Pro learned lessons on Pa. lakes
Professional bass angler Dave Lefebre says he feels fortunate to have developed his fishing skills on the waters of northwestern Pennsylvania. The varied habitats found in the region prepared the pro for the many challenges of major bass tournaments.
"The region has been a perfect training ground for me," said Lefebre, a Union City resident who successfully competed in local and regional bass tournaments before turning pro in 2003. He has fished both the FLW and Bassmasters tours.
Professional bass anglers are faced with a multitude of fishing situations, from off-shore humps that hold Great Lakes smallmouths to weed-choked shallow backwaters largemouths call home.
In the five years Dave's been on the tour, there haven't been many situations in which he hasn't been able to call upon experiences from his home waters, such as Crawford County's Conneaut Lake.
"Conneaut has so much," he said. "The water is clear. It has so much grass. And it has off-shore areas that hold smallmouth bass. There are places where largemouth and smallmouth will bunch up together.
"The first place on the trail that reminded me of Conneaut was the northern portion of Lake Champlain, and it really helped me there," he added. "More recently, I fished a tournament on Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. There was a bay there that is a carbon copy of one on Conneaut."
The complexities of Conneaut not only allowed Lefebre to hone various presentation skills, it also provided a venue to expand his knowledge of fishing electronics.
The flip side of Conneaut is nearby Pymatuning Lake. Whereas much of Conneaut is deep and clear, Pymatuning is shallow and stained.
"Just about every reservoir we go to has areas that remind me of Pymatuning," said Lefebre. "My first FLW tour win was on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee. I had never been there before, but the patterns were the same as Pymatuning."
A half-hour north of Lefebre's hometown are two more high-quality, though contrasting, bass fisheries.
Presque Isle Bay harbors an impressive largemouth population in a setting quite similar to sections of Conneaut Lake. Dave uses the extensive weed edges of the bay to keep his jig-pitching skills sharp.
Lake Erie proper provides pretty much the best place there is to practice the art of fishing for big water smallmouth bass, as well as the skill of operating a boat in a Great Lakes situation.
Lots of tournaments are won by working deeper structure with deep diving crankbaits. That wasn't a new tactic for Lefebre because he learned it on Shenango Lake and Lake Wilhelm.
"About the only thing I wasn't exposed to was fishing tidal rivers. But, surprisingly, I did very well fishing these types of rivers," he recalled.
He quickly learned that tidal bass relate to the currents found there much the same as smallmouth bass do on the middle Allegheny River and French Creek, spots he and his dad fished back in his youth.
Fishing the same waters where Lefebre developed his tournament-winning skills is quite feasible for the rest of us.
Additional information on Crawford County can be obtained by visiting the Crawford County Convention and Tourist Bureau website at www.visitcrawford.org. For help with Erie County waters visit www.visiteriepa.com. And in Mercer County, check out www.visitmercercountpa.com.
Information also is available at www.fish.state.pa.us, the Fish and Boat Commission's website.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
