Can we say Power of Observation I & II by Raul!  

Here's the question what did y'all observe in the pictures of Ike's boat & tackle?

I noticed he had some interesting lure setups.  At 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the video there is a picture of tackle.  What type of jig head is the paddle tail bait and Berkley Beast rigged with??? There appears to be a piece of plastic in front of the lead head...

FD

I noticed he had some interesting lure setups. At 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the video there is a picture of tackle. What type of jig head is the paddle tail bait and Berkley Beast rigged with??? There appears to be a piece of plastic in front of the lead head...

FD

I didnt get to watch the video yet, but is it a Scrounger Head?

http://www.***.com/descpageAMSCROUNG-AMSH.html

I noticed he had some interesting lure setups. At 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the video there is a picture of tackle. What type of jig head is the paddle tail bait and Berkley Beast rigged with??? There appears to be a piece of plastic in front of the lead head...

FD

I didnt get to watch the video yet, but is it a Scrounger Head?

http://www.***.com/descpageAMSCROUNG-AMSH.html

Yep. that is it. Thanks, Speedbead

rods : I've noticed either Steez (SVF Graphite & SVF Complie X) or L&T .

Reels : Steez or TD Luna.

Baits, hum a lot of swimbaits and paddle tubes for swiming with what looks like A.M Scrounger heads.

Funny way to rig a Berkley Beast on that scrounger head too. I've never tried a vertical Berkley beast.

I've also seen a Inch-wacky type jighead somewhere.

Right hand reels for pretty much everything. (I can't use right hand reels for cranking myself).

As for fishing, well seems to be either cranking pretty deep, or targeting docks and floating docks with jigs and crank on the outside.

Is he following an old deep river bed on his depthfinder in 40-50 feet of water ?

And Lowrance everywhere, like 4 sets !  

Looks like it wasn't really warm on that day too.

Maxdal, the beast in a vertical position on a jighead presents the outline of a small bluegill in the water.

If you want to get it to really look like a bluegill, get your soft bait glue and take 1/2 of a light and 1/2 of a dark beast and glue them together.  

While I did notice Ike's rod-&-reels and baits what I keyed in on was what his depth finders plus where he was casting. He was fishing deep water that was within casting distance of the bank and he cast parallel to the bank not casting towards the bank.  

I noticed a ton of large swimbaits with heavy weight.

I noticed that the gps had them riding the high and low side of a river/creek bed in 30-40 ft of water.

I noticed that as soon as they launched the boat, Ike starting pitching to the dock at the launch.

and i noticed that there must be a ton of mental pressure to be a young bass pro from NJ. With no "magic baits", these pros use much of the same gear we do, which means they need to be so much more in-tune with their surroundings on a lake.....and do it consistently with a camera on their shoulder. Ike said "I fish my best when it's just for fun"....and I bet he does.

these pros use much of the same gear we do, which means they need to be so much more in-tune with their surroundings on a lake.....

Yes sir, they do use the same we use but aside from being in tune with your surroundings there 's another thing: know your tackle ! and learn how to get the most out of it.

How many ways you know to rig a soft plastic worm ?

Who says this bait IS for dropshoting alone ? ( look at the 2 inch senko thread )

Who says the best way to rig a senko is weightless ?

Who says the a wacky worm has to be hooked in the middle ?

Who says a crankbait has to run straight to catch fish ?

And so on.

Be creative !

There are no "rules".

Who says the best way to rig a senko is weightless ?

Virtually every time I've seen a senko-style bait fished on TV, it has been with a bullet weight.

So let's keep this on track, and not turn it into another Senko thread.

I have several comments in response to some of the posts.

As for fishing, well seems to be either cranking pretty deep, or targeting docks and floating docks with jigs and crank on the outside.

Is he following an old deep river bed on his depthfinder in 40-50 feet of water ?

For the most part, he was throwing a 1-ounce football jig on points where the creek channel came near it in 20-40 feet, just fishing the 45 degree slope.  Early in the morning he tried crankbaits and got two bites, but the rest came on the jig.

There was no way I could tell you guys that earlier.  I promised Mike I wouldn't let on to what he was doing for the Classic.

He fished the heavy jig not because he was deep, but because the bass weren't hitting it on the fall.  They hit it as he was dragging it down the slope.  So he wanted to get it down there quickly.

And Lowrance everywhere, like 4 sets !

5 if you include the flasher. I asked him about them, and he said 2 of them (one on the front and one on the cosole) were backups.

Looks like it wasn't really warm on that day too.

It was 32 degrees at blast off.  It got to the low 60's at the end of the day, but the 25mph winds kept the chill on. You'll note one the pictures shows him crouched down on the deck - this was right after a wave crashed over the bow (I missed that shot by seconds!). Water temps stayed in the high 40's.

He was fishing deep water that was within casting distance of the bank and he cast parallel to the bank not casting towards the bank.

 Actually he did both, frequently. This lake has a TON of points, so the shoreline is rarely straight.  The pics look decieving in that manner in that sometimes it looks like he's throwing parallel when actually that shoreline is in the background when we're sitting on a point.  

One thing I noticed was that he zig-zagged across the depths, searching for bass.  Never really stuck to exact same depth.  Rather, it was the general vicinity of +- 20 feet of the 30' mark.

Again, he was prefishing, so the goal is to cover A LOT of water very quickly.  We probably hit 70-80 spots in 8 hours.  Factoring in travel time, that's less than 5 mins per spot.  That literally meant a few casts per spot.

Seems unproductive, right?  Well, his goal was to find 2 more spots during the day...2 bites.  He ended up with 7.

noticed that as soon as they launched the boat, Ike starting pitching to the dock at the launch.

Not quite.  The marina where we launched was off limits.  We scooted across the lake about a mile and started fishing a different marina.

That's really nice of you, Glenn, to clarify the situation.

After all, apart from Ike himself, you're the only one who really knows what he was doing on that particular day.

I fully understand that when you say he'd rather keep the infos secret untill the tournament was over. Normal !

Again this interview with the pictures attached was really great.

Too bad you were not able to film him ... next time maybe!  8-)

OUTSTANDING and THANKS, Glenn!!! Mike really did sound like a "down to earth" kinda guy.

I believe when Alton Jones was doing his interview on ESPN and I think he was fishing in the same spot as one of the pictures from the video. Right where the mud/dirt met the sand and he was pointing this out. How you should look for changes above water.

That was AWESOME!!! Thanks Glenn! Well done!