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.