Rojas put the finishing touches on another rock-solid tournament by bouncing back from a so-so day 3 to hold onto a Top-5 finish. He’ll leave the upper Midwest with a pair Top-10s (he was 8th last week at the Miss. River) after never before fishing either body of water. The result also moved him into 10th place in the AOY standings, which virtually locked him into a Classic berth and put him well within reach of the Top 8, which would assure him a berth in the Elite Series postseason.
“I’m very happy with the way things turned out this week,” he said. “Not having seen this place before or La Crosse and coming out of here with two Top-10s and a ton of points, I feel really good.”
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Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito
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“I’d never seen it like it was this week,” he said. “We had maybe one bad day, but this morning and afternoon, I was running wide open 45 miles out and back in. That’s unheard of.”
His primary area was a little slow to produce today and that kept him on the move.
“With it being so flat and still, I went to the bank,” he said. “I could see them cruising around and I was able to catch them on a dropshot.”
On day 1, Aaron Martens was the lone Bassmaster Elite Series angler to bring 20 pounds of Lake Michigan bass to the scales. Today, it seemed like 18 pounds was the elusive number as only Takahiro Omori broke that threshold.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but it’s safe to say things slowed down a bit on day 2 of the Lake Michigan Elite Series. Both Dean Rojas and Martens, who sit 1-2 in the standings now, saw their weights drop off by 2 and 3 pounds, respectively.
But that was to be expected with the heavy pressure being put on the upper reaches of the fishable portion of the Bay of Green Bay, where the majority of the anglers were stationed. Read More
Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito
2nd: Rojas Played Pick and Choose
The day-1 weights didn’t shock Rojas, who mixed a shallow-water pattern with some deep-water stuff, taking advantage of the calm conditions in the morning.
“I’m not surprised at all,” he said. “This fishery’s got them. I figured with what I had, there’d be three or four guys with about the same thing.”
He had his weight by mid-morning and then backed off, hoping to preserve some areas for tomorrow and potentially the weekend.
Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito
Rojas edges ahead at Green Bay Challenge
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Four-time Bassmaster tournament winner Dean Rojas has taken the lead at the Bassmaster Elite Series Green Bay Challenge. Rojas, who was in second place coming into today's round, added a limit of five bass weighing 17 pounds, 14 ounces to his tally, for a total of 37-12. First round leader Aaron Martens caught 16-15 today and trails Rojas by 13 ounces.
Dean Rojas proved long-lining wasn’t the only way to catch Top 5-worthy fish at Douglas. He had three productive patterns going that allowed him to attack all segments of the water column.
Not surprisingly, one of them was a frog pattern that helped him on days 1, 3 and 4.
“The frog played a pivotal part in the weight I caught,” he said.
For bottom-hugging fish, he threw a Spro Little John DD crankbait, but didn’t employ long-lining to reach the deeper fish which were holding near the bottom in 20-foot depths just off points. Keeping contact with the bottom on his retrieves was important. He also targeted mid-range depths with a jig.
Once he saw the mass of boats beating the bank during practice, he knew he’d need more than one pattern going in order to contend. His cranking and jig bite were better in the morning and then he went frogging with a Spro Bronzeye 65 in the afternoons.
“I had to do three different things to try to come in with big bags every day,” he said. “All three techniques played a pivotal part in weighing consistent bags all the way through. I didn’t think it was much of a pattern lake for what I was doing. I just tried to stay in areas and fish my strengths.”
He focused on certain stretches of bank that others may have overlooked.
“Everybody’s going to look for the obvious stuff, but I try to find the stuff that’s just a little different,” he added. “I left a lot of fish out there. There were still a lot of fish I never went to.”
> Crankbait gear: 7’ medium Quantum Tour Rojas casting rod, Quantum Tour KVD casting reel (5.3:1 ratio), 14-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, Spro Little John DD crankbait (nasty shad).
> Jig gear: 7’ medium-heavy Quantum Tour Edition PT casting rod, Quantum EXO PT casting reel (6.6:1 ratio), 5/8-ounce Spro K-Finesse jig (green-pumpkin), 3 1/2” Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog (watermelon red).
> Frog grear: 7’ medium-heavy Quantum Tour Rojas frogging rod, Quantum EXO PT casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 80-pound Sunline FX2 braided line, Spro Bronzeye 65 Frog (killer gill).
