Final Standings
After second place in the last event Fatsack Outdoors hosted, Matthew was out to win. Before the tournament, he had been fishing a ledge with healthy staging fish, just the size he was looking for, 5-8lbs, and was able to coerce them to bite by slow rolling a Rat-L-Trap. More so like you would a worm, really slow on the bottom, sometimes even just shaking it, letting the Trap display its famed dance and sound. The first day Matthew navigated back to the same ledge but to his dismay, the fish had shrunk, or so he thought. For 3 days the Florida native pulled 40 Largemouth off the ledge, but no monsters like his home state is known. In fact, Matthew’s two longest fish were only 19″ but a fisherman must trust his gut and Matthew’s said those bigger females were still in that area, he just had to find them.
December in Florida can bring all sorts of weather patterns that ultimately dictate what these fish do. After a few hot days in a row Matthew decided to seek shallower water to see if the warm sun had lured these fish to the banks. Hours in he found a 3’ drop off, which can be a drastic enough depth change to hold a stubborn Florida Largemouth, especially if it has a cement drain, like this spot did. This time a pleasant surprise, those fish were chasing and eating large schools of shad, making the water look like it was a large black pot of boiling water. Re-positioning himself down the bank, Matt reared back and fired a white, half-ounce Strike King spinner bait directly across the small drop. It was as if you were watching Jordan Lee win the Bassmaster Classic on the final day; cast after cast he caught fish. Then it happened. An agitated, Florida Largemouth stopped the spinner bait as it began to drift off the ledge. Fighting for what felt like a lifetime, he grabbed hold of the six-pound stud, but as he reached to unhook her he notice something, the fish had completely snapped his spinner bait wire. That was when he knew he had stumbled onto something special. The way that fish bit the bait as it rolled off the ledge. Continuing the day I boated my other 4 keepers off the same area but none as big or telling as the monster that broke my spinner bait.
Big Fish
What’s the lesson here? If you have been on a school of staging Florida bass and have a change in the weather like a front or rain or a warming pattern, those fish haven’t gone too far, try going a little deeper or slightly shallower and SLOW DOWN. Regardless, let the fish will tell you what and how they want to feed on certain days, after all, it is fishing.[/vc_column_text]
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