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An hour after Jason Christie was done towing a green pumpkin tube around in 19-feet of water to win the $100,000 Advanced Auto Parts Bassmaster Elite Series on Lake St. Clair, he stood next to his boat and truck at the Metropark boat ramp and talked about towing a tractor around back home in Eastern Oklahoma.

“I drive a Toyota Tundra for two reasons; for a chance to win the Bonus Bucks as a tournament fisherman, and because of their towing power,” stated Christie. “In fact, I kept the older Tundra that I used to tow my Ranger with after I bought this newer one — and now I use the older truck to hunt with, and to tow my Mahindra tractor.”

As a result of being the highest finishing registered participant, the Lake Tenkiller, Oklahoma resident got paid $3,000 from Toyota’s Bonus Bucks Program.

Christie is also loyal to Leer Truck Caps, and both his Tundras not only have a Leer truck cap, but also a Leer Locker ceiling mounted storage system. “I use the Leer Locker in my tournament truck to carry hats, fishing tackle and the trusty little fan that I’ve gotta have to sleep. In my hunting truck I carry my bow, and the kids’ hunting rifles,” says the 5-time B.A.S.S. tournament winner, and former college basketball player.

In addition to the Toyota Bonus Bucks, Christie also won a $500 bonus from the Leer Cover Cash program.

You don’t have to be a full-time pro, or even win a tournament to win the “Cover Cash” or “Bonus Bucks” – you just have to be a registered participant in any of the dozens of tournaments sanctioned by both contingency programs and be the highest-placing participant. To get signed-up, please visit http://www.toyotatrucksbonusbucks.com/ and  http://leercovercash.com/ or phone Jessica or Kendell at (918) 742-6424, and they can also help you get signed-up for either program.

There are two things you can count on at Lake St. Clair – the wind will eventually blow hard enough to stir its 430 square miles of water into ocean like proportions — and the smallmouth will usually bite a 4.5” tube jig.

The second day of practice for the 2017 Advanced Auto Parts Bassmaster Elite Series on St. Clair was no exception. “A man could use a Motrin after a day like this,” said Kevin VanDam upon finally reaching calm waters near the protected harbor of a Harrison Township boat ramp.

VanDam had been riding the spine-jarring waves for more than twelve hours through gusting winds, stormy rains, and at times, a blend of blue skies. And riding with him was what he, and most veteran anglers, consider St. Clair’s All Time Greatest lure – a 4.5” soft plastic tube.

“I haven’t been on St. Clair since the Elite Series came here in 2015. But I’ve been fishing here for 32 years, since back when I was in high school competing in B.A.S.S. Federation tournaments with the Kal Valley Bass Club,” says Van Dam.

“I caught ‘em really well in the first tournament I ever fished here using a double willow leaf spinnerbait with gold blades. But if you had to choose one lure that’s dominated this lake for the past 40 years, you’d have to choose a tube,” says the 7-time Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year, who lives three hours west of St. Clair.

Even though a drop shot has become highly popular and effective the past 10 years, dragging or snapping a plastic tube across St. Clair’s notoriously shallow lake bottom still wins the vote for all time most popular smallmouth lure on St. Clair from hard core anglers. Including VanDam’s close friend, smallmouth nut, and fishing show host Mark Zona, who also lives about three hours west of St. Clair.

“The tube is 100% the most all time classic lure on St. Clair – and let me warn ya’ – it still has MUCH power,” Zona typed in a text response when asked about the plastic tube’s historic effectiveness on St. Clair.

The tube’s decades of smallmouth catching dominance is simple – it resembles so many of the things smallmouth love to eat — including, gobies, perch and crawfish. When asked to name three colors of the 4.5” soft plastic tube that no angler should be without on St. Clair, VanDam said, “Green pumpkin, melon gold, and smoke purple.”

Rigging

“Most days a 3/8-ounce jig head is pretty ideal, and I fish it on 8-pound fluorocarbon line with no braid, just straight 8-pound fluorocarbon spooled to a Quantum size 40 Smoke spinning reel and 7’ 4” Tour KVD rod,” says the Kalamazoo resident.

Even though St. Clair is a big body of water, and connects the Great Lakes of Huron and Erie, it’s very shallow with an average depth of just 11-feet. So it stirs easy into big waves when the wind inevitably blows here.

And while shallow lures like willowleaf spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits catch their share of smallmouth – no lure stakes claim to the unofficial title of St. Clair’s All Time Best Lure like the simple plastic tube.

Casey Ashley has been saying for years that he doesn’t like smallmouth.

But given the fact the 2015 Bassmaster Classic Champ sits soundly inside the Top 5 of a Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race that’s tighter than the dry storage lids of his Triton, well, it’s fair to say, the soft spoken South Carolina pro is learning to live with the infamously ghost like bronze bombers that have dominated the summer portion of the Elite Series schedule.

Fact is, he’s more than just tolerating smallmouth, he’s figuring them out – mostly by taking his own approach with a plan that involves a lot of treble hooks, fairly shallow water, and perhaps most importantly – a mindset of finally accepting the fact that smallmouth are not largemouth.

“I still don’t like ‘em,” grinned the likeable Ashley minutes after dropping 18 pounds of smallmouth on the scales at Day 1 of the Advanced Auto Parts Bassmaster Elite Series on Lake St. Clair. “They’re still way too fickle to my liking. I found two spots late in practice Wednesday that were loaded with smallmouth, and today I never caught a single fish from either of those areas.”

“A southern largemouth fisherman like myself is programmed to finding and catching fish from targets like a brushpile, a laydown tree, stumps, docks, whatever – but with smallmouth, you can forget about all that,” says Ashley. “I’ve learned that you stand just as good a chance by tossing the lure behind your shoulder at smallmouth — especially on a massive, flat-bottomed lake like St. Clair, because they roam areas, instead of staying locked on targets,” explains Ashley.

Jerks, Cranks, and Less than 10-feet Deep

To explore expansive ‘areas’ Ashley has learned to lean heavily on faster moving lures like jerkbaits and crankbaits versus mega-popular drop shots and tube jigs.

“It seems like I catch bigger smallmouth on jerkbaits and crankbaits than I do a drop shot, and those horizontal moving baits give me a better chance to cover more water too,” explains Ashley.

“I’ve also learned to accept the fact that I’m way better at catching ‘em in less than 10-feet of water when at all possible. You force me to fish deeper than about 10-feet, and I feel like I’m out of my league,” admits Ashley.

Tackle

Ashley has no strict allegiance to a crankbait sponsor, so the ‘free agent’ mixes a blend of brands that often include Lucky Craft Staysee jerkbaits, and Strike King 5XD crankbaits, but one shared constant is the mid-range gear ratio of the reels he throws them on.

“I use the 6.6:1 Quantum Smoke HD for cranking because it’s got a big spool with a lot of line capacity, and for the jerkbait, I use the brand new Smoke S3 in a 6.1:1, because it casts so far and smooth,” he explains.

Ashley uses 10-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line with his jerkbaits, but cranks with 12-pound Hi-Seas.

Surprised by his success?

When asked if he was surprised to be sitting so high in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year points after a bevy of smallmouth tournaments, Ashley replied, “Maybe just a little surprised, but at the St. Lawrence River I was able to find fish in the current around structure, which makes me feel more comfortable, and at Champlain, I was able to blend a few largemouth into the mix.”

As for St. Clair, he caught every fish he weighed-in during the Elite Series event of 2015 on a jerkbait, and finished 13th. So don’t expect him to change much. It’s a shallow-water plan he’s comfortable with, and it gets great results … even though he still doesn’t like smallmouth.

Lake St. Clair is one of America’s all time greatest smallmouth fisheries. But when the Bassmaster Elite Series visited the Detroit area fishery in 2013, Greg Hackney chose to fish for largemouth based on the fact smallmouth looked more like retired Pistons point guard Isaiah Thomas than current Lions left tackle Greg Robinson.

“I don’t know what the deal was on St. Clair four years ago, but the smallmouth looked sickly, like they were starving. You’d catch a fish that should have weighed 4-pounds and he’d only weigh 3-pounds,” remembers Hackney.

“After a couple days of practice, I finally stumbled into some healthy largemouth and decided I had a better chance to do well catching those than skinny smallmouth, so I pitched a Strike King Menace around on a ¾ ounce Texas rig and caught enough largemouth to finish 18th,” he recalls.

“But that ain’t the case this week – these Smallmouth are healthy right now – and I’ll be fishing for them exclusively with spinning tackle,” confirmed Hackney before Day 1 launch at the Advanced Auto Parts Bassmaster Elite on Lake St. Clair.

While he may be fishing finesse techniques this week, it won’t be with undersized spinning reels. Hackney is religious about his love of larger spinning reels – and for good reason.

“A lot of people buy size 25 and 30 spinning reels for bass fishing, but I use a size 40 Speed Freak from Quantum because it holds more line, and leads to far less twists and tangles than a smaller spinning reel – especially if I’m using straight fluorocarbon line with no braided line,” explains Hackney.

“Like most guys, more times than not, I’ll use braid with a 7 to 8 foot long fluorocarbon leader on my spinning reels, because braid doesn’t twist nearly as bad, especially when you’re fishing a nose-hooked drop shot bait that’s spinning downward with each vertical drop you make,” he explains.

“But no matter what line you use, a bigger spinning reel just offers you better line management, and faster line pick-up. With that 6.2:1 gear ratio, you’re picking up about 39-inches of line with every turn of the handle,” he explains.

Known as a gritty shallow water stick, the Louisiana pro admits his favorite two ways to catch a bass are top water froggin’ and pitching to heavy cover, but what you love, verses what pays the bills are two very different things.

“That’s the life of an Elite Series pro, if you’re not willing and able to be versatile out here, this bunch of anglers will eat you alive. And if you can’t fish all the different techniques, you’ll starve,” concludes the highly accomplished Hackney.