Jeff
Bradshaw - WON Bass Win Details Shared
Year's
ago after spending some time on the water with Jeff I told him
he had the tools for success. Confidence, patience and the skill
set to get it done. I received this e-mail from Jeff today.
"Hey
Dan....
You said years back that you knew I would win one, I thought of
that yesterday.
I didn't really think I would win and actually didn't even get
into the options since my budget has been so tight but I'm happy
that I won a boat.
Here is what I just posted on NCBF regarding how I did it.....I
should have added that I used Berkely
Vanish on my senkos and spinnerbaits all weekend as did my
second day partner Jeff Agustyn."
In
Jeff's words-
Wow
what a weekend!! I am amazed at the weights and still in shock
that I won this tournament. It’s a good day when 4 pounders
seem small. I really would like to thank my partners from each
day Dennis Pachucki and Jeff Augustyn, you guys are great! And
congratulations to Jack Vangrouw for a strong second place finish,
two 29 pound limits in a row is hard to beat my friend!
Ok to the
details. I had figured out a pattern a few weeks ago throwing
chartreuse/gold blade Bobby D spinnerbaits in the weeds in a few
areas that were holding large pre-spawn fish. I had a few 25-30
pound limits doing this during windy days and felt it would work
during the tournament with the storm we had come thru. I also
had an area I found with my son where I was catching several 5-8
pound fish and my son caught a 11.2 pounder on a senko in that
same area and was hoping I could get a good fish or two from here
during the pro-am but this are gets pounded and I wasn’t
really confident that I would get them to go during game day.
I also found allot of fish on beds during the week but decided
not to fish for them with the approaching storm, I wanted to target
pre-spawn fish. I needed something else to do at dead low tide
in my primary areas so I ran south and found an area where I was
able to get three 6 pounders within a short period of time on
reaction baits and thought this would be my low tide back-up.
Day one I
fished with Dennis Pachucki from Discovery Bay and we were the
last boat out. We ran to the area where I had been getting the
spinnerbait fish and to my surprise there was not another boat
in sight! I started fishing the spinnerbait thru the weeds and
got a little fish on the first cast. I few minutes later I got
a 6 and knew this was going to work! We went thru the area and
alternated to a few other spots throwing the blade all morning
and I got another 6 and 7 along with some 3’s and 4’s
for around 26-27 pounds. The tide was starting to bottom out so
I made a run south to the area where I caught three 6 pound fish
in a row Thursday hoping to get another good bite during the slack
low tide in my main areas. This didn’t work so after an
hour of trying I returned to by primary area knowing the tide
had just turned. We started throwing senkos in the weeds and Dennis
got a 5.5 in the boat and hooked a absolute toad that came un-buttoned
in the weeds! We caught 3-4 pound senko fish for the rest of the
afternoon and had over 29 pounds and I was in third place.
Day
two I fished with Jeff Augustyn form Southern California and this
weekend was his first time ever fishing the delta. He never imagined
he would have a day quite as good as he ended up having! We were
the first boat out and ran to my primary. The bite was slow to
my surprise and I said it should pick up as soon as the tide get’s
right and by 8:30 we had 22 pounds in the boat. I got a 6 and
a few 3-4 pounders and my partner got several 3-4 pounders as
well. We weren’t getting the bigger fish as I did the day
prior, I thought that the weather change had kept the bigger fish
from moving up to the weeds I was fishing and knew I needed to
make a change. I decided to take a gamble and make the long run
to the area where my son had caught the 11 pounder a few weeks
prior, I knew the fish were still there as I got an 8 in practice
there on Monday. What a good decision that turned out to be. I
pulled up to the bank and to my surprise there was not another
boat in sight! I told my partner Jeff that we needed to throw
senkos
up to the bank and slowly drag them back to the deeper water and
dead stick them. I went up front to put the trolling motor in
the water and promptly heard a hard hookset and Jeff said “I
got one and it’s big” and I turned to see a 8 pounder
rise. I netted the fish and we gave each other high fives. We
culled a 4 and now had around 25 pounds. As we went down the bank,
catching 3-4 pound fish that did us absolutely no good, Jeff was
asking questions about the delta and where the bigger fish would
position along the bank. I pointed to a piece of structure we
were coming up to that had deeper water on it and told Jeff that
this is a great example of a big fish spot and that I had caught
a few good ones right here. He fired off a cast right where I
told him too then set the hook and said “I got another big
one” and a 7 pounder rose up. Got her in the net and we
were stoked! Culled out another 4 and that gave us around 29 pounds.
The bite died so I decided to head back a bit early to not take
any chances. We got to the entrance to Russo’s 20 minutes
before weigh in so I said hey let’s fish those deeper tullies
over there, that can be a good area. We started throwing senkos
in the tullies and weed pockets when I noticed something I had
just passed. I said “Hey that’s a piece of peat down
there and the fish will spawn on the deeper side of it, you might
want to throw your senko in there”. I started to turn the
boat so I could get in position to make a cast to the deeper side
of the peat when Jeff set’s hard and say “ I got ANOTHER
big one!!!” and an 11 pounder rose up. Got her in the net
and culled a 4.5 which gave us over 35 pounds!! Jeff says “Your
one hell of a guide dude” and then realized I may have just
won a boat. I also realized that I had not gotten into the options
as I didn’t think I had a chance at winning this thing.
Lesson learned…..Always get into the options, you just never
know!!
Thanks
Won Bass, Gone Fishing Marine, Russo’s Marina and the gang,
Gene from the Hook for all your efforts, my AM partners Dennis
and Jeff who contributed greatly, my tournament partner Mike Healy
who pre-fished with me Monday and my friends and family who have
been so supportive. I would also like to thank my sponsors Bobby
D custom baits, Kistler
rods, Toro Irrigation, and Mike Koepke with Pure fishing.
God bless…..Jeff
Bradshaw’s
tools for success include 1/4oz. speedtraps and Norman DD14
Crankbaits both fished on a Kistler #KCBCM7
7’ composite cranking rod or Kistler
#KCBS7 7’ graphite crankbait rod with 15 pound Berkley
Big Game line, Bobby D Limit Jigs in 3/8 oz. with rattles in black/blue,
brown/red or brown/purple fished on a Kistler
7 ½’ flipping/pitching rod with 20 pound Big
Game line or 50# Spiderwire Braid, Senko’s fished on a Kistler
#KSS610 “Senko Special” with Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon
line. I also frequently use 1/2 oz. Bobby D Spinnerbaits in chart/white
fished on a Kistler
#KSBS69 “Spinnerbait special” rod with 15 pound
Berkley Big Game line and Bobby D 1/2 oz. buzzbaits in black or
white both with silver metal blades” fished on Kistler 7’
cranking rod with 20 pound test Berkley Vanish line.
Dan
Mathisen
FishDelta.com
- All Species, All Delta
The
Ultimate Resource For California Delta Fishing
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