Living proof: the American Dream Team. Larysa and Patrick have been preparing all year and are looking good for the 2015 World Predator Classic
with rocks where I caught my first one a few days before. The wind was blowing hard into the rocks and I was trying for perch while Patrick threw a Livingston ‘Pro Sizzle’ top water for pike. All of a sudden a big pike came up and rolled on the bait, but missed the hook. More than a few dirty words were said by Patrick about this, because pike count for a large part of our total length. We worked the area for about an hour and decided to make a run back to where I caught the one earlier. Patrick positioned the boat and I made a cast into a sandy little alley between the grass and bam! I hook up on Livingston wake bait. We landed the fish and Patrick worked to keep the boat in position while I measured it. After the release I made a second cast into the sandy pocket and hooked up again. We were pumped that we limited out on perch and zander two days in a row. If only Patrick’s pike had been hooked we would be all set. We headed back in and patiently waited to
find out the results of the day. They made the announcement on stage that we were in second place overall. We moved up another position on the board and were extremely happy but still reeling at the loss of the pike from earlier.
Day Three
Day three had arrived and we were in second place. We were excited, but couldn’t let it get to our heads. This final zone had been tough for everyone the past two days and we had no experience fishing this area. We stuck with our game plan of getting our three zander first. We worked a ledge in deep
water close to the starting line but couldn’t find any takers. We made a move to an area that looked similar to our zander spot from day two. Next to us was another team also working the same drift. We were casting Livingston ‘Howellers’ up to the edge of a grass bed and working them out to deeper water. We looked over and the other team had just caught a zander. We were excited to know they were here. We worked the area for over an hour and had no luck. The other team left and we left shortly after. It was time to brainstorm and figure out what to do next. We headed to the deepest water we could find right on the edge of the shipping channel. We knew fish were caught here the past two days so we gave it a shot. We worked this area and still no fish. It was time to change our game plan. We ran
over to a set of rocks and started working for perch. I only cast three times before I got a hit on my Livingston wake bait. We landed the perch, celebrated with a quick high five, then back to work. After 30 minutes and no bites I saw a spot where there were a bunch of rock jetties that ran out from shore and told Patrick I wanted to fish it. He always told me to go with my gut and so we headed off to the area. When we got there it was like a pike and
perch dream. I was still working my wake bait near the rocks when I hooked up with a perch after a few casts. The camera crew was beside us and caught it all on film. We were really getting excited now because our plan was working. Patrick worked the outside grassy areas looking for pike or zander because he calls me the ‘perch queen’ – I out-fish him on perch every time.
Patrick gets a hard hit and I hear him yell “Get the net!”. Right away we can see it’s a huge perch and once in the boat we were jumping up and down as we not only limited out on perch, but also have a serious chance at winning big perch for the day! Time was running out so we had one
thought, if we can’t get our zander let’s spend our last hour trying for pike. I don’t think two people could have cast or worked any harder to catch a fish but we just couldn’t make it happen. We made it across the finish line with one minute to spare. We were not happy with our day, but we are happy with the way we fished and that we never gave up. My whole experience throughout this
competition was amazing. I started this trip slightly out of my element, fishing for species I’ve never fished for before. However, I learned how to fish for perch, zander and pike very quickly. I was proud to get on the leaderboard for Team USA in 3rd place after day one, after an incredible day two, I was thrilled to move into 2nd place. Even though we fished hard on day three we weren’t able to finish as strongly as we started and our luck ran out. We finished 5th place overall and won Biggest Perch of the Day on day three. I’m really looking forward to this year representing Bass Boat Germany and Livingston Lures, considering how well we fished last year with no experience, I know we will rock it this year for Team USA! n
LARYSA SWYTLIK 95
WORLDPREDATORCLASSIC.COM
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