Author Topic: Mansue Worked Winter River-Rock Pattern  (Read 6439 times)

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Offline RGecy

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Mansue Worked Winter River-Rock Pattern
« on: April 22, 2009, 10:52:50 PM »
Chesapeake Winning Pattern
Mansue Worked Winter River-Rock Pattern


Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Bassmaster Opens tend to visit the same types of venues year in and out, so it was somewhat of a surprise to see the Upper Chesapeake Bay on this year's Northern division schedule. The last time BASS visited the venue was almost 20 years ago for the Bassmaster Classic.

The major estuary and connected rivers are tidal influenced and when the schedule first appeared, most figured the bite to be decidedly pre-spawn. But a cold spring, and a bout of nasty weather in the days leading up to the event, kept the fish locked into their winter pattern.

New Jersey pro Dave Mansue gambled that he could win on a winter pattern and made the long trek up the Susquehanna to target wintering largemouths.

He opened with 19 1/2 pounds, followed up with 17, and despite a three-fish day 3 edged Canadian pro Curtis Richardson by 6 pounds. No one else in the Top 10 weighed more than 11 fish over the 3 days.

It was Mansue's first win at this level, and it earned him nearly $50,000 in prizes and merchandise.

Here's an in-depth look at his winning winter pattern.

Practice

Mansue also fishes the PAA Series, and en route to the Neely Henry PAA a few weeks ago, he stopped by the Chesapeake to check it out.

He's well-versed in the fishery, as are most Mid-Atlantic tournament anglers. Most of his Chesapeake experience came via the Federation Nation and various buddy tournaments. In general, he's strong on tidal fisheries. He lives near the Delaware, and fishes the Hudson quite a bit too.

During his pre-practice visit to the Chesapeake, he noted water temperatures of 45 and 46 degrees. He couldn't find much grass, and observed that the fish were still very much in their winter patterns. He also fished a buddy tournament there and finished 2nd. His hope was that such a winter pattern would hold up for the Northern Open.

He finished 26th at the PAA Series (after starting the final day in 3rd), then drove back to the Chesapeake for his official practice.

"When people ask me about the Upper Chesapeake, I tell them my biggest fear is that it'll get cold and rainy – that shuts the fishery down," he noted. "And that's exactly what happened. Leading up to and during the official practice, the weather was horrible. It was ice cold with a lot of rain. The day before the tournament it was 40 degrees and raining sideways – miserable."

He initially tried to fish the conditions that he'd encountered during his pre-practice, but struck out. He didn't have a single 15-inch keeper bite the first 2 practice days.

He rooms with fellow New Jersey pro Pete Gluszek, and the two talked about exploring deep structure up the Susquehanna for the final practice day.

Mansue rode up there the next day, got three bites, set the hook on one and it was a 5-pound largemouth.

He said he spent the rest of the day marking deep, rocky structure with his Humminbird Side Imaging unit and detailed several areas to fish.

His plan was to try those areas for a few hours the morning of day 1.


View this article in its entirety at http://www.bassfan.com/news_article.asp?id=3260

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