Posted  April 6th, 2008  8:43 pm CST

Scroggins Rallies with 44-4 On Final Day......Martens Disappointed

Story by Brent Conway - Photos by Mark Jeffreys

Zapata, TX  – If you pull up a Google Map of Falcon Lake, site of the first ever BASS sanctioned livestock show, and zoom in real close – and if you know what you’re looking for – you might be able to see the exact spot where bass fishing was forever changed. Records fell, which was expected, but ultimately a new bass-fishing hot spot was created.

The third stop of the 2008 Elite Series, the Lone Star Shootout, has had about every adjective applied in an attempt to do the fishing some kind of justice. In the end, there just weren’t enough words to do it justice so we won’t even try. However, the final-day action lived up to every bit of the pomp and circumstance of the prior three days.

The wind was a pivotal player the first two days of the tournament, but Saturday it calmed and post-frontal conditions took over. The spot where the top two anglers from days one and two pulled some 270 pounds of bass from all but petered out, and a true post-spawn tactician seemed poised to take control on the final day.

Sunday it was all sunshine and daydreams. The leader for the week, Aaron Martens, had only a seven-pound, seven-ounce lead over veteran Arkansas pro, and post-spawn guru, Mark Davis. While that’s healthy at any other place, Falcon is just simply not “any other place,” and seven pounds can be gobbled up in one bite with plenty of room to spare.

Fifth-place honors went to Mark Davis, who, like Martens, brought in his lightest limit of the week weighing 26-14, pushing his total weight to 128-15. Rounding out the Super Six was Scott Rook, with 125-10 overall after weighing a final-round limit of 30-1.

1st Place: Paul Elias
Starting the day over 14 pounds back from the lead, Paul Elias knew that in order to claim his first win BASS win since 2004, and his first Elite Series win, the leaders would have to stumble and he would have to his best day on the water, which is saying a lot considering he’s been longer than many of his competitors have been alive.

Both happened, and as the 30-year pro put it – everything went his way. “The Lord blessed me so much today…I just couldn’t believe it,” Elias exclaimed. “I thought that I’d lost the tournament the first day when I couldn’t get on my spot – the spot that I actually won it on. But without a doubt, this was the single best day I’ve ever had on the water.”

As it turned out, the hotly contested spot that he and fellow Elite pro Ish Monroe had on the water words about Friday, while imperative to his winning, wasn’t the only thing that pushed him to the top. “I found a creek during practice that I caught and eight-pound fish from,” Elias explained. 

“I ran back there today and caught and eight-and-a-half-pound fish today, which might have been the fish that won the tournament for me.”

As Elias explained, the fish weren’t position on the submerged hump that he’d been targeting much of the week in quite the same way. “I wasted a lot of time before I realized that they had moved up onto the top of the hump,” he said. “It was late in the day before I moved on top of the point and started pulling the bait up hill.”

“I had about 25 pounds at the time, and managed to cull everything I had in just a short while.”

For the bulk of his weight during the week, Elias relied on a Mann’s 20+ crankbait; however, he also worked in a Carolina rigged 12-inch Mann’s Jelly worm when the fish wouldn’t react to the crank. “I stayed out in 18 feet all week and would cast across the edges of the hump I was on and just bump the (crankbait) along the bottom,” he said.  “That was a little bit different Sunday because the fish had repositioned, so I actually drug the rig over the top of it instead and just really got on them.”

Paul Elias holds up the actual lures that helped him catch over 132 pounds of bass over 4 days at Falcon Lake.  A Mann's 20 + crankbait and Mann's 12 inch Jelly Worm in watermelon red.  Photo by Mark Jeffreys - "It's all about being there."

As for the win, it’s been a long time coming and the emotions took control shortly after weighing in. “There’s just not much that you can say,” Elias humbly explained. “It was an absolute incredible week, and the Lord really just blessed me everyday this week. Going out today I never dreamed that I could win this tournament.”

Key to the Win: “I couldn’t get the crankbait down to where they were on Sunday. There’s no doubt that if I wouldn’t have been able to figure out that they’d repositioned I wouldn’t have won. Once I started pulling that bait uphill, they started killing it.”

2nd Place: Terry Scroggins
As the last man inside the 12 cut, Toyota Tundra pro had a lot of ground to make up – nearly 28 pounds all told. He would have to have eclipse the single-day record in order to have a shot at winning – and event then, he’d need some help from the leaders.

Half of the equation worked to perfection, but his 44-4 came just shy of both the record and the win ultimately. “Dean Rojas really escaped one today, that’s for sure,” Scroggins said. “I got to my spot this morning and they were just eating. It’s been that way all week, which was really the key to the whole deal.

“I caught the fire out of them first thing, but I actually would let the spot cool for a little bit, and come back in and whack on ‘em some more.”

So how close was he to re-writing history? “I went back to the spot about 20 minutes before I came in today I lost one that would have gone 11 pounds or better,” Scroggins said. “If she would have stayed buttoned, I would have shattered the record.”

Scroggins weapon of choice for the duration of the week was a YUM 10-inch worm in plumb. “I threw the worm for the majority of my bag each morning,” he said. “When it was really windy, I threw a watermelon colored YUM liazard on a Carolina Rig. I could generate bites on the rig, but never could get any size with it.”

While winning is always the goal, Scroggins explained that with the way things turned out, he can’t complain. “I have never been so worn out from fishing in my life,” he said. “My hands are shredded to pieces and my arms are sore. I’m just worn out. That’s what I would call a pretty good week of bass fishing.”

3rd Place: Byron Velvick
After being literally side-by-side from the leader all week, and milking a spot for every viable ounce he could, Byron Velvick noted that he was forced to scramble on the final day. “I only got like eight bites at my primary spot today, so I had to actually move around quite a bit today,” he said. 

“It’s really pretty sad to say that you had an off day when you catch 30 pounds, but really, I never got the big bite that I needed.”

While some might argue that he was fishing a bent-rod pattern, Velvick contends that he – along with several others – found the spot during practice. “My fiancé is the one that actually put me on these fish, so a lot of the credit goes to her,” he explained. 

“It was without a doubt the single-most unbelievable spot I’ve ever seen.”

Aside from having to scramble, Velvick noted that the day wasn’t without its casualties. “I jumped an eight-pounder off that really hurt me,” he explained. “It wouldn’t have made that much difference, but losing a fish coming down to the wire really hurts – particularly when big bites were tough to come by today.”

Ultimately Velvick, like the other 108 competitors that spent the week on Falcon, walked away with more memories than will ever be forgotten. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” the battle-scarred pro said. “It’s far and away the most bizarre, strange week I’ve fishing I’ve ever seen.” 

4th Place: Aaron Martens
Aaron Martens has earned the guy who seemingly comes up short at the point when it matters the most. “Today was really tough on me,” Martens said. “I ran through six different spots today, and thought that I had some water that could give up some amazing weights, but it just didn’t happen.

“It was really an awful day…just sickening. It’s up their with the Pittsburgh Classic. All day long, it was like I was cursed or something.”

Forced to share his water all week was one thing, but not being able to get anything going on the final day is worse still. “The worst thing about the week was today,” Martens suggested. “I gave Velvick one of my spots today, and he absolutely clobbered them there. 

“I pulled up there later and he’s catching six-pound fish and all I can get are two three-pounders. It was like that everywhere for me today, and it’s so easy to get 25 pounds on this lake and I don’t even catch 20 pounds.”

The week as a whole, while good, will forever leave a bitter taste in the California angler’s mouth. “I had like 12 spots that were just amazing, but the problem was that some of the other guys had found them too,” Martens said. “I guess that in the end, I’m just too nice of a guy. 

“What really happened to me was that I let all of it get into my head because I’m sitting there watching him swing on these giant fish and all I can think of is that it should have been me. It’ll be a while before I get over this one.”

5th Place: Mark Davis
Mark Davis is as good as it gets when it comes to figuring out post-spawn bass. He’s been money all week, but in the end, he wasn’t able to come up with the big bite when it mattered most. “I was stuck with five-pounders today,” he said. 

“I needed an eight-pound fish today to win, and just never came across one today. You’re never going to win at Falcon with two five-pound fish in your bag.”

Davis said that, among many other baits, he used a prototype SrikeKing Stir Stick, but feels certain that just about anything would have worked. “The color or bait didn’t really matter at all,” he said. “I caught everything on a Carolina rig, but everything was pretty much standard issue – nothing fancy.”

Davis stayed in the area that he’d been in all week rotating through his milk run, and while the numbers were there, the big-bite that helped him stay in the race all week wasn’t. “What the difference was today I can’t tell you,” he said. “I caught them pretty good early, but they were all cookie-cutters.”

Davis said that the key to his week was all about solitude. “You know, I found some really great spots with some unbelievable schools of fish on them,” he said. “I was pretty much all alone this week, and was able to just run through my little areas and catch 30 pounds a day.”

As for the week, win lose or draw, Davis will never forget the magnitude of what’s been done at Falcon “I have never, in 22 years of fishing, been on a lake that even comes close to Falcon Lake,” he said. “Nature takes care of things, and after the drought the bushes grew in and created all of this habitat. It’s just amazing.”

6th Place: Scott Rook
Scott Rook clobbered one single spot for everything he brought to the scales this week. It’s understandable then that ultimately it cooled. Cool, in this case, if a fairly relative term all things considered. “I had to work a little harder today,” he said. “My biggest fish was the first keeper that I caught, and had about 25 pounds in a little over an hour-and-a-half. 

“From there, I really had to grind it out to get over the hump, so it’s slowed down considerably.”

Rook relied on standard-issue post-spawn baits all week long, but alternated between a worm and some cranking on the final day. “I spent a lot of time throwing a Berkley 10-inch worm and a Zoom Brush Hog this week,” he said. “I threw a crankbait off and on some Sunday too.”

His bread-and-butter spot, a tapering point, was one that Scott grew to know every inch of over four days. “99% of the fish that I caught came from one spot,” he said. “The key was in presenting the bait in the sweet spot and moving it at the right pace.

“If you hit that spot it was just automatic every time.”

As for the week in review, well, as Rook put it, what more can you say? “It’s been an incredible week,” he said. “I ain’t complaining a bit because I knew that it would be impossible to catch the guys at the top. I was just happy to be able to get out there and fish one more day. What more can you say?”

7th Place: Scott Campbell
Final-Day Thoughts: “Most of my spots I could catch maybe five fish from. I was on foundations like most of the other guys, but they weren’t holding the big schools like them. I moved around a little after I caught my first three, but then went through about a two-hour lull. It was a lot slower today really.” 

Bait of Choice: Berkley 10-inch worm in Plumb/Senko when it slicked off

Biggest Challenge: “Just staying with the fish and what they were doing. The wind really turned around on me and that made it a little tough the first two days, but yesterday and today were just dream days.”

Key to the Week: “Consistency all week was what I was going for. You really had to pay attention to what the wind was doing.” 

Week in Review: “This week has been so special to me. When I made the Top 12, my family jumped in the care and drove 14 hours to be here. I had my water all to myself, which was instrumental because there wasn’t a lot of fish…but they were all giants.”

8th Place: Jason Williamson
Final-Day Thoughts: “It was a timing deal today, and really all week. The afternoons were always better, but today it was a little bit tougher. The fish have just been pounded to death, so it’s understandable.”

Bait of Choice: Texas-rigged Zoom Old Monster in plumb

Biggest Challenge: “I don’t know how many worms and weights and hooks I went through this week. Falcon is just brutal on your equipment.”

Key to the Week: “You had to be on your fish when they were biting. It was 100% about timing, and I really just narrowed things down to the areas that they were in, and would try to be there when they would be biting.”

Week in Review: “All I can say is that Falcon Lake rocks. The first two days was really rough because of the wind. If it weren’t for the service crews I wouldn’t be here right now.”

9th Place: Ben Matsubu
Final-Day Thoughts: “I had a pretty rough day today. I was about 150 yards away from Scroggins, so watching him do what he did was pretty tough. My goal was to break the century mark, which must have been voodoo because I broke it in my first two fish and then it went down hill.”

Bait of Choice: “A lot of the guys that I drew were throwing a 10-inch lizard. I decided to glue two 10-inch Senkos together, creating a bait that was about 13 inches. I caught three giants on it, so it was a good call.”

Biggest Challenge: “Usually when the weather is like it was today, you’re supposed to be able to kill them out deep on a rig. Most of the big fish wanted a giant profile, but today they just weren’t eating. I saw a lot of suspended fish, but they might have been catfish. I don’t know.”

Key to the Week: “The Carolina Rig was the key. I probably should have slowed it down some because I didn’t really drag it that much…more shaking it than anything. But the quality of the area that I was in was critical.”

Week in Review: “You know what, I’m just in awe of this place. It has so many three- to five-pound bass in it…it’s just magical. You’re not that far from Mexico, and I believe that it just doesn’t get that much pressure. I’m sure that will all change now though.”

10th Place: Casey Ashley
Final-Day Thoughts: “It was a lot slower than any other day this week. This afternoon, when the wind died, the current changed and that really screwed the fish up I think. They turned on in one of my spots, and I caught 15 real quick, but they were all four-pound fish.”

Bait of Choice: Texas-rigging a discontinued 10-inch Mr. Twister in Strawberry

Biggest Challenge: “The wind on the first two days really made me switch some things up, but it worked out pretty good.”

Key to the Week: “I don’t know how to narrow it down really. I was in a good area, but this is just such a special fishery that it’s really more to do with luck than anything else.”

Week in Review: “I had a great week. It’s been an experience that I will never forget.”

11th Place: Mike Iaconelli
Final-Day Thoughts: “These fish just move around so much. One of my three areas I shared with Scroggins and watched him catch three of his fish. It just made me sick. I actually had to go to the bushes to finish out my limit – which I haven’t had to do at all this week.”

Bait of Choice: Berkley Gripper Jig, Berkley 10-inch worm, and a Tru-tungsten swim bait (which accounted for the bulk of his weight).

Biggest Challenge: “These post-spawn fish are really transient. You had to just follow them almost constantly.”

Key to the Week: “I was out deep – in 40-feet or better. I think that was the real key.”

Week in Review: “I had a great week. I mean, what can you say – it’s just sick. I think the wind created a lot of opportunity, but it also made it pretty tough to stay on these transient fish.”

12th Place: Rick Morris
Final-Day Thoughts: “My day was tough. My school left and didn’t return. With the weather change this morning, I thought that they would show back up, but they never did. I jumped around all over the lake, and culled too many times to count, but it was for ounces.”

Bait of Choice: 10-inch Berkley Power Worm

Biggest Challenge: “Well, considering I only weighed 17 pounds today, after weighing 36 yesterday, that’s pretty self-explanatory.”

Key to the Week: “There’s just so much cover. I don’t really even know where to begin. I was on quality fish, but that sort of sounds silly to say because this lake is just full of quality fish.”

Week in Review: “I made two personal bests – going over 100 pounds, and catching my largest bag ever in a tournament. Fishing the last day is just gravy. It was an amazing week.”
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Final Standings

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