BassFan Winning Pattern
Herren's Consistency Finally Paid Off At Dardanelle

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell Matt Herren had two patterns working in practice for the Dardanelle Eastern FLW Series, but quickly realized that only one would hold up for the tournament.

With just about everybody in the 197-angler field focused on backwater areas, he got a notion to concentrate on places where creek channels emptied into the Arkansas River. He fished all by himself for 4 days, and his consistency was the determining factor.

He trailed the sizzling Larry Nixon by exactly 4 pounds going into day 4, but caught the day's biggest sack and edged the home-state legend by 5 ounces with a 62-10 total. He never caught a fish that weighed more than about 4 1/2 pounds, but he caught at least one of those each day.

The Alabamian has become a fixture in the FLW Tour Angler of the Year race over the past 4 years (he was the runner-up last year), but is languishing in 81st place on that list heading into this week's Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake. The Series victory – over a rugged field that included many of the Tour pros, a bunch of local aces and a few Bassmaster Elite Series anglers – could provide the impetus he needs to get his Tour campaign turned around.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Herren had two separate patterns working during the 4-day practice period – one in shallow grass and the other on the river.

Conditions beyond his control took one of them out of the picture.

"There was a lot of rainwater coming down the river, and when (the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) started releasing water, it flooded the north end but dropped the level in the lower end," he said. "That just killed the grass bite.

"Meanwhile, the river pattern was getting better as the (post-spawn) fish were going to their summertime stuff. I concentrated on the places where creek channels intersected the main river, and I had five good areas by the time practice was over with.

"But because of the mud, I was down to one area by the last (competition) day," he added. "I just had to stay there and beat the tar out of it."

He was confident that his river haunts would harbor more and more fish as they continued to move out of the highly pressured backwater locales.

"I felt like the fish were ready to move, but there's not a lot of structure for them on their way to the main lake. There's a window (of time) in there where they like to go back to the river right after the spawn, and I thought that was the move they were making.

"There weren't a lot of people fishing the main channel. In 4 days, I never had a boat come close to me."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 14-01
> Day 2: 5, 15-08
> Day 3: 5, 17-06
> Day 4: 5, 15-11
> Total = 20, 62-10

Herren caught a limit by 8:00 each day, but he usually ended up culling most or all of those fish later on. A jig was his best weapon in the early-morning hours, and then there was usually an hour or so at midday when he could catch a bunch of quality fish on a crankbait.

That would shut off in the afternoon, and he'd go back to the jig for the remainder of the day.

The fish were in 2 to 5 feet of water and situated in places where bluff banks tapered into flats. The only structure in the area was chunk rock – there was no wood or grass.

Four of his five areas were unfishable by the end of day 3 due to the mud that continued to be carried downstream by rainwater. The one tributary that remained clear was the Illinois Bayou River, and he camped at its juncture with the Arkansas for most of the final 2 days.

"It's (located) toward the dam, and when they'd pull water in the mornings, it would still have clear water that'd get pulled down its channel. It created a mudline, and the fish were stacked up there."

Four of his five weigh-in fish on day 1 bit the jig. The other – his biggest of the day – was enticed by a Bagley B2 crankbait, just before weigh-in.

Day 2 was the sunniest day of the tournament, and he caught about 25 keepers on the jig in the morning. But he traded all of those out for crankbank fish that bit between noon and 1:00.

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell Herren's final-day bag was enough to edge red-hot Larry Nixon by 5 ounces.

"That's when I'd go to the crank and re-find them."

Day 3 brought a low, overhanging fog and a north wind, and his fish were unaggressive. He made a pass through one area and didn't get a bite, so he went to the mouth of the Illinois Bayou and fished a worm on a 3/16-ounce jighead.

The worm accounted for the majority of his bag, but he caught one good fish on a Chatterbait. "They weren't biting well, so I tied it on because I wanted something that thumped real hard."

Four of his final-day keepers came on the jig and he caught one key fish on the RC 1.5.

"I got three (weigh-in) fish early and another one around noon. The last time I culled was around 2:45, and that was probably the fish that won the tournament."

Winning Gear Notes

> Jig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Kistler Helium 2 LTX flipping stick, unnamed reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Tabu jig (black-blue-purple), Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver (backwater blue) or unnamed chunk (sapphire blue) trailer.

> Cranking gear: 6'8" medium-action Kistler Magnesium TS rod, unnamed reel, 12-pound Gamma Edge, Bagley B2 (black/chartreuse), Reaction Innovations Method Crank (brown/chartreuse) or Lucky Craft RC 1.5 (chartreuse/black).

> Worm gear: 7' medium-heavy Kistler Helium LTA rod, unnamed reel, 8-pound Gamma Edge, 3/16-ounce Reaction Innovations Screwed-Up jighead, Reaction Innovations Flirt 6.95 (green-pumpkin).

The Bottom Line

Main factor in his success – "Recognizing that pressure was going to have an effect on the fish and that the patterns were going to change."

Performance edge – "My Skeeter boat. It just performs flawlessly with that Yamaha back there and allows me to do my job. It's the best fishing platform on the water, and I think it has been for a long time."