DEL RIO, Texas It's decision time for the 50 pro anglers left in the Bassmaster Elite Series Battle on the Border at Lake Amistad. Are you going to target the visible fish that have started moving to spawning beds? Or will you stick with a deeper technique that targets pre-spawn bass?
"The great thing about this lake is there's fish in all different stages," said four-time BASS angler of year Kevin VanDam, who moved from 14th place to fifth place Friday. "There's so many bass in here, they all can't spawn at once. So you can always find fish that are in a pattern conducive to your own style.
"That's the neat thing about this tournament. You'll see the leaders, all doing well, but fishing totally different styles. You can find something here that fits your style."
VanDam's style here focuses on covering lots of water with reaction-type baits, almost like he'd cover large flats on his home waters in Michigan, fishing for smallmouth bass.
Gary Klein, on the other hand, is covering very little territory. Klein is tied for second place with a total weight of 52 pounds, 7 ounces, just 9 ounces behind leader Steve Kennedy. Klein now calls Weatherford, Texas, home, but grew up fishing the large, deep reservoirs in California and other western states.
"I'm really fishing what we call old school," Klein said. "I'm fishing like we do where I grew up, in the desert lakes like Mead and Powell. It fits my style.
"I'm fishing really slow and methodical. I'm fishing for better quality fish that I know exist in this lake. I'm not getting very many bites, but normally when I swing, it's going in the livewell."
Pros like Klein and VanDam are the exception today. They probably won't get tempted to go looking for spawners. But for a lot of the field, that is going to be an urge they just can't resist. The urge will be stronger by the pull of the weather. Saturday was the first calm morning of the event, complete with clear skies, perfect some say for catching bedding fish.
"I'm going to start off deep like I've been catching them," said Terry Scroggins, who fell from fourth place Thursday to 15th place Friday. "As the day progresses, I'm going to move shallow and see if I can't catch a couple of big fish."
The key for anglers like Scroggins will be thinking on your feet, not letting what happened Friday influence today. For instance, Scroggins released a four-pound bass Friday after catching it on his first cast of the day. When he checked his livewell a few minutes later, the fish was on its side and so Scroggins released it, rather than take a chance on the fish dying later and Scroggins being assessed the four-ounce penalty for weighing-in a dead fish.
"I caught 25 four-pounders the day before," Scroggins said. "But (Friday) was a totally different day from the first one. The fish were moving."
Scroggins could have used that four-pounder at the end of the day, whether dead or alive.
The question many pros must answer is: Have enough bass moved on spawning beds to make it worth your time to fish for them? Gerald Swindle, who is in 29th place, doesn't think so.
"I looked for three hours (Friday) and I found one four-pounder on a bed," said Swindle. "I covered a lot of water. I know a lot of guys are saying the fish are changing, but I wonder how many of them are really going out there looking.
"It's a hard decision. If you're on a lake where you can't catch enough fish, it's easy. I'll just go out there with all the confidence in the world and do the same thing for nine hours. But this is a lake where you can just go fishing and catch 25 pounds. So I'm just going fishing."
Scroggins seconded that notion, but with a different spin.
"This lake is different from any other lake because you can catch 'em and you can go look for them as well," he said. "You can catch 35 pounds just fishing as well as you can sight-fishing."
The top 12 pros who make the right decisions today will be determined at the Diablo East Marina weigh-in beginning at 3 p.m. Only those 12 will compete in Sunday's final and have a chance for the $100,000 first-place check.