Fishing With Marcus Sykora

Backs of docks along cove pocket sea walls with large boulder rock.

Many of you may know that Marcus Sykora is one of the best tournament fisherman on Lake of the Ozarks as well as the Midwest.

It is always a treat for me to fish with Marcus as I always learn so much about fishing. Marcus fishes for big bites only, he is not after numbers of bass, but rather getting 5 plus big bites, as such on a fall day like today, Marcus fished with a top water buzz bait style bait all day, the same bait. When fishing like this Marcus moves fast, from one dock to another, from one location to the another all with an urgent sense of tournament fishing, even as we were just fun fishing. It is fun to watch him pin point cast behind docks over 2-3 wires and right on a walkway support, etc. While we caught a couple of fish early and some small keepers, Marcus was looking for those big bites. After working this pattern from about 8AM to 1PM, I asked Marcus if this were a tournament day with only a couple of small keepers in the box, what would he do to adjust? His reply was a bit surprising to me (an average fisherman), he said “I will just keep doing the same thing, follow the same pattern and just keep moving…..this is the time of the year for a top water bite, the big ones will come on top water….while I can slow down and fish a jig for some bites and some keepers, I want the big ones and they are here….” Within 2 cast Marcus had a giant blow-up in his bait, caught a 3 pounder, caught a 16 incher in one location, then we moved to another location and he had a 6 pound plus blow up on his bait, two cast later another big one busted his bait and 2 cast after that he caught another 3 pounder. Marcus, said to me “see Bob, the fish are on this pattern, they will bite the top water, you just have to stick with it….” Wow, I witnessed him get busted by about 20 plus pounds of bass in about 30 minutes.

However, just as that top water bite came on strong, I received a text message picture from my friend Jim Dill, his wife Denise just caught a 6.20 pounder on a bluff on a Crock-o-Gator jig (see picture).

So, as an average fisherman it is always hard to figure out exactly what to throw, when to throw it and where to throw it. However, at this point all I have tied on is a buzz bait, spinner bait and a jig and hope for the best.