Top Pros Come out
for Pardee - 2nd Annual Media Day
(continued)
In
the dark the pro’s loaded up as the boats were checked by inspectors and quagga
sniffing dogs. Once cleared for launch all the boats were put in and with the
sun just starting to edge over the hill for another spectacular Pardee sunrise
the roar of engines filled the canyon and echoed through the hills as everyone
made their way out of the 5 mph zone.
....he gets the bite but it is a
trout.
While both Zander and Cal
had fished Pardee before for Gary Dobyns and Byron Velvick this would be the
first time on the lake. It was interesting to see how two different pros
attacked a new lake, and with very limited time both pros set out to target
different types of structure. Gary targeted points to throw a combination of
ripbaits and jigs as well as work huds in from deeper water. Byron on the other
hand went straight for humps and looked for drop offs to fish swimbaits.
Kent rounded up a serious group of
West Coast and National Pros for the event
Gary and Zander dragged
jigs slowly, and by slowly we mean a near crawl. The structure felt fantastic
but it was hard to coax fish to bite. When it was obvious that the jig wasn’t
working Gary went to a wacky rigged senko. It didn’t take long for the bites to
start coming in, but sticking them proved difficult.
Byron Velvick checks out the
structure on his electronics
“The next fish that hit’s
I’m setting hard on,” Gary murmured. He didn’t have to wait long and at the sign
of the smallest tick Gary set the hook and started reeling back to the boat,
within a few seconds he had a nice trout in the boat. “Dang it, time to throw
the big bait,” he said and picked up a 8 inch Huddleston swimbait in trout
pattern and started working it back from the deep water towards the boat.
Gary switches back to jerkbaits...
Gary moved the Hudd slowly
and crawled it back up a rocky point. In the span of 20 minutes he got three
more solid hits but wasn’t able to stick any of them. It wasn’t until Zander and
Gary moved back to a brown and purple jig did they start catching bass.
A nice largemouth comes up on a
Lucky Craft Staysee 90 Dobyns ver. 3
It was a double treat to
fish with Gary as we were able to observe how he transitioned through techniques
to find and draw strikes, and had an opportunity to play with Gary’s new lineup
of revamped rods. Through the morning Zander found the rods more refined in look
and feel and the swimbait rods in particular really stood out as they felt
lighter, more sensitive, and even better casting than the recently retired rods.
Why is Pardee so fun? Because you
can mix it up with largemouth and smallies
