PREVIEW: 2018 Summit Select ‘ Back to Ouachita for the Championship Round

What started as 24 has now become just six, as in the final six who have skirted past an Elimination Round on Lake Ouachita and then survived Sudden Death on Lake Hamilton to make the coveted Championship Round for the final day of the MLF Summit Select.

While most of the six finalists were hoping to go to a third lake for the Championship Round, they find themselves right back at Lake Ouachita. But MLF did throw them a bit of a curve ball for Championship day, putting them on the north side of Ouachita in the Rabbit Tail/Buckville area, which is historically one of the better areas on the lake.

This area varies drastically from the upper section of Ouachita where the Elimination Round was held. The main lake pockets from Buckville Church up to Rabbit Tail Use Area do not have any primary tributaries like the upper end did. This portion of the lake has clearer water and is better known for its grass fishing. The grass has made a return to this portion of the lake, which has brought back better fishing in this area.

But it does not take long for six of the world’s best professional anglers to start sniffing out MLF’s attempt at trickeration.

Ott Defoe has fished the Selects since their inception and has become pretty adept at reading the lake selection. As he points out, figuring out patterns is a professional angler’s job and over time he has noticed a pattern as to how MLF arranges the competition lakes.

“It seems like they want to change up as much as possible for each round,” he said. “So we went to the upper end up on Ouachita in the South Fork for Elimination. Then it was Hamilton for Sudden Death, which is totally different than Ouachita. And now back on Ouachita, but in an area that is totally different from where my Elimination was.”

Though Defoe has no idea where the other groups were taken, he is certain they were subjected to the same types of stark changes in the fishing.

“It’s what makes this format so unique,” Defoe continued. “Lake Ouachita is one lake, but it has two very different personalities in either end. So through the use of zones they can make one lake almost fish like two completely different lakes.”

“I fished here in a Forrest Wood Cup years ago and this end had a lot of grass in it back then,” he added. “I don’t know if it’s still got that kind of grass in it, but I got to figure they brought us to this region for some reason.”

Previous to his Elimination Round, Brandon Palaniuk had never seen Lake Ouachita before. But after fishing in the lake’s South Fork in Elimination and then receiving his map of the Championship zone, he too knew something was up.

“This looks completely different than where we fished the other day,” he said. “I don’t really see any back ends of major creeks. It’s more like a series of dead end pockets on the north side of the lake.”

“I don’t know what’s in those pockets,” he said. “But hopefully my trusty swim jig will help me find out. It’s been the star in my fishing arsenal all spring on the Elites an it got me to the Championship Round here. So hopefully I can get one more day out of it.”

Wesley Strader has fished Ouachita in the past, but it was the weather he was studying the most.

“It’s cloudy, breezy and a little rainy, so you know what that means,” Strader hinted. “That’s right…topwater. In this format you have to use weather opportunities like this to help cover water fast. A topwater is a great search tool so you can bet I’ll be slinging it this morning.”

Marty Robinson was also eyeing the heavy cloud cover for help.

“I don’t think it could hurt,” Robinson said. “It looks like a good fishing day to me.”

In addition, Robinson made an interesting observation about his first two rounds.

“Being back on Ouachita bothers me a little bit because I even though I qualified in the Elimination Round, I never really figured anything out about this place,” he explained. “And I don’t think many others in my Elimination Round did either. Based on the Scoretracker, it was just kind of a one here one there kind of deal for everyone.”

“But Hamilton was different,” he continued. “Several guys got that place figured out quick and started catching them in a hurry. Hamilton seemed to be a better pattern lake to me. Ouachita just feels like one of those spot-type lakes where it’s more about being in a good area than running a pattern. If some one lands on one of those areas right off the bat today, they could make it pretty hard on the rest of us.”