Entry 191-1
Bass Fishing with Debra Hengst
Part 1: Where I Found the Fish
Editor’s Note: Debra Hengst of San Antonio, Texas, a tournament bass fisherman for 20 years and Strike King Pro for 9 years, has been bass fishing all her life. She’s fished all the women’s bass-fishing circuits, including the Women’s Bassmaster Tour (WBT), the B.A.S.S. Open Events, the FLW, the Texas Tournament Trail (Triple T), Angler’s Choice, the Honey Hole Tournaments, the Women Bass Fishing Anglers (WBFA) Tour and Bass’n Gals. As an insurance agent, she only can fish on her days off. Recently, she competed and finished in 12th place at the WBT season opener on Lake Amistad in Texas.
Question: How did you fish this tournament, Debra?
Hengst: In practice, I was catching bass deep-cranking the Strike King Series 5 crankbait, but when the area had a weather change, I started fishing Strike King’s 3X Zero and Z TOO, because I had to slow down my fishing drastically. I also caught some fish on the Strike King Premier spinner baits.
Question: What’s the biggest fish you caught in the tournament?
Hengst: I caught a 4-pound, 15-ounce largemouth, but I never got a really-big bite. I was catching a consistent pattern of bass, and I knew I could weigh in five fish every day of the tournament. Although I hoped for a big bite, it never came.
Question: How did you find your fish?
Hengst: I’ve fished Lake Amistad for over 20 years, so I had plenty of spots I wanted to fish. From the end of January to the first of February, I knew I could weigh in a consistent limit of fish every day, if I went to the far north end of the lake. 
So, every morning, I made a 40- to a 45-minute run to my fish. When you have a changing weather pattern like we had during that tournament, a limit of bass every day would have a good chance of winning the tournament, especially since the bite was tough.
Question: Debra, where were you finding the bass?
Hengst: I went into a creek channel and found a place with a creek-channel bend, and the bass were right on that channel bend on the drop-off. The bass were holding in 30 to 40 feet of water, and they’d often move up to about 18 to 20 feet of water, but the bite was really slow.
Next: Deep Fishing
Contents:
- Part 1: Where I Found the Fish
- Part 2: Deep Fishing
- Part 3: When to Drop-Shot
- Part 4: Wild About the Shiner
- Part 5: What I Like About Tournament Bass Fishing
