LITTLE ROCK — Kevin Short of Mayflower won the Bassmaster Central Open on Saturday on Table Rock Lake in Missouri, giving him his fifth Bassmaster victory and his third in three years.
Among Short’s recent triumphs were two victories on the Bassmaster Elite Series Tour in 2010 and 2009, but he struggled on that circuit this year. He regained his footing in the Northern and Central Open circuits and finished the season on top at Table Rock. His prize was a Skeeter bass boat and a Yamaha outboard motor valued at $45,000, plus $9,000 cash.
With limited experience at Table Rock, Short took awhile to get his bearings and finished the first day in 22nd place. Poor fishing conditions didn’t help. He encountered a major cold front followed by blue skies, calm water, falling water levels and progressively cooling water temperatures. He jumped to fifth place on the second day to make the final-12 cut, and then turned in five fish weighing 15 pounds, 7 ounces for a three-day total of 33-8 to win.
“It finally came around,” Short said. “Obviously it turned out like I wanted it to, but I didn’t win it the way I thought it would be won.”
Until the second day, Short believed the winner would catch bass suspended in deep water with drop shots and jigging spoons.
“Instead, I won it in about 3 feet,” he said.
The deep pattern worked during practice, Short added, but when the tournament started he caught three small fish in a variety of depths. He tried fishing shallow in the back of Long Creek, but he said a combination of bad weather and excessive boat traffic shut it down. He went to deep water, and though he saw bass suspended on his electronic graph, they wouldn’t bite. He started the second day believing he should fish even deeper, but he realized very early that money wasn’t biting in deep water.
“I pulled up the trolling motor and went to the dirty water,” Short said. “I caught three more decent fish, which got me in the top 12. The last day I went to the dirty water and stayed all day. I fished every piece of isolated wood, every laydown and every piece of wood lying on flat gravel banks.”
Considered one of the best squarebill crankbait specialists in professional fishing, Short used a WEC E-1 to win the tournament. It’s a balsa model in “Classic” color. It looks sort of like a cross between a baby bluegill and a shad.
“Fish can’t tell if it’s a shad or a bluegill. All they know is that they want to eat it,” Short said.
The lure is perfect for fishing submerged wood, he added, because it does not snag easily. It breaks through cover and triggers aggressive reaction strikes.
Winning this tournament helped Short start rehabilitating a frustrating year on the Elite Series Tour. In every tournament, he missed the money by the smallest margins, mainly from bad breaks at critical times.
“I can’t tell you how many times I was within one fish, just a few ounces, from getting a check,” Short said. “I had some freaky things happen to lose fish, once-in-a blue-moon things. I had four or five of those things happen.”
It didn’t take long for it to mess with his mind.
“I’m thinking, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ ” Short acknowledged. “Mechanically, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but anytime something could mess up and go against me, that’s the way it went. It was very frustrating.
“Then, I got in the Northern Opens and the Everstarts. Freaky things happened, but they went my way. I started putting fish in the boat, started making a little money and getting my confidence back. I was one run down with one man on base in the bottom of the ninth, and I hit a walk-off home run.”
Although the Central Open victory won’t get Short into the Bassmaster Classic, he said it’s a good start to a better year in 2012.
SUGGS IN CONTENTION
After the Forrest L. Wood Tour finale Sunday at Lake Guntersville in Alabama, Scott Suggs of Bryant finished the season in fourth place in FLW Tour points with 672, helping him qualify for the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup. Ahead of Suggs were Shinichi Fukae (698), Dave LeFebre (685) and Glenn Browne (679).
Sports, Pages 22 on 10/27/2011