Photos by Seigo Saito/ B.A.S.S. Communications
As they met backstage, Dean
Rojas and Gerald Swindle shook hands, then gave each other a man hug.
Both smiled graciously, both teared up a little.
It was hard to tell who had just beat who, but it was Rojas who had
bested Swindle by 1 ounce in the TroKar Battle on the Bayou. Rojas
secured a wire-to-wire win, his second Bassmaster Elite Series victory.
It was his fourth Bassmaster career win, one
of which, like Sunday’s win, was on Toledo Bend Reservoir.
Rojas collected a $100,000 check and an automatic entry into the
2012 Bassmaster Classic. He also jumped 23 spots in the all-important
Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race, also the road
to the postseason.
“I’m going to the Classic; this is so huge,” he said. “Everything
about the win I love — the trophy, the check, the points, the Classic,
and winning a tournament in 2011.”
At the same time, Rojas said, he felt for Swindle, who was philosophical and gracious.
“I wasn’t out to beat Dean, I was out to compete against Toledo
Bend and fish to the best of my ability,” said Swindle, who already
secured a 2012 Classic seat by winning a Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster
Southern Open earlier in the season. “The competition
is the fish … and most of the time yourself is the enemy if you beat
yourself up, get too bent out of shape.
“I could sit here and write a book about all the big ones that
jumped off during this tournament,” he added. “You have to say, ‘It was
meant for Dean Rojas to win’ because I put 110 percent heart and soul
into this and I didn’t make any stupid mistakes.”
Rojas led for three days, putting together a margin of almost 4
pounds against David Walker going into the final day. But in the end, it
was Swindle who challenged Rojas, charging from third place with
Sunday’s big bag of 18-14. The final tally was Rojas
with 70 pounds, 15 ounces, and Swindle with 70-14.
Walker finished third with 70-2, Chris Lane was fourth with 67-3, and Fred Roumbanis was fifth with 67-1.
Rojas had a routine he followed throughout the tournament, and a two-pattern plan that produced all his fish over four days.
“All week, I kept it simple: sight fishing and topwater,” Rojas
said, with his topwater bite producing his larger fish by working one
lure, a natural-shad SPRO Hydro-Pop topwater on Sunline monofilament
line, slowly on the edges of grass.
Rojas said his final day started slowly, as every day of the
tournament had. He caught one keeper on the popper, and then a 5-pounder
about 45 minutes into the day. But after the 5-pounder, he didn’t boat
another fish in the area, so he left and went to
his sight fish at 10 a.m.
“That’s been my normal routine to get out of there and go for my
sight fish. I filled out my limit with my sight fish, and then went back
to that area. I thought, ‘Well, there was one big one there, there’s
got to be more,’ so I went back.”
He stayed for a few more hours, and culled once to gain a pound of weight.
“Thank God I culled, or I would have lost today,” Rojas said — but
noted that he also lost a fish or two that could have made the
difference.
Rojas said he caught all of his sight fish on a WarMouth, a plastic
bait he designed for Big Bite Baits. He rigged the bluegill imitator on
a 3/16-ounce Eco Pro Tungsten bullet weight and on 22-pound Sunline
Shooter line.
“That bait was pivotal all four days,” he said. “That bait triggers
them to bite. I don’t think there’s a finer sight-fishing bait on the
market right now, nothing to compete with it.”
Rojas, known for frogging, said he tried a frog bait in practice,
but it produced smaller bass than did the popper in the grass pockets he
was fishing.
“Shad were spawning in the grass, and fish were blowing up on the
shad in the pockets, and I was working the bait through there, and
they’d come up and eat it,” Rojas said.
While Rojas moved up in the points standings, Alton Jones kept his
lead. The points standings determine Classic qualifications and eight
entries into the $100,000 Toyota Trucks All-Star Week postseason
competition.
The Berkley Big Bass of the Tournament award and $500 bonus went to Ish Monroe for his Day Two 10-15.
