a 6-foot, 6-inch Kistler Helium LTA spinning rod and a Shimano Stratic 4000 spinning reel.

"At Oneida I was throwing it at docks, but I didn't find any docks on this lake, so I was throwing it at grass (beds). I started (Saturday) dirt shallow, like we did at Oneida, but then I went to that deeper grass. I'm just blind casting it out there. If you pick up on it and it's heavy, they're swimming off with it. You just let it fall on slack line. That's key. All I do is watch my line. It's extremely effective when it's slick like this."

4. John Murray (18-10)

Targeting the grass with a Yamamoto jig, 1/2- and 3/4-ounce, blue and watermelon/candy Yamamoto Hula Grub on 50-pound test Spider Wire braid with a Powell 805 Flippin' Stick paired with an Abu Garcia Rivo baitcaster (when punching) and a Powell 764 with a Rivo reel and 15-pound Berkley Fluorocarbon (when casting the jig).

"I caught my big fish punching (through grass mats) and the rest of the casting weedlines, the thicker the better. Twenty-five pounds is possible, not probable. I lost a 5- or 6-pounder on my first cast. That would have given me a 23-, 24-pound bag (Saturday). That was one of those deals where I just wasn't ready. All these guys are going to be a little more ready. And they've sort of isolated where the fish are. Guys won't be trolling-motoring around looking so much. They'll be fishing more on prime water.

5. Jared Lintner (18-8)

Punching grass mats with a 5-inch Berkley Sabertail Tube, one rod with a 3/4-ounce weight and another with a 1-ounce weight, on 65-pound Stealth braid on Powell 766 Heavy Flippin' Stick.

"I'm just going to go fishing. I learned a little bit about this lake yesterday, but I'm sure there's a lot more to be discovered. I'll have to catch 23 to 25 pounds to assure me of having a shot."

6. Dean Rojas (18-7)

Punching grass mats with a black-and-blue Northland Slurpee Jungle Beaver with a 1-ounce weight on 65-pound braid Izor line.

"I'm looking for the thickest stuff I can find on the surface. Some of the stuff that's down below (the surface), it's a little bit difficult to try and pattern them on that. The bigger bites came in the heaviest mats you could find. I was throwing right in the middle of them. Yesterday was a terrific learning experience. It showed me what I needed to concentrate on to try and win this thing today. I'm sixth already. It's not going to matter. I'm going to fish for big fish all day long."

Editor's note: Check in for live video of the weigh-in and the realtime leaderboard at 6 p.m. ET. There will be a special Hooked Up update at noon ET. The full Hooked Up show begins at 5 p.m. Sunday and leads into the live final weigh-in.

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