Since the U.S. Open is this month I thought I republish a post from earlier this year …
Title: U.S. Open Patterns / Past and Present
As most of you know. I work as a fishing instructor, and guide at Lake Casitas in Ventura, CA. Yes I go to work 5 days a week just like everyone else, it just happens to be that the water is my office. When you're around the water that much each year at about this time I start to get lots of questions from other anglers about the U.S. Open. Can I fish if ? Am I skilled enough as an angler to compete in such an event ? Can I fish if I don't have a boat? Will the pro's take the time to help me catch fish also? I own a bass boat and would like to enter as a pro, can I enter the U.S. Open ? The answer to all of these questions is YES! Hence the name "Open". Everyone is welcome. If you were ever to enter a bass tournament, this is the one you want to choose.
Now that you have decided to fish the 2016 U.S. Open. Let's talk about lures and productive patterns for this summer spectacular. The first U.S. Open was in 1981. My former roommate on tour, Greg Hines won the event. Most of you know, or have heard that he won that first U.S. Open on a Heddon Zara Spook. He also caught some of his fish on a plastic worm, in fact all of his fish the 4th (yes, the U.S. Open used to be 4 days of competition) and final day of the tournament were caught on a 4" Ringworm. This begins what I will try to get across about your strategy for this event. It's real hard to win the Open with just 1 technique! People think "Hey in those first U.S. Opens those guys would just tie on a topwater plug and catch the fire out of em on surface plugs all day long" . Not true! It was highly published that when I won the Open, that I caught "all" of my fish on a topwater plug, not true. My biggest fish came on a plastic worm in that 1982 event. I will never forget when Gary Yamamoto won his Open in 50 feet of water on a jig. I talked to some of his partners after the event who told me they caught 30 keeper bass a day. What I am trying to get at is the U.S. Open patterns that have been successful have been all over the board. Buzz bait, spinnerbait, drop shot, you name it. I cannot stress that enough. I literally could go on and on for hours telling you all the different patterns that have produced top three finishes in my 32 previous US opens. Every single pattern you can imagine from strata buzz bait fishing the entire tournament to fishing 50 feet as I mentioned it's all been there. That's what makes this tournament so incredibly special and exciting. No matter what pattern you have set in your mind to fish it could possibly result in being the winning technique in this tournament.
With that being said let's narrow it down to the present day. I really feel like the last two Opens have been been drop shot, spinnerbait, topwater, and crankbait driven. Those are the techniques that have been the most productive and produced the best scores. And this by the way still holds true even with the huge influx of smallmouth bass being brought to the scales except especially last year. One of the most remarkable things to me about last year's event was just how many smallmouth bass where weighed in the tournament. I have heard anglers for many years talk about smallmouth bass playing a larger role in the tournament and boy they were correct. I think three quarters of the fish that I weighed in last year were smallmouth and if you look at the total catch it played a huge role in the Open. What's kind of crazy is the same techniques the same lures are holding true and we're catching smallmouth bass on the same lures and techniques that we always used in past U.S. Opens for largemouth bass. I really feel that you should enter practice for the event with an open mind. Start with a wide verity of lures and approaches. Once you get the ball rolling, go with it. Don't over practice a technique or area. If your beginning to feel confident with a particular bait or pattern, believe in it and let it develop during the competition days. Lake Mead is not a place where you want to "wear em out" in practice. It's a long and grueling tournament, and believe me when I tell ya, you will need every fish possible that final day of competition.
When it comes to the actual competition days, the best advise I can give you is to "try to stay involved" in the tournament. Way to many anglers go for broke the first day. Really try to "wreck em". Hey, that's all well and good. If it happens, it happens. If not, try to catch a limit of bass and keep yourself in the hunt. Over half the anglers in the U.S. Open will have given up by day three of competition. I see this every year, they push it, or try to do too much early in the tournament. Then by noon the 2nd day of the tournament, there in trouble. Try to be one of those 40 boats that are out there competing for the championship on that final day. If you can do that, in my opinion, you have won. Hey, you gave it your best shot. You gave yourself a chance to win the tournament. If you come up a bit short, so be it.
Buyline: Anyone with any questions about the U.S. Open, or any other WON Bass event can contact Rich at www.richtauberfishing.com