A myriad of possible locations exists for 2012 Bassmaster Classic competitors to analyze in the practice days leading up to the actual tournament. After deciding to fish Pool 4 or Pool 5, anglers must then decide if they’re going to try to fish a proven community hole or find an unknown, isolated area that they can have all to themselves.
Deciding to fish Pool 5 back in 2009 was easy for Classic champion Skeet Reese. In his estimation, he was fishing for a lot more fish than his peers who locked through into Pool 4.
“The biggest thing about Pool 5 is that it gets stocked the most,” Reese observed. “As good as Pool 4 is, every tournament that happens out of Pool 5, and they lock down to Pool 4, they bring those fish up into Pool 5. So Pool 5 probably has the biggest population of quality fish.”
Reese was quick to add that he wasn’t necessarily saying that this Classic would be won in Pool 5 because there is a lot of great water and quality fish in Pool 4. He thought that an angler who got on some quality fish down there might have a better chance of having them all to himself.
McVey also felt it would be won in Pool 5, but he, like Reese, believes that it could wind up being more of a flip of the coin as to whether Pool 4 or Pool 5 would host the winner.
“If somebody can get on that quality bite in Pool 4, and they don’t have a lot of company, it can be won down there,” McVey said.
As for as some specific places that might hold a population of winning bass, McVey insisted that some places that held fish three years ago might not hold fish today. And places that didn’t have any fish three years ago might be teeming with bass during this year’s tournament.
“Take the stretch just north of Clark’s Marina (now River Bend Marina),” McVey noted. “That’s a perfect example of an area that has not produced any fish since we’ve had the high water the last couple of years. That area is silted in, and the current doesn’t come down that bank line like it used to.”
On the other hand, McVey predicted that a place like the Little Jungle might hold more fish this year than it did during 2009.
“Probably half the field will be at Sullivan’s if they go down to Pool 4,” McVey guessed, “but a place like the Little Jungle had some really good grass in it this past summer. It also had an influx of fresh water coming in there more so than Sullivan’s. It’s just a place that somebody that runs down there might want to check out.”
Humphreys went out on a limb to predict that McDade Lake could be a real sleeper during the Classic because hardly anybody even looked at it last time around because it took so long for them to idle into it.
“McDade is just north of River Bend Marina, and the White House area kind of butts up against it,” Humphreys said. “It’s the kind of area that always took at least 25 minutes to get into, but it’s recently been dredged. Now it only takes you about one minute to run in there.”
Humphreys says he knows of several 8- to 10-pound bass that came from McDade last spring, and he thought some anglers in the Classic field might have a field day in there now that it’s so easy to reach.
