Mississippi River Rumble 2013 Recap

The 2013 River Rumble has come and gone and smallmouth bass played the biggest role in the events of the 4 day event. We love these events where smallmouth bass take center stage and get the worldwide exposure they deserve.

Of course, the biggest news of the event was the mistake made by the leader as of day 2, Brandon Palaniuk. Well ahead of the pack and toting the largest smallmouth bass at that point in the tournament, Brandon made a logistical error and culled one of his bass in Minnesota waters, which is illegal. As a result his day 2 bag was disqualified and caused him to drop out of the leader standings, ending his entry into this tournament.

At that point, the field opened up because Brandon had a 6 pound lead and without him on the leaderboard, other anglers were well positioned to win.

Here’s a brief interview with Brandon before the DQ

httpv://youtu.be/NRf6C5zqBtU

The other big news is that Aaron Martens, closed the tournament with a whimper, allowing Tommy Biffle to push past him into first place for the $100,000 win.

Tommy made a strategic move on the last day that pushed him over the top. He had been fishing in one area most of the tournament up to Sunday that then shut down. The fish had moved or weren’t biting on the final day and instead resting on his laurels, Tommy made a move to a higher current area between two islands.

This proved to be the right call as he caught two of his largest bass in the closing minutes in this new location.

As a smallmouth bass angler, we often find that bass location and patterns can change at any time. We often think we can predict when or why this change occurs but honestly, do we ever really know?

The thing to keep in mind is that if the fish aren’t biting, keep moving and keep trying different patterns in all levels of the water column until you find what is most productive that day. Once you find that pattern, search for other locations that match the conditions and the pattern will often hold from one location to the next.

The other interesting thing is that Biffle was catching his large bass on a jig while Martens was sticking to his famous drop shot technique. This is the second year in a row that Martens came in second place at this event. $25,000 isn’t bad for second place but $100,000 sure is a nicer payday!

Did drop shotting put Martens at a disadvantage? Do jigs attract larger bass? Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments section below.

Any other thoughts or comments? Sound off below!

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