MCBA Charter Captain
Bryan Schmitt owns the Mississippi - Congratulations! (August
29, 2022)
Well, not the whole river but the area in and
around LaCrosse and Lake Onalaska, Wisconsin...
(From the
BassMaster.com website)
-- Bryan Schmitt takes the win at the final event of the 2022 Elite
season! LA CROSSE, Wis. — Persistent refinement put
Bryan Schmitt on track to sacking up a four-day total of 63 pounds,
4 ounces and claiming his second blue trophy at the Guaranteed Rate
Bassmaster Elite at Mississippi River.
Hailing from Deale, MD., Schmitt took the Day 1 lead with 17-0 —
the event’s second heaviest bag — and followed that with bags of
14-3 and 14-12.
Schmitt, who won his first Elite on Lake
Champlain in 2021, started Championship Monday in third place,
trailing Canadian pro Chris Johnston by 2-1. Adding 16-11 in the
final round, Schmitt edged Johnston by just 4 ounces and won the
$100,000 prize. He also earned an automatic berth into the 2023
Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic scheduled for March
24-26 in Knoxville, Tenn.
“I’d rather have a
blow-out win because this is too stressful,” Schmitt said of the
dramatic finish. “When Chris brought his bag up, it looked big — I
thought he had it!
“I can’t believe it. I’m 2-for-2 here.
(Schmitt also won a 2017 FLW Tour event on the Mississippi River).”
Throughout the event, Schmitt focused his efforts on a 200-yard
stretch of eelgrass in Pool 8. With multiple wins on grassy tidal
fisheries from the Potomac River to the James River, he leveraged
his vast knowledge of how bass relate to moving water and vegetation
to progressively whittle down his spot.
“When you have a
fishery with a lot of grass, it’s always about finding something
different,” Schmitt said. “The first day, it was about depressions
and edges. Then, it got so flat calm that I realized the fish would
pick a place on that grass edge or depression and that was the only
place you could get bit.”
Seeing the bass were not randomly
strolling through the eelgrass, Schmitt dissected his area until he
identified the money spot. Amid the grass flat’s consistent 6-foot
depths, he identified an 8-foot trench measuring about 20 feet wide
by 100 yards long.
“There was about a 50-foot section where,
whenever I would get a bait on the bottom, I could feel rock,”
Schmitt said. “So, there was rock meeting grass in a depression.”
The key to the spot’s attraction was the very detail that
derailed many anglers’ game plans. Heavy rains from a storm that
delayed the Day 2 launch by one hour muddied much of Pool 8.
However, Schmitt’s area was shielded from the mud plume, while the
eelgrass filtration left only beneficial water flow.
“It’s a
challenge, but I enjoy fishing in current because I feel current
makes fish predictable,” Schmitt said. “When I won here in 2017, it
flooded. It was just like this — my spot got better and better.”
Schmitt caught most of his keepers on a Carolina-rigged Missile
Baits Baby D Stroyer in green pumpkin flash. He added one of his
limit fish on a bone-colored Spro Fat Papa Walker.
“I used a
3 1/2- to 4-foot leader and I think that’s why they would bite that
bait,” Schmitt said. “There was so much eelgrass, the weight would
get down and the bait would float above the grass for a minute and
that’s when you would get bit.”
Schmitt said his win was
perfectly timed, as he’ll head home and celebrate his son Dylan’s
9th birthday Thursday.
