Sam Rayburn Top 5 Patterns – Day 2
It’s still a mixed bag of opportunities on Big Sam
By the numbers, Kris Wilson appears to be in the driver’s seat at the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division event presented by Mercury at Sam Rayburn Reservoir. But to hear him describe his day (which you can do by clicking here), Wilson isn’t all that confident about Saturday’s final round.
On the flip side, Josh Bensema, who’s 4 pounds, 10 ounces behind Wilson, thinks he might have found the kind of Sam Rayburn motherlode that could earn him a come-from-behind victory. And while most of the rest of the top 10 are well behind Wilson, several of them hinted at being on the trail of some truly mammoth bags.
Saturday’s final round should be very interesting. Here’s how the rest of the top five made the cut.
2. Josh Bensema – Willis, Texas – 43-13 (10)
Maybe it was the wind that blew today, or maybe it was just timing, but for whatever reason, the bass on Josh Bensema’s best offshore spots were situated just right for him to bang out a 23-pound, 9-ounce limit today.
Bensema actually started out fishing shallow grass today. He’ll be leaving the grass alone tomorrow and focusing on his offshore fish.
“I went shallow to where I caught a lot of fish yesterday. I had a limit by 6:45,” he says, “but nothing too big; probably 12 or 13 pounds. I was fishing through some hydrilla, dragging a worm and throwing a crankbait.
“Then I went to a deep spot where I tried to catch them yesterday and they weren’t set up right. Today, they were piled up right where they needed to be. I culled three times. One of those was a 6 1/2- or 7-pounder. I only fished one other spot the rest of the day. I left five or six spots alone. They were good on that second spot, so I pulled up there and caught like an 8 and a 4. I hung out there trying to catch one more big one.”
Bensema believes the particular depth and type of structure he’s targeting are keys to his success this week. Another key is his stubbornness to not get drawn into flipping.
“There’s just not a lot of people doing it,” he says about his pattern. “I think a lot of people got distracted by all the flooded stuff. But I’m just pretending like the lake is at normal pool and going where they should be.”
3. Cory Rambo – Orange, Texas – 33-12 (10)
Whether or not Cory Rambo wins this tournament, he gets the pleasure of knowing he made a top 10 with what might be bass fishing’s most exciting technique: frogging.
Today, Rambo weighed in 16 pounds, 4 ounces.
“I started out this morning with a frog, and I caught a bunch,” he says. “I probably culled 15, 20 times, and I was done at 9:30 and didn’t cull again the rest of the day. The bite shut off. I went and ran a bunch of new areas and just never really found anything.”
Yesterday, Rambo rotated flipping and frogging presentations. His flipping bite was good and provided a key late cull. He just couldn’t repeat it today.
“I felt like I could cull today on the flipping fish, but it just didn’t happen for me,” he says. “And the way the wind changed it was blowing straight in on the stuff I was flipping, so it made it tough.”
Tomorrow, Rambo plans to return to the same area. It’s the place where he’s found the highest quality fish.
“I don’t know how many are left. I saw a few really good ones that tried to get it this morning, but I missed them.”
4. Justin Morton – Etoile, Texas – 33-11 (10)
The morning started off with some challenges for Justin Morton. After losing a 4 1/2-pounder right off the bat, then seeing his co-angler catch a good one, Morton admits he was a little unnerved.
Thankfully, he gathered himself quickly, and three casts later he nailed a 5-pounder. A couple casts after that, he added a 3-pounder and was on his way to a 16-pound, 7-ounce limit.
“I’m mainly cranking deep ledges, and I’m doing some stuff that some of the other guys just aren’t really focusing on, but it’s working so I’m going to stick with it,” Morton says. “I’ve got three or four areas, and I’ve only fished two of them. I still have one area I haven’t even been in. I plan on going to it tomorrow and just seeing what happens.”
5. Albert Collins – Nacogdoches, Texas – 33-2 (10)
Albert Collins has been playing the numbers game. He’s running and gunning a bunch of spots, catching multiple fish on most of them, and weeding through keepers until he can find one that’ll upgrade his weight by a few ounces.
He says day one was a little more productive, with more bites. Plus, he landed more of the fish that bit, resulting in a 17-pound, 1-ounce limit. Today, he weighed in exactly 1 pound less.
“Most of the fish are probably in about 8 to 12 feet,” he says. “I’m not flipping. I’m not fishing bushes. I’m fishing structure.
“I changed areas [today]. I just didn’t get near the upgrades that I did yesterday.”