Top 10 baits from season opener on Sam Rayburn
by Major League Fishing 30 Jan 16:49 UTC
Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division on Sam Rayburn Reservoir © Rob Matsuura / Major League Fishing
As usual, the season-opener of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division on Sam Rayburn Reservoir was a good event.
With some really big bags and individual fish caught, it was a good showing of what Sam Rayburn can produce, even when it's coming out of frigid wintertime temperatures.
While the event didn't produce too many unexpected patterns, it was still a good showcase of some high-level local and national talent. Here's what got the job done.
1. Campbell blows the field away
Earning the win by a wide margin, Brody Campbell didn't have to sweat much on the week, except when he was repairing his boat at takeoff on Day 1. From there, he cruised to bags in the upper 20s on each of the first two days for an unsurmountable lead.
Fishing offshore, Campbell used a few minnows, including the 5-inch Z-Man Jerk ShadZ in smelt and the Deps Sakamata Shad, both on a 3/8-ounce head. He also used a drop-shot with a 6-inch Roboworm Straight Tail Worm. For rods, Campbell exclusively used Bird Dog Rods, including the BDR-862S for his minnowing needs, paired with a Shimano Stradic FM and 10-pound braid with a 12-pound fluoro leader.
2. Big bag boosts Mueck
Weighing in 28-2, the biggest bag of the event, on the final day, Kaden Mueck rolled up from 11th to second to give Campbell a scare.
Mueck did his damage with a minnow for the most part, leveraging a 5-inch Deps Sakamata Shad on a 3/16-ounce head. He also used a Neko rig with a Zoom Trick Worm in junebug, an Owner Cover Shot hook and a 1/8-ounce tungsten nail weight. For both baits, he used 12-pound braid and a 10-pound leader and Pride Rods.
On the final day, when he caught his big bag, he was forced to adapt due to strong wind.
"I had a pretty good starting spot that I had caught big ones on, and it was too rough, I had to switch up," Mueck said. "I literally just pulled it together. That 9-pounder was just roaming on a flat. I caught a 6 out of a brush pile. And the other three I caught out of a school on a hard spot, and they weren't there the rest of the tournament. I didn't catch but five keepers that day. The wind was blowing so hard, I have a bunch of history on the lake, I just picked apart whatever was out of the wind."
3. Ebare in the mix as usual
Perennially in the hunt on Big Sam, Dakota Ebare turned in another great performance, which included one of his signature improbable fish catches, which involved jammed-up trolling motor steering, an 8-pounder, a brush pile and his main motor.
Throwing an umbrella rig and a crankbait for the most part, Ebare relied on a standard Texas game plan.
"I targeted high percentage areas where I might catch a big one; I didn't catch a lot of fish," said the veteran pro. "Just offshore drains and prespawn staging areas, even as cold as it was, that was pretty much my game plan."
For his umbrella rig, which did work on the first two days, Ebare used 3.25-inch Strike King Rage Swimmers in Carolina chrome. He threw it on a 7-foot, 6-inch Lew's Custom Lite rod, with a Lew's Custom reel. His crank of choice was a Strike King 6XD with No. 2 Owner STY-35 hooks, which he threw on a 7-foot, 10-inch Lew's KVD Composite Cranking rod with a 6.2:1 Lew's BB1 Pro Speed Spool.
4. Hughes knocks down another Top 10 on Rayburn
Also a fixture in the Top 10 on Sam Rayburn, Marshall Hughes ran some shallow water and some deeper stuff to put his days together.
"The majority of the fish that I weighed-in came on a lipless, but the bigger ones came out deep," Hughes said. "But I wasn't getting a lot of big bites. It was multiple spots, and it wasn't easy. Like, it was pretty dang hard to get them to eat. So, I'd fish for them a while, and then I have to go clear my head and go throw a [lipless] for a minute, catch something, go back out and try to catch a big one."
Shallow, Hughes relied on a 3/8-ounce Bill Lewis Hammer Trap. Deeper, he used an umbrella rig with 4.2- and 3.7-inch Yamamoto Shad Shape Swimmer swimbaits in stealth chartreuse purple as well as a Yamamoto Scope Shad in electric shad.
5. First time to Rayburn is no problem for Marbut
After having one of the best seasons possible in 2024 with a Toyota Series Championship win and regular-season win, Hayden Marbut rolled into Texas and stayed right on schedule. On Day 1, fishing his first tournament ever on Rayburn, an 8-pounder put him in third place, and he fished strong the rest of the way.
"I had a terrible practice, so I was pretty happy with it," Marbut said. "It was just blowing every day of practice, so I hunkered down in one area and milked it and milled around and made the most of it. It was brutal, but it worked out good."
As is usual for the talented angler, a 3/16-ounce Picasso Tungsten Ball Head with several 5-inch minnows was a big player. Marbut also made use of a Nomad Design Shikari jerkbait in aqua ghost.
"I was fishing a couple little drains with timber," he said. "If they were up higher in the timber I'd throw the jerkbait, the ones that were lower in the drains or on bait I'd throw the minnow. The jerkbait bailed me out on Day 2, I caught two 4-pounders in the afternoon on it."
6. Umbrella rig is key again for Moore
Perhaps the foremost umbrella rig angler in the country, Cole Moore notched another Texas Top 10 with the chandelier.
His umbrella rig of choice was a Shane's Baits The 5th Element Umbrella Rig, which he tipped with Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbaits and V&M Locked Down Swimbait Jig Heads.
7. Hawkes carries the torch for the old-school
A former FLW Tour winner, Mike Hawkes got back in the game after being boatless for years and letting his fishing gear gather dust.
"I went out and practiced and LiveScoped like 90% of the time, but I'm not good enough at it to know exactly how the fish react and where to look for the fish and which fish is a catfish and which is a bass and which is a white bass," Hawkes said. "I struggled along every day, and I'd throw at a lot of stuff. I'd get one every once in a while. And I knew that if I went out and did that, I was gonna finish the bottom third of the field."
So, Hawkes busted out a lipless bait and headed to some of the scant grass he'd found.
"A 1/2-ounce baits just wouldn't get down quite deep enough, because the grass was real short," he said. "So, I ended up using an old XCalibur 75, which is 3/4-ounce. I think BOOYAH makes it now. But, I had a red one, and I tied it on, it still had the good hooks on it that I put on in 2003 or whatever."
After losing the XCalibur, Hawkes transitioned to a BOOYAH One Knocker and also used a Carolina rig with a 3/8-ounce weight and a Reaction Innovations Man Bear Pig. Hawkes threw his lipless on a St. Croix Mojo Bass Trigon Glass rod that was a 7-foot, 2-inch, medium-heavy model.
8. Jig and umbrella rig do the work for Miller
Colby Miller got off to a tough start on Rayburn but pulled through with the sort of finish that has become typical for the Bass Pro Tour rookie.
With the water temperature dropping into the mid-40s in practice, Miller was fishing through conditions rarely seen on Rayburn.
"The first day of practice, I literally fished from 9 o'clock until 3:30 and never got the first bite all day," Miller said. "I didn't go out on the second day of practice. The third day of practice, I got on the water, I guess, at about 9 and we had to be off at 2, and I had one bite.
"So, going into it, I had seen some fish on 'Scope but was very unaware what I was going have to do to get them to bite," he said. "Day 1 at 2 o'clock — I was due in, I think, at 3:45 — I had two 14-inch line-burners and I pulled in one little area. They went from being real smart everywhere else to really dumb where I pulled in, and I ended up catching 22 pounds."
From there, the fishing improved across the lake for Miller. On the week, he did his best with a 3/4-ounce Epic Baits Football Jig and an umbrella rig, mostly fished around brush and timber. He used 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon, Edge rods and Abu Garcia reels.
9. Mrazek starts on the right foot
Basically a lock for a check in Toyota Series events, Chad Mrazek got the year off to a good start in his home state.
Fishing a shallow, channel swing hard spot in the mornings, Mrazek spent the rest of the days behind the screen.
"I pretty much started on the shallow deal with a jerkbait and then headhunted for a big one with a minnow the rest of the day," he said.
Mrazek's jerkbait of choice was a 6th Sense Provoke 97DD in matte natural, thrown with a 6-foot, 9-inch 6th Sense Team 6 casting rod. For his minnow, he used a 5-inch 6th Sense Strobe Shaker in olive flash, with a 3/8-ounce head in the mornings and then a 1/4-ounce later in the day. His minnow rod was a 7-foot 6th Sense USA Custom model.
10. Umbrella rig and a minnow carry Baxley
Joining the generally successful minnow and umbrella rig party, Wesley Baxley notched his first Top 10 finish in the Toyota Series.
For his minnow, Baxley used 4- and 5-inch Z-Man Jerk ShadZ on both Northland Smeltinator Elite Series heads and Queen Tackle LS Tungsten Jigheads. He also used an umbrella rig with Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad swimmers on 3/16-ounce heads. For his minnows, he used a 7-foot, 3-inch Impulse spinning rod, and he used 25-pound fluoro and a custom 7-foot, 11-inch Impulse musky rod for his umbrella rig.
"I was running those offshore drains, anything that had some bait in it - not a lot of bait, just small pods of bait," Baxley said. "The last day I had to get out of the wind, it killed me. It was a lot of work, it wasn't easy, it took me all day to catch my fish every day. But, I was stoked to be in the Top 10."