Not surprisingly, as professional bass anglers cross and re-cross the country to compete on different lakes, they develop their own favorite places to fish. Here, eight Yamaha Pros, each with years of experience, describes why he likes a particular body of water.

Mark Davis, winner of both the 1995 Bassmaster® Classic as well as the BASS® Angler of the Year title in the same year, prefers Alabama’s 69,000 acre Lake Guntersville. “It’s a lake that has everything, including a very healthy fish population,” he explains. “If you want to fish structure, the lake has channels, points, and dropoffs, but if you want to stay shallow, you can fish vegetation, stumps, or boat docks.

“The best part is you can fish Lake Guntersville year-round and expect to catch fish. I’d rate it as one of the top three bass lakes in the United States.”

Two Yamaha Pros, Dean Rojas and Alton Jones, both rate Falcon Reservoir in Texas as their favorite lake, primarily because of its trophy bass population. Jones fishes the lake oft0en and caught his heaviest bass ever, 11 pounds, from the 83,000 impoundment. On other trips, he’s caught two over 10 pounds in a single day.

“Falcon is the only lake where I’ve had 65-pound braided line broken by a bass,” laughs Jones, winner of the 2008 Bassmaster® Classic. “There is so much flooded brush that the bass don’t have to run far to get you in trouble.”

“I caught two bass over nine pounds in one day during a tournament and caught 88 pounds in three days at Falcon and still finished 14th, more than 40 pounds behind the winner,” adds Rojas. “Right now, Falcon is easily the best trophy bass lake in the country.”

Yamaha Pro Dave Wolak likes Clear Lake in California the best, despite having limited fishing time there.  “It’s where I first learned to fish swimbaits,” he remembers, “and today they’re some of my favorite and most productive lures.

“Clear Lake is one of those lakes that has produced some truly huge bass over 15 pounds, so with every cast you’re absolutely on edge waiting for a big strike.   You can’t ask for more excitement and fun than that.”

Takahiro Omori, winner of the 2004 Bassmaster® Classic, rates Lake Champlain on the New York/Vermont border as his favorite. “Lake Champlain has both largemouth and smallmouth, so you can actually choose not only which fish to go after but also the way you want to fish for them,” smiles the Yamaha Pro. “The largemouth hit crankbaits or jigs in shallow water, while the smallmouth hit drop shots, spinnerbaits, and jerkbaits in deeper water.

“It’s a huge lake, and it’s also very scenic, so there are a lot of places to fish and you can enjoy all of them.”

Kelly Jordon, who, before he started his professional tournament career, spent eight years as a guide on Lake Fork, considers that famous east Texas impoundment his favorite, primarily because it has such a large bass population.

“During the late spring and through much of the summer, it’s possible for two anglers to catch 50 or more bass on crankbaits in a day on Lake Fork,” acknowledges the Yamaha angler, “and the majority of those bass will be in the four to seven pound class.  Along the way, you’ll almost certainly have at least one chance at a 10 pounder, too.

“I developed a lot of my tournament fishing techniques while guiding on Fork, so it will always be a special place for me.”

Cliff Pace, one of the top 12 finalists in this year’s BASS® Angler of the Year race, likes Lake Amistad in Texas the most, primarily because its large size and different types of structure.

“Amistad is the type of lake that offers such a variety of fishing choices you can nearly always find a place to fish exactly the way you want to with your favorite lures,” he explains, “and that’s rare. If you like to cast spinnerbaits around shallow brush, for example, there are places where you can do that and if you want to crank deep points, or fish plastic worms even deeper, you can do that, too. “It’s a fun place to fish.”

Another top 12 finalist in this year’s BASS® Angler of the Year race, Yamaha pro Mark Menendez, really likes Alabama’s Lake Jordan. “It’s one of the premier spotted bass fisheries in the country,” he notes, “and they’re big fish so they really fight hard.

“I enjoy structure fishing, and that’s one of the best ways to fish Lake Jordan, using jigs or crankbaits.”

Like many bass fishermen across the nation this autumn, Todd Faircloth has had to continually adjust his approach because of muddy water. The Yamaha pro’s solution: look for vegetation and fish it with plastic worms, crankbaits, or spinnerbaits.

“This time of year, bass are moving into tributary creeks as they follow baitfish, but the backs of the creeks will usually be the muddiest after a rain,” notes Faircloth, “so as I go into a creek, I look for vegetation that will help filter some of the mud and silt, and that’s usually where bass will move.

“It’s really amazing how vegetation, especially growth like milfoil or hydrilla, will help filter the water.”

When he does find vegetation, Faircloth fishes the outside edges where the water will be slightly deeper, making short casts, pitches, and even flips, depending on his lure choice.

“Ideally, a small lipless crankbait or spinnerbait fished along the edge will be your best choice because these types of lures allow you to cover a lot of water, and bass this time of year are fairly aggressive. Don’t forget about pitching and flipping soft plastic worms, either,” cautions the Yamaha pro, “because if the water level is rising fast, bass often suspend off the bottom near the vegetation.

“I prefer to use a slow-falling lure with a light sinker and let it sink to the bottom. Then I lift it one to two feet and just hold it there and wait for a bass to come get it. A drop shot may be an option, but I just enjoy flipping and pitching and have a lot of confidence in those presentations.”

Faircloth adds that muddy water patterns like these can change as fast as conditions change. If water continues to muddy, bass tend to move to stay ahead of the incoming mud, and if the water is clearing, they may start re-locating further back in the creek. The fish might move 400 to 500 yards one way or the other in a single day, depending on the conditions.
In either instance, the bass pro looks for a “mud line” where muddy and clear water meet, and fishes there. Vegetation remains a key ingredient, however, and Faircloth is always searching for it, as well.

“If there is something good to remember about muddy water, it might be that these types of conditions often force a lot of bass into a relatively small area,” says the Yamaha angler. “During a tournament on Grand Lake in Oklahoma several years ago, the muddy water pushed bass up on the points at the mouths of the different tributaries.
“They were suspended, but they’d hit a jerkbait just as fast as you could cast to them. On days like that, you hardly even notice how muddy the water is.”

In more than two decades of professional tournament competition, Yamaha pro Jay Yelas has tried to keep his bass fishing as simple as possible, and now during the late fall and early winter months, his approach may be the easiest of the entire year.

“It’s the time when baitfish, especially shad, are migrating to the very backs of creeks into shallow water, and bass are following,” says Yelas, whose illustrious career includes two FLW® Angler of the Year titles as well as a Bassmaster® Classic win. “I try to follow the bass, and concentrate on shallow brush, bridges, and boat docks.

“To me, those are the three ‘B’s’ of fall fishing, and I can almost guarantee you’ll find bass on one of those types of cover.”

The baitfish themselves often show an angler where to fish, too, by flicking or jumping on the surface as bass chase them in the shallow water. Yelas once won a national tournament fishing water less than two feet deep this time of year.

“I’ll normally move right to the back of a creek or large pocket before I even start fishing now,” continues the Yamaha Pro, “and if I don’t see any activity or have any success, I just start fishing my way out. I know the bass are coming into the tributaries now so at some point I’ll intercept them.

“In the late fall, fishing back out of a creek is usually a faster way to find bass than starting halfway back and fishing your way in.”

Because bass are fairly active now, Yelas does much of his fishing with small plastic swimbaits, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits. He uses different retrieve speeds, but overall, a slow presentation usually produces best.

During the early morning hours in very shallow water, Yelas will also try buzz baits, which he likes to work over and around laydowns, brush, and bridge pilings. Replacing the skirt with a small plastic, shad-colored swimbait often draws strikes where all other lures go untouched.
“I always start with these types of lures because bass are usually moving or they’re suspended, especially if they’re holding around docks and bridges” he explains. “I just don’t have that much success with bottom-crawling lures like jigs and worms unless I’m fishing right after an early cold front.”

Regardless of which type of cover he’s fishing, Yelas works the water carefully and thoroughly. He not only bumps the brush and pilings with his lures, but also fan-casts the surrounding water. With the swim baits, especially, he knows bass may follow for 10 or 15 feet before finally striking.

While bass and baitfish will stay in the backs of creeks for several weeks, the Yamaha Pro cautions that both will move frequently, so finding them again becomes a daily routine.

“But this time of year, they’re not moving very far,” he laughs. “Just keep looking and around shallow brush, bridges, and boat docks, you’ll find them again without too much trouble.”