Patterns

Tracy Pace is her name and bass fishing is her game. After launching her Ranger Commanche/Evinrude “pond rocket” into Rayburn waters we rounded Crash Island with all of her 200 horses screaming making a bee-line straight to Farmers Flats. This first stop would be but one of many we would make as Tracy enlightened this writer/angler about finding bass fishing patterns on Big Sam. A Professional bass angler, Tracy fishes the S.E. Texas B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Tournament Trail, and is currently a member of The Seven Coves Bass Club, Huffman Sportsman Club, and Bassmasters of East Texas. Holding membership with the Arizona Bass Club (ABC), Tracy is also a Women’s BASS Tour competitor (WBT) as well as an FLW Stren Series angler.

After arriving on Farmers in record time, Tracy started working a grass point with sexy white redeye crank bait, while I chose a Rayburn red rattle trap. As our reels retrieved casts with rods “thwipping” the grass, Tracy began informing me about what we were doing and why.

“It’s early February and we’re on the backside of a cold front with winds out of the ENE at 10-15 mph, gusting to 20mph. The water temps in the upper 50’s with clarity to 2 ft in some areas and less than a ft in wind blown areas. So these conditions all play a key part in what we’re going to be doing to find fish today.

“Spawn is coming, so to me that means these fish are ready to feed up in preparation for the spawn. But, this cold front may have them backed off a little. To know me, Tracy mused, is to understand that I am more of a vegetation angler than I am wood, so my first thoughts are to find the grass/hydrilla with a little deeper water nearby. But, I never rule wood out.

With this in mind, we start out chunking traps into and around the hydrilla in about 7-8 ft of water. The trap resembles baitfish swimming through the grass, and injured baitfish when being ripped out of the vegetation. And when being allowed to flutter back the bass will usually hit when reacting to the pause.

“My speed of retrieve varies by time of the year it is, she enlightened, and at this time of year I begin with a medium retrieve and adjust from there. After no response from the bass on her trap, Tracy opted to switch over to a medium diving crank-bait in the same color pattern as the trap, but retrieving it at a slower pace. At one point she has a hit on it, but the bass wasn’t hooked. So she decided to alter her retrieve by pausing it at times when ripping it out of the grass. After 20 minutes with no hits coming from a long stretch of shoreline, Tracy began targeting secondary points where our first bass hits on the backside of the point and lands a chunky 2-lb buck. So after only 20 minutes of fishing the pattern was starting to reveal itself.

Continuing to fish the same type structure, but with no more hits, we picked up and moved to a different area of the lake. Still switching between her crank-bait and rattle trap with nothing on the long stretch of shoreline, Tracy targets another secondary point with her crank-bait and lands our 2nd bass, a nice three lb specimen with a well fed belly. Her search for the pattern that the bass were hitting on seemed just within her reach now.

At this point she starts putting things together in her mind where these fish are located. And her pattern starts to develop with just 1 hit and miss, with 2 keepers caught and released. Both fish came off of secondary points, both were in the hydrilla in about 4-5 feet of water located near a deep channel and both took the bait on the pause after ripping it out of the hydrilla. After mulling this over how she caught the 2 fish in her mind and what she was doing with her retrieves determines her next move to test a possible pattern.

“To me, a hit or miss, Pace explained, especially on traps can dictate what the fish want. A lot of times on a hit and miss the fish are just slapping at the bait, they want it, but not bad enough to take it. This is where I switch to a shallow diving crank-bait which allows me to use a pause/stop method with out the lure sinking, keeping it in the strike zone for longer periods of time, which lets that fish take the bait. I will also switch to a wacky worm in these conditions because it also allows that bait to be fished in the hydrilla and you can keep it in the strike zone much longer. “Now, Tracey pointed out, I’ll start to fish areas on the lake that fit the conditions that the fish were caught in to test my “pattern”. I’ll work secondary points with hydrilla and a deeper channel nearby, throwing my bait over the points in about 4-5 ft of water and pausing my bait once it’s been ripped through the hydrilla.

38 yrs old, Tracey Pace is a single mom and a full time nurse, where she juggles her time with daughter, Cecelia, and her passion for bass fishing. Tracy graduated college in May 2007 with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing and is currently working for The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. Tracy grew up fishing with her parents, but it wasn’t until she started her nursing schooling in Arizona that she really developed a passion for it as well as a competitive itch that she had to scratch so to say. Then she moved back to Texas to finish up her schooling and her bass fever became even stronger, propelling her to where she’s at now. Fishing the pro-side of the BASS Federation Nation S.E. Texas Region tournament trail. Where, in her first full year as a boater found Tracy finishing up 24th out of the top 100.

As we search for more bass that might be hidden among the grassy slopes of the 2ndary points we manage to catch a few more on her “rip-n-pause” technique with her shallow crank-bait. Tracy finally puts her rod down and relaxes. “I feel that we’ve achieved our goal for today, she advises, and we don’t need to hook anymore bass before my next tournament event. If the conditions stay the same I feel fairly good about my chance of winning my next event. The pattern of targeting 2ndary points today has proven to me where the bass are holding and what they’re hitting.

The purpose of finding fishing patterns for bass plays out on lakes and rivers everywhere and is an important factor in being successful or a disappointment in your quest for bass. The weather and water conditions often play a key role in learning where the bass are, what they’re hitting, and what presentation it takes to get that bass to bite. For tournament anglers it’s the second most important tool they can have in their tackle pack with the most important being the right bait, at the right time, in the right place. And knowing the bass pattern is a must for the tournament angler to be successful in their trade.

This writer/anglers association with Tracy Pace arrived from visitations during my recent heart and surgery traumas at the V.A. Hospital in Houston, TX, where she provided great comfort during my trials and tribulations with life and death. Life won out and I’ve managed to return to what I love most, the Great Outdoors.

Tracy is a product of former marines and shows the “grit” that comes from having such parents. Being a former marine myself my respect for her is loyal and total. I feel very confident that she’ll obtain all of her goals in life and will, one day, stand on the stage of champions with that impish, but steady smile of hers…”Go Gettum Trace!!!”

Tracey Pace is also the webmaster for Big Bass Central where she maintains an informative and educational network on bass fishing. Her favorite bass pond is Lake Sam Rayburn and her fondest bass lure is “Papa’s Buzz baits”. Currently working with Seven Coves Bass Club and the Lake Conroe Habitat Restoration program, Tracey can be reached by calling 903-216-1311 or E-mail her at [email protected]: Ed Snyder / Ed Snyder Outdoors