Top 5 Patterns from the Cup Day 1
Inconsistent patterns and tough conditions have this one all knotted up on Lake Ouachita
After day one of the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita, several things have come to light. For one, this event is not likely to produce a runaway win for anyone like it did when Scott Martin won here in 2011. Second, when the pros said Ouachita was going to be stingy, they meant it – only 29 of the 50 pros checked in limits today. Third, firm patterns are hard to come by on Lake Ouachita in August.
Jacob Wheeler took the lead on day one in the event that’s presented by Walmart and hosted by Visit Hot Springs and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. With the help of a 5-pound bass, Wheeler weighed in a limit of 16 pounds, 2 ounces, but he had to sample a lot of different areas for his catch.
Click here to read about Wheeler’s day-one program.
Here’s how the rest of the top five got it done.
2. Ish Monroe – Hughson, Calif. – 15 pounds
Amid all the “grinding” and “junk-fishing” taking place among the leaders, Lowrance pro Ish Monroe seems to be the one guy that is truly running a pattern and is dialed in on one program. After day one he sits in second place with 15 pounds.
“I feel really good about what I’m doing,” Monroe says. “I’m fishing the way I like to fish. I’ve got a couple of topwaters and a swimbait on the deck, and I’m just covering water, getting bites and having fun.
“I’ve got a little deal figured out,” he adds. “The only problem is I have to fish to see it; I can’t just ride down the lake on plane and see it. It’s a subtle deal, and I have to be on the trolling motor to see it. So I have to cover miles of water searching. But once I see it, it’s game on.”
Monroe reports getting some 15 to 20 bites on the day.
“Several of the fish I caught had others following it, so I’m in a good part of the lake,” he says. “I will say it does involve grass to a certain extent. And I really think the weather helped me today. In practice I was only getting seven or eight bites a day during 12-hour practice days, so today was much better than I anticipated. I can only guess that the cooler weather helped.”
3. Brandon Cobb – Greenwood, S.C. – 14 pounds, 10 ounces
Walmart FLW Tour sophomore Brandon Cobb “junked” his way into the third-place position with a catch of 14 pounds, 10 ounces.
Cobb claims his day consisted of “textbook junk-fishing.”
“I started near the dam and finished the day way up in one of the rivers,” Cobb says. “I’ve got no real pattern, no real area and no real bait that I can count on.”
Cobb says he only caught seven keepers on the day.
“I caught a few running the bank on topwater, a few schooling and a few out of brush,” he says. “And there is no rhyme or reason to when I do what.”
Cobb does admit that he was relying heavily on wolf packs that he saw in practice, but that didn’t pan out as he expected.
“I had a couple of good days up the lake in practice,” he adds. “It seems like that 9:30 to noon window is the best time to catch the fish shallow, but I really didn’t see that many of them today, so I had to resort to brush piles to sort of bail me out.”
4. Scott Martin – Clewiston, Fla. – 14 pounds, 6 ounces
Scott Martin put himself in a position to be a possible two-time Cup winner on the strength of a 14-pound, 6-ounce catch for fourth place.
Martin won the Cup on Ouachita in 2011 by amassing a big lead on day one (with a limit of more than 19 pounds) and then holding off his competition with solid limits after that. This time around, he says things are different.
“I’m thrilled with my catch today,” Martin says. “I think it’s what I need to catch every day to have a chance at winning this thing again. But the thing that bothers me is I’m not really dialed in like I was last time.”
Martin says his first win came from a specific area of the lake with a few lures. This time, though, he is still a little scattered about on Ouachita.
“I probably caught 20 keepers on the day,” he says. “But some came deep, some came shallow, some came from brush. I’ve got 15 rods piled up on the deck, and I’m running all over the lake to catch them. It’s too random, and that’s a little unnerving to me. I’d like to get things a little more confined in terms of my area and a little more committed in terms of my technique.”
5. Brad Knight – Lancing, Tenn. – 14 pounds 4 ounces
Brad Knight rounds out the top five pros at Ouachita with a 14-pound, 4-ounce limit on the day.
Knight is running the shallows with a topwater but reveals that his area is the key.
“I fished a whole lot of water in practice with the same baits and never got a bite,” he says. “There is something unique about this area. I got a few bites in there in practice, and after fishing it today, it seems to have a lot more fish in it than I thought.”
More information
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