Once the tournament started, getting his fish to commit was no easy task. “These mature fish in Lake Fork are very smart, making them very difficult to catch. They hear countless boat motors and trolling motors every day. Once they hear that, they’re usually not going to bite,” said Livesay. “Maybe you can catch one, but once those big fish hear the boat noise, they just shut off.” Livesay had a couple of strategies up his sleeve to trick these mature Lake Fork giants. The biggest key was being stealthy in his approach. Livesay mentioned that he would pull up to an area and drop his Minn Kota Ultrex™ from a far distance. Once he was within a castable distance, he would either hit Spot-Lock® on his Ultrex or, ideally, anchor his Minn Kota Raptor™ shallow water anchors, depending on the depth. From there, it was making extremely long casts to reach his target. “The likelihood of catching these mature fish are slim to none if you are being loud and getting on top of them, that’s where the Active Anchoring on Minn Kota Raptors came in,” Livesay mentioned. “I was able to quietly hold my boat in place and make long, specific casts to reach my target.” Silence was the name of the game for Livesay’s giant win on Lake Fork. “Once I had my Minn Kota Raptors anchored, I would put all my Humminbird HELIX units in standby and let the area settle for a couple of minutes before I started casting,” Livesay mentioned. All this combined led to an impressive four-day total of 112 pounds and 5 ounces, earning him the coveted Century Belt, his second blue trophy in less than a year and a $100,000 check. Livesay’s Humminbird and Minn Kota teammate Chris Zaldain also piggybacked off the gizzard shad spawn, using the highlighting capabilities of his Humminbird SOLIX to emphasize the lake’s shallow spots which he called “Ugly points” because “it doesn’t look like great fishing structure in general.” |