Clark Reehm and Laurie were talking the other day and both want to do a spot for each tournament that he fishes giving us some insight as to what we can expect for the event. Basically his predictions, what he thinks the winning stringer could be and what types of baits are working and where. So with that said I talked with Clark last night just before the tournament meeting. Now of course there won’t be any secrets given but he did give us some great info for the Pickwick Lake B.A.S.S. Elite Series event that started today.
Even with a sinus infection he is very excited about fishing, they are all catching 80-100 fish a day! He said it didn’t matter what you threw, what color, or what size of bait, you were going to catch 1.5 to 2.5 pound fish every few casts. The problem was catching a bigger fish. Apparently right now if you are wanting to learn how to fish a new technique Pickwick is the place to do it!
Clark said that a lot of anglers will be beating the banks just covering water as fast as they can. They’ll be trying to catch as many as possible to weed through them and get the biggest 5 fish weight they can. He said it didn’t matter where you fished, “You can literally pull up to any bank and catch fish”. However, he said that’s not how you’re going to win this event. While the cut line for this tournament may be around 26 pounds, the winner is going to find a stringer that is pushing 75 pounds.
If the weather allows, and anglers can get to some of the off shore waypoints and fish structure you’ll see some bigger sacks come to the scales. Clark said, “I was able to find some structure fish today, put a 3 plus in the boat pretty quick and had several other bites”. He is looking forward to fishing some deeper stuff. If you follow Facebook at all you will see that Clark Reehm is an accomplished Carolina Rig fisherman, so the off shore structure fishing is right up his alley. If you haven’t read his lessons yet check it out, you can go to Clark’s Facebook page and get a direct link to his articles. Very good reads.
Clark figures the winning stringer will come on Football head jigs, worms and Carolina rigs on deeper water structure. “There will be a lot of balance beam work in this event”. I always use a scale for culling so the balance beam surprised me, I asked him why the balance beam versus a scale. Simply put, he said, “you can’t trust a scale; wind, battery level drops every time you turn it on, fish flopping changes the zero”. He said lots of things make it unreliable. “A balance beam will tell you in a split second which is bigger and it can’t lie”.
When you see Clark Reehm on the Ultimate Bass Forum or visit his Facebook page be sure to thank him for these interviews, I sure do enjoy doing them and I hope you all will enjoy the new addition to the article section of Ultimate Bass.
Mike Cork
