Believing the Bass

FLW Tour Smith Lake winner Dave Lefebre. FLW photo.

I enjoyed reading the account of Dave Lefebre's FLW Tour win at Smith Lake. He finished day one in the 20s, worked his way higher each day, began the final day in 7th place and brought in nearly 20 pounds of fish on the final day to win by about 2 pounds. He did so by being keenly observant, seeing what the bass were doing, and trusting what they were doing, not what they should be doing.

I wasn't there and haven't talked with Dave, so I won't try to report details. Rob Newell does a great job of that in the final story about the win on the FLW website. Basically, though, Dave found some very specific spots where blueback herring were spawning first thing in the morning, and he caught his best fish from those exact spots later in the day. Strange thing was that the bass were nowhere to be found early, when the herring they love to eat were everywhere, but they were in the exact same spots thick and feeding aggressively later in the day, when the herring were nowhere to be found.

It didn't make sense to Dave, but that is the very thing that impresses me. Bass pros have to understand normal bass behavior and use that as a starting point. However, the best ones know how to observe and figure out what IS going on, whether or not it SHOULD BE going on. Dave Lefebre chose to trust the bass and to build his pattern based on that trust, and the result was victory in the second tour event of the season and a check for $125,000.

Gagliardi & Company: My Take as a Nearby Observer

FLW photo by Jeff Samsel

It seems some fuss has arisen about Anthony Gaglardi fishing close to a local angler on Lake Murray during the final morning of the Forrest Wood Cup, with some folks contending that Gagliardi was unsportsmanlike or unethical. Everyone has the right to an opinion, but I don't think any of the folks making those contentions were there at the time. I was, so I thought it might be fitting to offer my take.

From the onset, I'll acknowledge that the other angler was in the area first. Also, it's public water, and he had every right to stay and fish. Many anglers likely would have stepped back, knowing what was as stake for someone else, but that's a personal choice. That said, Gagliardi didn't claim otherwise. He never asked the other angler to yield or did anything to try to push him away. He simply joined him fishing the area.

Regarding the question of moving in on someone else's spot, I believe an important distinction must be made. The other angler was not fishing a defined hotspot, such as a sweet spot on top of a hump, a specific brushpile or a dock. He was working an area where the bass were schooling. On virtually any lake where fish school on the surface, whether those fish are largemouths, stripers, white bass of something else, anglers commonly run those school together. The whole cove doesn't belong to the first angler on the lake. And while I couldn't hear every word spoken, by my understanding, the other angler didn't object to Gagliardi fishing near him. He didn't like the of armada of onlookers that saw his area, and that would have been the same whether they actually had fished 100 yards from one another or 10 feet apart.

Gagliardi also didn't crowd the other angler. He did move to the same area, but the other angler actually did far more pushing tight to Gagliardi's boat and shadowing every shift, based on what I saw. Again, though, they were fishing schoolers, so they both adjusted positions based on where the fish were breaking.

Closely related, I think Gagliardi's comment in the press conference that he threw over the other angler a couple of times made it sound like he was being a bully and felt self important because of the tournament. That wasn't the case. They both threw across one another a couple of times. That happens sometimes when you're chasing schoolers and one suddenly comes up. You only have a moment when bass are eating herring, so you react. A fish comes up, and you cast to it. Occasionally that puts you across the other angler, or, if the fish are sort of between you, your baits might land simultaneously side-by-side.

Most importantly, Gagliardi never said a harsh word. Even when told that he needed to "get a real job," he didn't counter with anything negative. He simply told the other angler that he'd caught fish there the previous day and was going to stay and fish that school, and then he quietly went about his business. He represented FLW and tournament bass fishing well, as I know he will continue to do as Forrest Wood Cup champion.