A significant benefit of following Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments is that fans can learn techniques the pros use to catch bass. The pros also take note of what their competitors are up to.
When Oklahoman Tommy Biffle won an Elite Series event on the Mississippi River in June 2013, fellow Sooner State angler Fred Roumbanis adopted Biffle’s winning bait. Roumbanis finished fourth, mainly by duping largemouth bass with a weedless, hollow frog. Biffle won by grinding an 1 1/16-ounce Larew Hardhead dressed with a Biffle Bug over sandy bottoms for smallmouth bass. Prior to Biffle’s win, Roumbanis had never fished a swing jig for smallmouth bass. The fact that the smallmouth gobbled up the 4.5-inch Biffle Bug was an eye opener for Roumbanis.
Weren’t smallmouth supposed to prefer bitty soft plastic offerings? Since the Mississippi River event, Roumbanis has caught smallmouth bass with the Hardhead/Biffle Bug combination at Oklahoma’s Ft. Gibson and Tenkiller lakes, Table Rock, Wheeler and other lakes. Whenever he fishes waters that smallmouth call home, Roumbanis has a 7-foot, 5-inch heavy-action iRod matched with a Hardhead and a Biffle Bug on his boat’s front deck.
