Venue: Lake M, a flatland reservoir
Water: 49 degrees, clear
Weather: 41 degrees, cloudy, strong north wind
Pro: Dustin Connell, 27, Clanton, Ala. a second-year Elite Series pro, Connell competed on the University of Alabama’s bass fishing team, won the 2015 Southern Open on the Alabama River and then qualified for the 2017 Elites via the 2016 Southern Opens.
Sure, you likely have been using a baitcaster longer than Dustin Connell has been alive. Still, this Elite Series rookie has already won an Elite Series event, besting the likes of Kevin VanDam, and is just getting started. This kid has crazy instincts and the soul of an old angler. Follow his lead when you hit the lake this month and you’ll be glad you did.
6:48 a.m. It’s cold, damp and windy when Connell and I pull into Lake M’s deserted launch area. The wind is blowing 15 mph out of the north, and pro and journalist both don cold-weather gear. “This cold, nasty weather really sucks, but I’ll have to make the best of it!”
7 HOURS LEFT
7:05 a.m. We launch the Triton. Connell checks the water temp: 49 degrees. “The lake looks clear, which is good. Forty-nine and clear is perfect jerkbait water, but I do much better on jerkbaits when it’s sunny; the fish can see them from a much greater distance. I’m not a bank beater; my usual strategy is to idle around and watch my electronics for isolated cover and structural irregularities that are holding fish offshore. Jigs, jerkbaits and swimbaits are my go-to winter lures. Besides offshore humps, channel swings, rocks and brushpiles, I’ll probably hit some docks.”
7:15 a.m. While idling away from the ramp, Connell locates an offshore rockpile. He pulls several ALX rods from storage and pauses to equip an umbrella rig, brand unknown, with five generic swimbaits on 1/8-ounce heads. “U-rigs are awesome in winter! We can’t use ’em in Elite Series tournaments, but I’ll probably throw one today.” He also ties on a 5-inch Basstrix swimbait on a half-ounce head, a chrome shad 6th Sense jerkbait and a half-ounce 6th Sense jig (Okeechobee craw with green pumpkin NetBait Paca Chunk trailer). “These baits are my winter standbys. I don’t do much cranking this time of year.”
7:30 a.m. Connell makes his first casts of the day to the rockpile with the umbrella rig. “I’d like to catch a big fish early to take some pressure off!”
7:35 a.m. He casts the jig to the rockpile and works it down an 18-foot dropoff. “This spot is set up perfectly for winter bass. Here, they don’t have to exert much energy to make a major depth change.”7:45 a.m. Connell runs a half-mile uplake to a clay point. A bald eagle watches from a shoreline tree as he slow rolls the rig around the structure. “I bet that eagle knows where the fish are!”
7:51 a.m. Connell runs a quarter-mile farther uplake, idles between two main-lake points and locates a submerged hump; it’s 8 feet on top, drops to 25 on the sides and is loaded with snaggy brush. He enters waypoints for the structure on his GPS. “I like to idle around and get a feel for how a spot like this lays, then leave and let it rest awhile before coming back and fishing it. This hump looks awesome; I marked several good fish on it.”
6 HOURS LEFT
8:05 a.m. Connell moves 100 yards downlake to a long point. He goes to cast the jerkbait across the structure, gets a major backlash and begins stripping line off his reel. “Just as well; this’ll give me an excuse to strip this 15-pound line off my reel and change out to 10, which is what I should be using for jerkbaits.”
8:09 a.m. Back in the game, Connell tries the jerkbait on the point but can’t score a strike.
8:16 a.m. Connell moves back to the offshore hump and tries the jerkbait. He’s fishing it with aggressive snaps interspersed with pauses.
8:19 a.m. He switches to the jig, hangs it in submerged brush, breaks it off and rerigs with an identical lure.
8:26 a.m. While crawling and shaking the jig through a sunken brushpile, Connell detects some resistance, swings back his rod and hangs a big bass! It surges for deeper water; he works it toward the boat and swings aboard his first keeper of the day, a beautiful 4-pound, 2-ounce largemouth. “I never felt the bite; it just felt heavy. Good way to start the day!”
8:29 a.m. Connell again casts the jig to the hump. He crawls it a few feet, gets a solid tap and bags his second keeper, 2 pounds, 8 ounces. The north wind is brutally cold and Connell’s fingers are numb as he unhooks the fish. “Most guys try to get out of that cold wind and fish back in some sheltered cove or creek arm, but in winter, these offshore spots are where it’s at.”
8:33 a.m. Connell combs the hump with the umbrella rig. “If there’s a 10-pounder down there, this is what she wants for dinner!”
8:45 a.m. Connell casts the Basstrix swimbait to the hump and bags his third keeper, 3-9. “I swam it off the side of the hump and DOING!! She nailed it!”
8:49 a.m. Back to the jig on the hump.
8:55 a.m. The wind howls as Connell tries the jerkbait on the hump. “I don’t want to beat this place to death and spook all the fish, so I’m not going to stay here much longer.”
5 HOURS LEFT
9:05 a.m. Connell vacates the hump and runs uplake. He idles around a couple of main-lake points and locates some submerged brush, which he targets with the umbrella rig, jerkbait and jig.
9:14 a.m. Back to idling and bottom-scanning. Connell spots a lone brushpile in 13 feet of water with several big fish hovering around it. He backs his boat off and crawls the jig through the cover without success. “If those were bass, I should have caught one by now. They might be catfish.”
9:30 a.m. The jig, jerkbait and umbrella rig all fail to provoke a strike in the brushpile, so Connell moves downlake to fish a ditch paralleling a retaining wall with the umbrella rig.
9:53 a.m. As Connell casts the umbrella rig around the ditch and adjacent brushy cover, the sun momentarily pops out, but more dense clouds immediately move in.
4 HOURS LEFT
10:07 a.m. Connell makes a bone-chilling run uplake to a deep point, which he attacks with the jerkbait and umbrella rig.
10:18 a.m. Connell runs back to the hump where he caught his three keepers and tries the swimbait. The skies are darker now, and the wind is blowing even harder.
10:21 a.m. He switches to the jig. “This is probably going to be my money bait in this thick cloud cover.”
10:32 a.m. Connell can’t get another bite on the hump, so he makes an exploratory run to the extreme upper end of Lake M, where he locates a 10-foot ditch lined with rocks. He casts the jig to the structure and immediately gets a tap, but he misses the fish.
10:37 a.m. Connell bags his fourth keeper, 1 pound, 2 ounces, off the ditch on the jig.
10:40 a.m. Connell catches keeper No. 5, 1 pound, 8 ounces, off the ditch on the Basstrix. “Now that I have my limit, I need to move back offshore and cull these two little squealers.” What’s his take on the day so far? “The cloud cover has so far prevented me from catching anything on ‘flash baits,’ including the jerkbait and umbrella rig, but I’ve managed to put together a limit on the jig and swimbait. As soon as the sun threatens to pop out, more clouds roll in, and the air temp has dropped as well, which is keeping the fish more bottom-oriented than suspended. The shallower upper end of the lake hasn’t produced anything other than two small keepers for me, so I’ll spend most of my remaining time in the deeper lower end.”
10:47 a.m. Connell roars downlake to refish the rockpile he hit early in the day with the jerkbait and umbrella rig. “This place ought to be crawling with bass; it’s got deep water all around it, and winter bass love rocks.” But he can’t coax a bite off the structure.
3 HOURS LEFT
11:05 a.m. Connell runs across the lake to a short point. Here he tries the jerkbait and umbrella rig without success.
11:11 a.m. Connell crawls the jig across the point; it comes back clogged with snot grass.
11:18 a.m. Connell idles uplake to a row of boathouses. He locates a patch of brush in front of one of the structures and hits it with the jig. “Should have been one there.”
11:31 a.m. He rakes the umbrella rig past two boathouses. Nothing there either.
11:34 a.m. Connell zips back downlake and idles into a cove. Here, he hits a half-dozen docks with the jig but can’t get a tap.
11:41 a.m. He hangs the jig in some deep brush, breaks off and rigs up an identical lure.
11:46 a.m. The side-scan function of Connell’s electronics reveals a massive brushpile in 12 feet of water. He tries the jerkbait, umbrella rig and jig around the cover. No takers.
11:57 a.m. Connell heads out of the cove while casting to docks. A bass inhales the lure as it’s sinking next to a piling. Connell hammers the fish; it rolls on top and comes unbuttoned. “Three-pounder! That’s the first hit I’ve had on a dock.”
2 HOURS LEFT
12:05 p.m. Connell runs to the cove uplake, where he continues pitching the jig. “That fish I just lost was in 2 feet of water. So much for winter bass needing a deep access.”
12:17 p.m. These docks don’t pan out, so Connell moves back to the main lake, where he fishes a steep channel bank with the jig and umbrella rig.
12:30 p.m. He retrieves the rig parallel to a wood retaining wall. “There’s no reason for them not to be here; a 30-foot channel cuts in right against the bank!”
12:34 p.m. Connell sacrifices his umbrella rig to a deep brushpile. “I hate to break that dang thing off; it takes an hour to rig it with all those jigheads and swimbaits.”
12:41 p.m. Connell wind-drifts to a steep clay point, which he hits with the jerkbait and jig. “They just aren’t on these points.”
12:47 p.m. Connell races back to the offshore hump where he caught his first three keepers. Suddenly, the clouds crack open to reveal a glimmer of sunlight. “I’m going to try the jerkbait again. I’ll force-feed it to ’em if I have to!”
12:48 p.m. On his first cast to the hump, a good fish loads onto the jerkbait. Connell works it to the boat and swings aboard his sixth keeper; it weighs 2-7 and culls the 1-2 he caught earlier. “See that? As soon as the sun comes out, I catch one on the jerkbait!”
12:50 p.m. On his next cast, a huge bass eats Connell’s jerkbait! He tightens down on the fish, it surges for deep water … and his line breaks! “Awww man, that was a giant!” Shaking off his disappointment, he digs through his tackle stash, locates an identical lure, ties it on and resumes casting.
1:14 p.m. Another big bass attacks Connell’s jerkbait, but this one steamrolls off the hump and pulls off. “Crap, that one felt huge! You’re going to lose some on jerkbaits because they often just slap at the lure in cold water.”
1:36 p.m. Connell hasn’t had another strike on the hump. “I’m not surprised; lose two big fish on a spot like this and you’re going to make them scatter.”
1:45 p.m. Connell races downlake to a steep channel bank he fished earlier. He tries the jerkbait. No luck here.
1:58 p.m. Connell races across the lake to a point he fished earlier and again strikes out with the jerkbait.
2:05 p.m. Back to the ramp. Connell has had a cold but productive day on Lake M. He bagged seven keeper bass; the five biggest weighed 17 pounds, 13 ounces.
The Day in Perspective
“My five biggest fish all day came off the same offshore hump,” Connell told Bassmaster. “This spot had deep water all around it and scattered brush, a perfect combination for big winter bass. I didn’t get a strike on the jerkbait until almost 1 p.m., but once they got on it, I caught my biggest fish and lost two giants on it. If I were to fish here tomorrow under these same conditions, I’d idle around the lower end of the lake more to try to locate other submerged brushpiles and humps, then I’d work them over with the jerkbait and jig.”
WHERE AND WHEN DUSTIN CONNELL CAUGHT HIS FIVE BIGGEST BASS
4 pounds, 2 ounces: 1/2-ounce Okeechobee craw 6th Sense jig with green pumpkin NetBait Paca Chunk trailer; offshore hump with brush; 8:26 a.m.
2 pounds, 8 ounces: same lure and place as No. 1; 8:29 a.m.
3 pounds, 9 ounces: Basstrix swimbait on 1/2-ounce head; same place as No. 1; 8:45 a.m.
2 pounds, 7 ounces: chrome shad 6th Sense jerkbait; same place as No. 1; 12:48 p.m.
5 pounds, 3 ounces: same lure as No. 4; same place as No. 1; 12:59 p.m.
TOTAL: 17 POUNDS, 13 OUNCES