Strategy Recap: 2017 Summit Select Qualifying Round 3

Though the docks were the secret in some of the previous days, the six anglers competing in Qualifying Round 3 of the GEICO Selects Bass Pro Shops Summit Select presented by Ferguson were ready for a big day of fishing deep in the pockets of Lake of the Ozarks, MO.

Veteran Major League Fishing Select anglers Randy Howell, Fred Roumbanis, Mark Rose, Keith Poche and Brandon Palaniuk were all ready to secure their spot in the Cup and new MLF angler Russ Lane had a strategy ready to go for his first MLF event.

Roumbanis, like some of the other anglers, said he had never fished Lake of the Ozarks before and didn’t know what to expect.

During the 15-minute Mercury ride-thru, docks seemed to be of interest to many of the anglers as they had been on previous days.

“Man, there’s more boat docks here than I’ve ever seen,” Howell said. “I like boat docks.”

“These guys over here in the Ozarks, they find points like this that are flat and bare out here and they put brush piles on them for jerkbaits,” Rose said. “They might turn into big worm brush piles today.”

Poche said he initially like the stain in the water, that there was some debris but not a lot of willows or other overhanging trees.

“This area had 8 miles of water so I didn’t get to see all of it, but this is kind of a bluffy rocky looking area, close to the main channel, water temperatures in the 80s,” Howell said. “So fish should be on these main lake banks early in the morning maybe shallow feeding before they go back off deep off the drops.”

Deep in the pockets was where Poche was able to find his first catches.

“It’s a treetop, you know, an isolated piece of structure,” Poche said. “You know, that’s a typical giveaway—if it stays this overcast all day I can keep this topwater in my hand.”

The strategy worked for Poche, who caught back-to-back almost 5lb fish in the backs of pockets which propelled him into the lead in the middle of Period 1 fishing a plastic stickbait.

“Unbelievable. This is a place I can come back to throughout the day and flip or come back and topwater again because I think there’s numbers here,” Poche said. “If I can find something that’s similar, man, we can put a whackfest on ‘em.”

Going into Period 2, Poche, wanting to throw the other anglers off of his strategy that allowed for a 17 lb. lead, tied on a wooden rat decoy to trick the others (he was really fishing a shakey head with a soft plastic stick bait). It seemed they all knew better and decided to try their own new moves.

“When the brim are bedding, no matter how hot it is, the fish still come up on those beds and feed,” Poche said. “It’s just an easy target for them, it’s an easy way to get a good meal and they don’t have to work as hard, but when that’s over with they go back deep.”

Roumbanis seemed to have figured out the brim beds, which helped him inch closer and closer to the lead, but nothing was able to stop Poche.

By Period 3, though the other anglers had found some patterns that work, it was still Poche who was dominating the day. The docks which hadn’t played a huge role early in the dy became more important as the sun came out, and

Poche ultimately took the win with 37 fish for 58 lbs., 2 oz. and a bid into the 2017 Summit Cup in Grand Rapids, Minn. Roumbanis, Rose and Russ Lane will head to the Survival Rounds in the hopes of securing their spot.