Lucky Craft RC 1.5 Played Major Role
in Matsubu’s Success on Toho

COSTA MESA, Calif. (October 15, 2007) – It was a good end to the season for Ben Matsubu at the Sunshine Showdown. After what he would call an “OK” year, Matsubu was able to find out the secret, conquer difficult Lake Toho and bring home the win.

According to the Texas resident, practice was slow and he struggled Monday and Tuesday.

“The first two days [of practice] were difficult,” Matsubu said. “But on the last day of practice I stayed on Lake Toho and covered a lot of water with the Lucky Craft RC 1.5 [Chartreuse Perch color]. I was able to locate more areas with concentrations of fish.”

After finding several key areas, Matsubu was ready for the tournament to begin. He did notice the water getting clearer as the days progressed and knew he would have to add something else to his arsenal. Matsubu managed to fish all week with only two baits – a Carolina Rig in the clear water and the Lucky Craft RC 1.5.

“The water did start to clear a bit, which sometimes makes the fish shy away from the RC a little bit,” Matsubu admitted. “However, the RC 1.5 is a great fall bait and it covers a lot of water. You can use it to locate fish really quickly, in addition to using it to catch them.”

Matsubu had already done just that, locating several key areas during practice to visit when the tournament began. Unlike many of his fellow competitors, he had a game plan that didn’t falter as the days went on. The areas he was fishing were no more than a mile away from each other, and Matsubu would throw the RC 1.5 for at least an hour and a half every day.

“I was fishing in scattered hydrilla in about 7 feet of water,” Matsubu explained. “When you’re using this bait, you want to look for scattered grass or vegetation with 3 or 4 feet of water on top of it. You want to treat it the same as if you were throwing on stumps, making the fish react to it.”

That’s just what Matsubu did this week, using the RC 1.5 to weigh in keepers on three out of the four days.

“The RC 1.5 was a big part of the win for me, just like it was last year on Harris Chain [of Lakes],” Matsubu said, referring to his win at last year’s Wildcard Qualifier. He used the slightly larger version, the RC 2.5, ironically in the same color. “It played a big part for me on Lake Toho this year. The big misconception when fishing square-billed crankbaits is the speed of the retrieve. A lot of people burn them too fast or reel them too slow. It has to be a moderate speed.”

Ending his week on top, Matsubu was able to weigh-in a total four-day weight of 66 pounds, 8 ounces, 14 pounds more than second-place finisher William Smith. Matsubu said it felt good to end the season with a win and has big plans for 2008.

“Winning the last tournament of the season is a real confidence booster going into the next season,” Matsubu said. “I plan on following in Takahiro’s [Omori] footsteps. He won the Classic in 2004 [at the end of the season] and turned around and won the very first tournament of the regular season in 2005. That is my goal – I’m going to do a Takahiro. I am going to work hard to win the first regular season tournament of 2008.”