Did We Find the WINNING Pattern? (Hubbard Lake Practice)

This is the practice session for Hubbard Lake, stop 1 of the Michigan BASS Team Series – presented by Omnia Fishing.

Download the Omnia PRO App FREE ► https://bit.ly/brnOmnia

​🛠️ GEAR ​🛠️
Sneaky Underspin (3/16 Matte Black/Gold) – https://omnia.direct/61624Sneaky
Cindy Rig Jighead (1/8oz) – https://omnia.direct/61624StealthBall
Drop Minnow (Matte Black & Green Pumpkin) – https://omnia.direct/61624DropMinnow
Rod – 7’6″ ML TFO Spinning Rod – https://omnia.direct/SB2TFO763
Reel – Size 35 Pfleuger Supreme XT – https://omnia.direct/Pflueger
Line: 8lb Braid to a 6lb Fluorocarbon Leader

So if you are looking at improving your fishing skills, watch the latest video from Benjamin Nowak right here 👇

• https://youtu.be/LvqNonmGRRM?si=iIqNyDXKRPGfqKEp

✅ WATCH THIS NEXT

1. https://youtu.be/gbZQIxSiFgo?si=ef9TkORonB3PsZwn

2. https://youtu.be/eg1k25oZmW0?si=9apK0T01jVAznc-N

My FAVORITE Videos –
► https://youtu.be/tTZ3xUNWL6Q
► https://youtu.be/kcKfC955GPA
► https://youtu.be/NCvx3q7hsC0

GARMIN Panoptix Videos –
► https://youtu.be/I7G_TS8t39Q
► https://youtu.be/K4xx4Jf97S0
► https://youtu.be/RFROmUxw0ME

FOLLOW ME:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brnowak_fishing

what’s going on everyone this is the very first video in the bass team championship series presented by Omnia fishing now what’s going to be really cool is this going to be a different style of video than my normal content you guys are going to get to see every decision that goes into me finding fish moving with fish and preparing and fishing a tournament which is unlike anything I’ve ever shown you guys online so I’m very excited to bring you guys this series of footage now as I mentioned this is presented by Omnia so you guys are going to get to see how I use the Omnia Pro app to move with my fish and make decisions throughout the tournament days and practice days that help me have success or be successful in the event so if you guys want to check out that Omnia Pro app use this QR code or click the link in the description below and you guys can get a free 7-Day trial to the Omnia Pro app so you guys can prepare the way I do for your days on the water now this video is going to be documenting the practice for hubard Lake one of the unique things about hubard was that going in we didn’t know if it was going to be a spawn event a post spawn event or maybe even have some pre-spawn or still mixed in and left so I didn’t intend to go up and pre-practice for the tournament I didn’t intend to go up prior to that Thursday before the event to try and dial in what these fish were doing but unfortunately I didn’t get to go to Canada this year so I took a day on Memorial Day weekend and just went up and tried to understand what these fish were doing where they were at and what phase that these fish were going to be in we’ve had a really really warm spring and so the water temps have warmed up really quickly now normally hubard is like a June like early June spawn time like that first full moon in June is when you expect a big wave of fish to push up but because the water temps were already 64° during pre-practice I was fing fish on bed around that first full winding around we go know how big that is it’s fat though super fat four pounder 390 now what’s really unique too is that the water temperature around 63 to 66° that day and so I was expecting these fish to be full-blown post spawn and what I was doing was going around and fishing these isolated grass patches or these isolated areas where fish should be on bed with a little cindy rig from Great Lakes vanesse it’s a stealth ball head with a little drop minnow on the back you cast it by those areas and just wind it through and you can get a ton of bites doing that now Cindy rig was a big part of my practice as well but that pre-practice really helped dial me into certain I don’t think have the same success in the tournament I not g up to the pre-practice cuz I got to understand the areas that these fish wanted to be in for the spawn in the areas that these fish were all really staged up on and just by chance I was fishing the west side of the lake a lot which is going to come into play as we get into practice which is going to be extremely windy from the West a big one a big one there we go heck yeah dude that drop mow is the deal on a ball head thank you Miss Momo so I kind of lucked into a couple things I think when you have a good event when you do well on a body of water you have to have a little bit of luck in that Factor on your side but I go into pre-practice I was throwing the Cindy rig around and I ended up catching a ton of fish that day I had just about 20 to 22 lb really really phenomenal day a couple fish over 4 lb um in just kind of dialed in some of the areas that were going to help me play throughout that tournament in the practice to locate what these fish were doing so that really led me into the practice now going into that Thursday of practice I really expected these fish to be post spawn in really pushing out towards that deeper water I was fishing 64 to 66° water temps during the pre-practice 2 weeks prior and even though we had a new moon on the 7th I was expecting these fish to already be off and really out towards that deeper water post spawn kind of hanging out maybe mayfly bite but I wasn’t expecting a spawn bite so I go out for practice on day one and I get on the water and see the water temperature is still only 64° there we go a good [Music] [Music] [Music] one now here is where a lot of the luck really starts and I started that morning throwing a popper around some sh cover those same areas that I found in practice pre-practice I was throwing a popper around and I caught 22 lb like right away day one a practice and get out there I think second or third cast and up catch one over 4 and A2 and then catch a four pounder and then catch a three pounder I end up catching 22 lbs in the first hour and a half of practice which is going to really kind of be important later on throughout the practice period because it gives me some areas to understand that fish are at now going into practice I start to recognize and look at the wind over the next couple days it’s going to be a hard predominant West Wind it’s going to be blowing offshore from the West it’s going to basically eliminate the entire east side of the lake if you have anything on the east side it’s not going to play so I locked into the fact that I practiced pretty much entirely on the west side of the lake during that pre-practice and it really helped me because it gave me some areas to look at so now that I’ve gone and caught about 22 lb throwing a popper around I’m trying to expand on that pattern and find some more bites going outside of just that morning mayfly hatch window now obviously you can’t just Bank on a popper for the tournament and so I had to find like a secondary supplemental bite now I knew the Cindy played in pre-practice you cast a by piece of cover you slow wind it around you catch a pre-s spawner post spawner maybe one that’s actively spawning on that piece of cover in that day one to practice that bite really really fell apart for for me like they just didn’t want to get on the Cindy they would eat it kind of funny and that’s when I picked up the [Music] [Music] sneaky sneaky ERS spin’s gone fish tried to take it from how big that one is we’re working on a bag today and we’re not even trying I don’t know if that’s a good thing or that thing how big is me the sneaky UND spin is like the supplemental factor to the the Cindy and the reason that I think this is is that blade on the bottom gives this bait more Flash and it helps draw some of these fish to the bait now because we did have a mayfly hatch I put a green pumpkin uh drop mow on the back and I think it just looked like what those fish were keying in on that blade helped draw them to it and I ended up catching some more really really good fish I think I finished day one a practice with like 232 PBS like I was winding around I was getting bites winding I was getting bites on the popper and then it really got really really brutally windy but about 3:00 it was almost so windy you couldn’t even fish now I’m going to take you guys through day two a lot of that’s going to be me talking to the camera on the water so I hope you guys enjoy this next segment okay morning of practice day two I didn’t record much on day one just kind of put up the uh 360 camera was taking some video off of that on day two I’m up here at the North End launch there’s no one else here right now there’s a huge huge mayfly hatch going I didn’t know that was happening yesterday um I saw later in the day when I was running over into the East Bay all the mayfly carcasses so the sun’s coming up it’s light enough where I can run I’m going to make a run down to the east arm it’s going to blow out of the Northwest today which is pretty much going to set up just like uh Sunday is forecasted to set up so I’m going to run down to the east launch see if I can’t get on a top water bite there like first thing first thing um and then probably run back up here and keep checking some of this stuff I think I’m going to look for like dead water I’m going to look at that that water that no one else is on just to see if I can’t find something weird um that’s where I tend to do my best is in like that weird Zone that weird water um but I got to check that stuff in the East arm real quick and then I can run back up north and uh see if I can’t get any of this stuff to go so that’s game plan for today see what we can make happen um but let’s make that run real quick I if you don’t know I don’t know so is it a valve that what is that okay I don’t know either thought it was weird uh hubard practicing for a tournament there we go that’s a good one this fish has been caught at least two or three times he’s got holes all over in his mouth thanks buddy for me top water is going to be such a big piece of this puzzle like having that first morning bite where you can catch 18 to 20 3 lb like we did yesterday I mean like if you can do that first thing with the top water it makes so much more sense than missing this bite and starting to look for those shallow fish right away like I don’t understand I’m a little shocked there’s no one else up here yet whether that’s cuz no one wants to fish the North End or whether that’s because everyone’s sleeping in I don’t understand it’s not like yesterday the whole lake wasn’t covered in boats there were literal times where I couldn’t pull in on a spot cuz there were three boats like right around it [Music] it’s four fish they’re all post spawners though that area I was in yesterday had pre and post spawners or they were just fat post spawners like they’ve been done for a while weather has not gotten any better it’s still rainy and cold and kind of nasty so I took off the chest camera we’re just going to run the 360 for now so I started off the morning with those couple top water bites um neither one were huge I would say probably 3 and 1 12 to 375 which is what most of these fish are that are around these beds um I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult to catch 17 lbs on Sunday I think most guys are going to have 17 to 18 lbs I think where you separate yourself is at 19 to 20 plus pounds I did catch one four pounder 4 and a/ qu pounder on that little um Great Lakes vaness sneaky and the drop minnow um they got off the Cindy rig which they were on in pre-practice and they got on that UND spin just a little bit extra flash I think it creates a little bit extra vibration that’s going to help these fish key in on that bait that’s why I picked that up and started throw in that instead and yesterday they were mauling that thing like I jumped off a really really big one kind of tied my hands and then didn’t get a good hook set into them uh caught three or four over four lounds on that thing yesterday um that thing was the deal it continues to be the deal it might change it might go back to Cindy it might go to something totally different but kind of the same deal today I’ve not touched a single spot I touched yesterday um everything that I fished is brand new water it’s all brand new clean water so to catch another four pounder is good it kind of gives me another area I caught a couple over three and a half so we’re right around that 17 18 PB Mark um where we need to separate ourselves is that 18 to 20 PB Mark and if we can get to that 20 I’ll feel pretty dang good on Sunday it’s not as easy as I was expecting it to be um and I think that actually plays in in my favor just to note one thing that’s been really really key is uh Omni is wind tracker on their app because the wind is playing a huge Factor so it’s limiting certain areas that you can fish um with the wind blowing into some of these areas it’s keeping myself off of them it’s keeping other Boats off of them that’s why I decided to run um and check some of the stuff on the east side of the lake we’re supposed to have a pretty hard East Wind here starting in a in a little bit and it’s supposed to keep blowing all the way through Sunday the tournament so kind of keeping track of what that wind is doing has been really really key I’ve been staying on that Omni um Premium app just to really keep an eye on what that wind is doing what direction is blowing out of where it’s hitting the hardest um in those areas that I can get to and I can’t get to maybe it’s pushing some cleaner water into some of those areas a lot of guys were running the same stuff I was running yesterday though you see a lot of these guys in the 10 to 13 foot range um and I’ve been trying to kind of get in like that 10t range where you’re getting preo spawners as well as like the one to two to three foot range where you’re still getting some spawners and really those Ultra shallow fish are ones that other guys kind of ignore sometimes we’ll see we’ll keep messing around keep you guys updated throughout today and practice and obviously tomorrow um but so far so good [Music] that’s the one that’s what we want [Music] they ha the crush that thing it’s morning of day three practice um and I didn’t talk to the camera first thing this morning because when I got to the ramp it was dark and uh yesterday was pretty successful I kind of expanded on a couple things that I thought were going on um and so that made me feel really good but I tried to run a bunch of brand new water like look at stuff I’ve not looked at before and starting off this morning I don’t know if that was a really good idea because I think my patterns going away from me um what I had found was that these fish were in like six to 8ot of water and if you found like clumps of grass you could catch those fish around them I had two blowups on the top water this morning um both were like 5 foot behind the bait for some reason and there’s a huge mayfly hatch going on so I thought I could get on a decent top water bite um so I came over to the area I wanted to start at tomorrow just to see if they would get on that top water too and uh for some reason those fish just either wouldn’t come up and look at it or I could still see them kind of on pan Optics um perspective mode but I couldn’t get him to come up and eat that top water very good I don’t know if it’s cuz it’s so calm uh it wasn’t calm when I launched the boat it was actually pretty rough um but I’m afraid my pattern’s kind of going away from me so I’m going to scramble a little bit I’m still going to look in that 7 to 9t range um maybe push up a little bit shallower the area I started in there’s a tournament going out of the South End the area I started in actually has um a tournament going out of it and there’s like six boats on it so I don’t know if these fish are just feeling the pressure if they’re just kind of getting wary of of all the Boating pressure and fishing pressure they’re getting but the guys are leaving this area here pretty quick there’s still a couple fish on beds down here I can see them on perspective but I’ve not really like tried to catch them but I’ve also not seen anyone catch any fish down here I don’t necessarily want to practice on the east side very much um we’re supposed to have a pretty strong West Wind tomorrow and just seeing what it was like this morning with that West Wind I was going to start over there and throw popper around just to see if I couldn’t get him to bite I’m kind of glad I came over here because it gives me some perspective on what some of these areas are going to look like first thing in the morning um I don’t know I I really don’t I don’t know if it’s just a different weather conditions like it’s blue bird Skies right now or if it’s something other than that going on but man caught me off guard when those fish wouldn’t need a top water um I’m hoping it’s not falling apart like I’m hoping I I still am around the right fish I mean everyone’s doing the same thing I’m doing I don’t know if it’s a wind thing I don’t know if I’m missing it I don’t know if these fish are already pushing out deeper and I’m not getting on that bite there’s a lot of guas practicing that deep 12 to 20t Zone um everything I catch out there is pretty small though so I don’t know if that’s a thing that I should be doing or if it’s something I just need to kind of stay away from and as DS and I have said someone might follow a out deep but that’s not the pattern I’m on and uh the more and more I see that the more and more I’m like man someone might find him out there but that’s not what I’m doing I just can’t get him to go I’m missing something though one thing I recognized this morning is I’m missing something first day I probably had 23 lbs um throwing that popper around and then winding around sneaky yesterday morning I probably hit about 18 and 1 12 lbs like pretty quick and then I fished a bunch of junk water so I thought okay well if I fish good water it’ be 22 lb this morning I can’t get bit that’s a little bit concerning [Music] godam not trying to catch this fish that’s a big one too I think after this one we curl on this hook down I would have rather caught that one tomorrow that’s a good one that’s a big one and she ate that Cindy rig the way that I wanted her to eat it excuse me the Sandy rig she’s not a spawner super super long B are you some of a gun they see me there girls four and a quarter thank you feels good okay we’re doing the right thing validation I’m in the right area I’m doing the right thing that’s three fish over four Ps right now isolated grass patches so cool and absolutely not cool at the same time okay no more accidental fish catches clip that hook I’ll feel and pull on it it’s all I need to feel I don’t need to catch them 7 8 9 foot what I’m looking for is grass batches on perspective can sort of see them it’s like pieces of debris and then some Grass Grows around it I was really worried this morning I kind of got out here and my stuff had dieted a little bit like I had a Miss at top water um which we getting it kind of funny got really sunny and Slick okay what that validates though is I have a pattern that will hold up in the wind like that’s where I figured out this pattern and that’s now where I’m dialing in this pattern and doesn’t work great without it but when that wind is blowing it’s pattern works I was able to figure out what these fish are doing or at least some of these fish um and essentially it was in the same area where I missed that big one on a top water this morning one of the big things that I noticed is there are a lot of guys over there but there’s a bunch of fish now on bed and I think what happened is the other day when those fish were in that top water they were just pre-s spawners they were all fat 3 and 1/2 4 and A2 Pounders um and now they’re starting to push on the bed and they’re starting to spawn with this new moon now I figured that was going to be a deal I figured that was going to happen and uh there’s still going to be some sort of top water bite I think depending on when we launch we should be able to get over there and maybe catch one or two on a top water but I did find some deeper beds I found some beds well inside and outside of everyone so a lot of guys are fishing the 6ot to 8T range I found beds in 4 to 5 foot and then 9 to 11t and I’m catching pretty much everything this week on this little sneaky um little sneaky has been the deal last week when I pre-practice or two weeks ago it was a Cindy rig was the deal um but for some reason the sneaky seems to be the deal now I did take the hook off ended up catching a 4 and a half or four and a quarter and uh four pounder and a couple others that I didn’t really want to catch today but um I do think that I’m starting to unlock something maybe figure something out and it goes to prove to me that yesterday wasn’t a waste I fished dead water and it’s dead and I don’t need to worry about it um and today I’m fishing the right water where I need to be so really excited um it’s also protected from the wind I’m going to keep an eye on that with Omnia app and check that later as well as look at some water Clarity things cuz the water is a little bit dirtier down there which I think might help as well and water temperature so a lot of the water out of the North End got blown out and so that um South End is 65 and the North End is like 59 60° now so this wind is going to change things really fast um I think that’s why this top water bite didn’t work over here but we’re just going to keep running around looking for some new stuff maybe looking for some more sneaky stuff those fish in that deeper zone or those fish kind of out doing things that other guys are missing I also found some fish really really shallow that could play as well I felt them pull on the sneaky um obviously don’t have a hook so didn’t hook them they’re probably 3 and 1/2 to 4 lbs so uh don’t need to hook them to know about how big they are let’s keep running running around keep looking and I’ll uh talk to you guys before the day is over I just sat down to have a quick sandwich and it’s really hard to film because I’m not catching anything I’m intentionally not setting the hook on fish but I just went in shallower so like everyone is out in the six to 7 8T range and I just went into like 3 to 4ot and there’s a bunch of beds part of me says this should be catching these fish but I’m afraid to catch them that they’re not going to be there tomorrow so I did Mark a bunch of beds and I know there’s fish on them because I could see them scoot away with perspective I can get them to follow and even eat that sneaky but um I’m not really trying to catch these fish these are like my backup fish is like if I’m not getting anything else going I can come up and hopefully have a secure limit of like 3 to 4 lb fish again we’re supposed to get a hard West to northwest wind so this West Bank is going to pretty much be where the majority of the guys are fishing ourselves included um but that fresh wave of fish spawning in the South End and then these fish on the West Shore are pretty much kind of my game plan so far just going to work my way up I’m probably going to stay on the trolling motor like as far up as I can possibly get and just make sure I’m not missing anything but these fish in like 3 to 4 foot kind of surprised me and uh they’re not that hard to find I think everyone’s just pushed out off the brake trying to look for God only knows what so that’s kind of the game plan um I feel decent about tomorrow I haven’t caught a big one yet and by big I mean like over 5 lbs I don’t know if anyone’s on that caliber of fish right now but um I feel pretty good I accidentally hooked about three fish over 4 lbs for sure I hooked two over 4 lb and the other one I hooked and uh maybe I just cut the hook off but pretty decent start um I feel like I have a good game plan it just revalidated or maybe gave me a new starting spot for tomorrow and uh now we’re just going to look to explore expand and find some more stuff that I can use as either a plan or or backup plan uh if Things Fall Apart tomorrow that pretty much wraps up practice so let me give you guys a quick rundown of the things I figured out during the practice and the things that I think are going to play during the tournament um number one is going to be a morning bite of some sort so getting to the spot early um and getting out there to catch those fish first thing in the morning I think is going to be really important now one of the things about the tournament series where’re fishing is that they don’t send you until 700 a.m. I think that’s somewhat good and bad right I’m not going to necessarily have as much time for that popper bite to work the top water bite but I also think it means other guys aren’t going to be able to capitalize on easy mayfly eaters without that top water bite it’s going to really kind of maximize the effectiveness of the pattern that I put together now most of my fish that I’m catching are in less than 10t of water I would say 6 to 8ot of water around some sort of cover I think they might be spawning some of them are post spawn and there’s definitely a couple mixed in that are just up there feeding around these big GL grass clumps um that’s where most of my bites are coming I did cut the hook off today but I continued to get bites and I actually found some sneaky bedding areas towards the end of the day in like 3 to four foot of water I pushed up really really shallow up in this Cove where no one else seemed to be fishing everyone was out in that 6 8 10 12 12 plus foot range I snuck up really really shallow and I got some pretty good bites doing it um I don’t know how big they were I didn’t hook them I didn’t weigh them but that’s kind of what I put together everything that I did today is on the west side of the lake it’s on the west and southwest side of the lake because we’re going to be having a West to northwest wind tomorrow and what that means is that it’s going to be very difficult to fish the east side of the lake um the waves are going to be rolling in there it’s going to be really really tough I’ve been really paying a lot of attention to the Omni apps I mentioned to you guys a couple different times but with that wind coming out of the West you basically have to fish the Western Shoreline especially blowing up to 20 mph so catch your fish early um really maximize each and every bite because bites are coming at a premium I am catching them on the Cindy rig which is Great Lakes finesse stealth ball head and then a little drop minnow on the back as well as the Great Lakes finesse sneaky with a drop minnow on on the back like that is my go-to like I only have a popper a Cindy rig and a sneaky so those are my three go-to baits That’s What I Call everything on this week I can’t get him to bite a drop shot can’t get him to bite like a tube dragged along bottom I’m just slowly creeping that sneaky in that Cindy around these shallow isolated pieces of cover as well as obviously some bed fish so it’s been an okay practice I could go out tomorrow and catch 22 to 23 pounds or I could go out tomorrow and catch 12 pounds I don’t really love spawn tournaments I think it kind of um makes fishing unpredictable you don’t know if your fish are going to be there more unpredictable than I guess it would be otherwise um but the areas that I’m in are the right areas we’re going to race down to the spot it’s an area that a bunch of other boats are on and just kind of hope that the sneaky deep beds that I found some of the areas nearby are going to play for us um tomorrow now again this video is sponsored by IA I really appreciate them partnering for this series I’m very excited to fish some tournaments this year it’s a four tournament series we have Hub Lake we have Sagen a which is my home body of water we have Holton Lake and then we have St Clair to wrap up the season super super excited to get it kicked off tomorrow morning um durs is coming later tonight we’re going to try to put this thing together hopefully go catch some fish go check out the Omnia Premium app you can use my codee it’s going to be right there on the screen as well as link down in the description below to get a free trial to their omn appre app it’s helped me a lot in identifying the wind that’s going to be blowing in as well as identifying some key areas that I’m going to be targeting in tomorrow’s tournament if you guys enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up stay tuned for that tournament video it’s going to be dropping very soon as always thank you guys for watching take care tight lines God bless pursue your passion