Rose’s Better Ledge Fish Fell For Crankbaits

Wheeler Lake FLW Open winning pattern.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

courtesy

BassFans who’ve followed Mark Rose’s career know that not too long ago, he made a concerted effort to add another facet to his fishing skill set. He’d already built a reputation as a shallow-water specialist, but felt it was necessary to learn the nuances of offshore structure and how bass related to it, especially on the lakes along the Tennessee River chain.

He wasn’t just concerned with what baits worked best, though. He spent hours upon hours on the water, idling around and examining his sonar screen to watch how fish were relating to changes in current and bait movement on the ledges that the Tennessee River is famous for. He’s to a point now where he can pull up on a school of fish, no matter how small, and get a good feel for whether they’re in a feeding mood or not.

“I’ve got a really good friend who’s one of the best I know at it named Randy Haynes,” Rose said. “I spent some time with Randy one winter about 5 years ago and I took what was I taught and tried to take it to the next level. Three days a week, we’re on the phone talking about ledge fishing. It’s pretty cool to know someone who has such a passion for it like I do because I love it.

“It’s really revived my career so to speak. You do this for 13 years and you start to get a little bit of complacency or a little bit of burn out from time to time and it’s good to have something that you really enjoy.”

This past weekend, Haynes was on hand to watch his friend close out a dominating win at the Wheeler Lake FLW Tour Open. Rose virtually won the event with a massive 21-06 stringer on day 1 and never looked back as his lead gradually swelled through the event from 3 1/2 pounds to a winning margin of more than than 12 1/2 over Luke Clausen.

His lightest bag of the week was 15-10 and if he’d weighed that all 4 days, he still would’ve won by a comfortable margin. His 4-day total of 71-06 was thought to be simply unattainable based on the time of year, the pre-fall transition conditions and Wheeler’s recent weakened reputation.

“I really didn’t know coming in how Wheeler was going to fish,” he said. “I’d heard that in some local tournament that it’d been taking 14 to 15 pounds per day to win, but I also knew that I’d caught a couple big ones in practice and knew the potential was there.”

Here’s how he did it.

Practice

The pre-tournament practice session was highlighted by dreary, rainy conditions that put a significant amout of water in the river system. It messed up some shallow-water areas in creeks and there was no doubt the Tennessee Valley Authority was going to be moving plenty of current through the week to get levels back to normal. Those factors plus his affinity for deep-water structure led Rose away from the bank as he knew the deeper fish would be more immune to any impending changes in the weather.

“Any time I’m on the Tennessee River this time of year, I’m looking deep and I was able to come up with three areas that had them,” he said. “I spent lots of time looking for other stuff in practice – other deep spots out on the river, but I couldn’t find anything. All three of these areas were really close together. They were in one of the clearer creeks on the lower end and it was the only place I could find anything off shore.”

The areas he pinpointed were on the lower end of the lake, toward the Wilson Dam and featured a mix of mussel beds and scattered stumps on the bottom in 21 to 25 feet of water. He stuck a couple decent fish in practice and decided that’d be where he’d at least start the tournament.

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 21-06
> Day 1: 5, 17-08
> Day 1: 5, 15-10
> Day 1: 5, 16-14
> Total = 20, 71-06

When the tournament kicked off, the weather had done a 180-degree shift from practice. Cloudless skies and a serious cold front and moved in the night before day 1 and had most of the field scrambling to check on areas that held or produced fish in practice.

Meanwhile, Rose got busy on putting together the best stringer of the event, targeting his deep-water area and scoping out some possible shallow-water Plan-B spots. He caught only seven keepers, but the best five weighed 21-06.

“Any time you can have over 20 pounds, it’s a special day on the water no matter where you’re at in the country,” he said. “But to be on a little tougher fishery, I was definitely really surprised and excited. I knew then that I’d just leap-frogged over a bunch of people and as long as I could maintain my consistency I had another good shot at wrapping up another win on the Tennessee River.

“I wasn’t really worried about the weather or the wind. These fish were down where the water was a little clearer and I just felt like I could give them a different presentation. If the wind blew I could throw something heavier down there. The temperature didn’t affect them as much either because they were so deep.”

He came through with 17-08 on day 2 as he began to understand more what presentations triggered the better bites.

“I fished it like I always do – just read the fish and every day it seemed like I had to give them something different, but the crankbait always produced my bigger ones every day,” he said.

He did employ the long-lining method to help his shad-imitating plugs reach the target depth, but he wasn’t emptying his entire spool of line.

“I’d get as tight as I could to the spot without getting on top of my fish and then I’d make a long cast and just back off 50 to 75 yards on my spool,” he said. “A big key to my success this week was casting distance and it’s been a big key on all of my wins on the Tennessee River.”

He managed 15-10 on day 3 and began to worry if his spots would hold up for another day. Luckily, he’d built a 7-pound lead and as it turned out there were plenty of willing fish in his primary area as he hammered 16-14 to win in convincing fashion.

He also relied on a 10-inch worm and got some key bites on the final day with a football head jig.

“That Strike King football jig really bailed me out (on day 4) because when I needed those last two keepers, I got them and it helped me to relax and fish harder the rest of the day,” he said.

Winning Pattern Notes

> While Rose fished in one of the creeks on the lower end of the lake, there was still considerable current moving through the area and it made it easier to target the fish.

“There was a lot of current early on in the week and the fish like to set up on wood this time of year,” he said. “It creates the perfect ambush spots.”

> When he noticed the fish were bunched up or in a negative mood, he’d drop a big spoon down to “bust them up,” he said.

“When I’d see them down there and they weren’t biting, I used the spoon more as a triggering mechanism,” he added. “It wasn’t so much to get them to bite. If they’re tight and balled up, that means they’re not wanting to do anything. It was similar to bed-fishing. The fish won’t eat because they want to eat. They just do it out of instinct. You can throw a bigger bait to irritate them, then come back with a more finesse bait to get them to bite.”

Winning Gear Notes

> Crankbait gear: 7’11” medium-heavy Kistler Mark Rose Signature Series Z-Bone crankbait rod, unnamed casting reel (5:1 ratio), 12-pound Seaguar InvisX fluorocarbon line, various deep-diving crankbaits (mostly shad patterns).

> Football jig gear: 7’1” heavy-action Kistler Z-bone casting rod, unnamed casting reel (7:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvisX fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce Strike King football jig (green-pumpkin), Strike King Rage Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).

> A Texas-rigged 10” worm also produced some weigh fish this week and he mixed in a Strike King Sexy Spoon from time to time.

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – “My Lowrance HDS-10s with StructureScan. When I’m on the Tennessee River, it’s what I have to have. I would not have been successful in the tournaments I’ve fished without it.”

> Performance edge – “My Mercury Optimax 250 Pro XS (engine). At the PAA last week, I ws running 100 miles round trip for 3 days and then here I was running from takeoff all the way to the (Wilson) Dam and back. When I need it to count in these big Top 10s, it’s performed flawlessly. I also utilized my HydroWave as well through the week and it gave me added confidence.”

Rose closes Wheeler deal

With daughter Hannah Grace peeking from behind, National Guard pro Mark Rose
shows off two of his winning fish. (Photo by David A. Brown)

Masterful ledge tactician claims FLW Tour Open victory

courtesy

23.Sep.2012 by David A. Brown

DECATUR, Ala. – It's neither fair, nor respectful to other competitors to assume a tournament is "in the bag" just because a guy brings a huge lead into the final round. But Mark Rose, at least indirectly, justified any such murmurings with his dominant wire-to-wire win at the FLW Tour Open event on Wheeler Lake.

Ever the humble gentleman, Rose simply won't engage in that line of thinking. He'll thank God, his family and his sponsors and he'll let others draw their own conclusions. For him, it's simply a matter of being fortunate enough to fish his style of fishing during a period when Wheeler's bass were positioned well for it. Essentially, the fish are just starting to move into their fall transition of shallow migration, but the water's still on the warm side, so plenty of quality fish remain out deep. With a solid understanding of these seasonal patterns and significant experience at picking apart the deep bottoms of TVA impoundments, Rose was in his comfort zone and simply went to work methodically locating and engaging his finned opponents.

"I just felt comfortable out there – I just get in tune with it," he said. "It's a passion I have. I really like it. I like it when I'm not catching anything because I'm trying to figure them out.

"I made a conscious effort about four of five years ago to get offshore. There's one of the best ledge fishermen in the country in the audience here – Randy Haynes (FLW competitor from Counce, Tenn.) – and I owe him a lot. He taught me a lot and spent a lot of time with me when I first started getting out, so I just have to thank him."

Now, here's where we justify that "dominant" statement. Day one, Rose weighs the event's biggest bag – a limit weighing 21-6 that gave him the lead he would never relinquish and a margin of 3-7. He followed on day two with 17-8 and expanded his advantage to 4-6. Day three yielded Rose's smallest bag of the tournament (15-10), but the way the other weights lined up, he found himself heading into the final day of competition with a big-time lead of 7-1.

Flash forward to the culmination of today's final weigh-in. After starting day four in third place, behind Blake Nick, Chevy pro Luke Clausen had moved up from third place to first with 58-12, while Nick slipped below Clausen with 57-2. Rose takes the stage with a three-day total of 54-8, so he's just 4-pounds, 8 ounces off the lead before yanking the first fish out of his bag.

Given his previous three averages, a single fish would've done it for him. But within this sincerely modest man beats the heart of a fierce competitor, so it came as no surprise when Mark Rose dropped 16-14 on the scales and blew this one out with a total weight of 71-6 and a massive winning margin of 12 pounds, 10 ounces.

Rose spent most of his time fishing about 15 miles from the tournament site and targeted fish in about 21-23 feet of water. Well familiar with the Tennessee River's extensive ledges, he knew he'd need to dial in the specific little sweet spots that would be most likely to attract quality fish. He found just such attraction over mussel beds – lively areas that typically hold baitfish. Rose said his Lowrance HDS-10 with StructureScan was essential to locating his quarry.

"That's my eyes and ears," he said. "I could not have done this without my electronics. Those mussel beds were the key, but every now and then, there were some stumps. I was trying to get around those stumps and if you touched a stump, a lot of times you'd get bit."

Rose had two main areas for most of the tournament, but a third spot opened up for him today when a fellow competitor who had been fishing there did not make the final-round cut. This spot produced a good flurry of early activity, but Rose rotated through all of his spots throughout the day.

"I just milked it for all it was worth today." He said. "I have to thank the people of this community. I had a lot of people out there watching me and they let me fish. I only had three little old spots and they left it alone and I appreciate that."

Rose used a variety of baits this week, but he caught most of his fish on a deep diving crankbait with a few stealth modifications for maximum depth. Today, the crankbait produced four of his keeper, with the fifth biting a Strike King football head jig with a Rage Craw trailer. Rose said he also caught fish on a Texas-rigged 10-inch worm and he also employed a Strike King jigging spoon to stimulate fish that played hard-to-get.

"The bigger fish wanted the crankbait more than anything else," he said. "For whatever reason, it takes time to figure out those bigger fish and I figured out that they wanted a crankbait."

Rose said that fishing his baits on 12-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon was essential for getting them to the target depth, while promoting longer casts and providing optimal durability.

entire story on FLWOutdoors.com