Boyd Duckett: The Man Who Won the 2007 Bassmaster
Classic and How He Did It
The Rest of the Classic Details
 Editor’s
Note: Boyd Duckett of Demopolis, Alabama, the 46-year-old
owner of a tank trailer leasing and repair company and
avid bass fisherman, never attended a Bassmasters Classic
until the one he won in February, 2007 at Alabama’s
Lay Lake near Birmingham. “I made a decision when
I started professional bass fishing that I wouldn’t
attend a Classic until I could fish in it,” explains
Duckett. How did Duckett win the 2007 Bassmaster Classic,
and what can we learn from Duckett? We saw other tournament
pros use this same tactic that Duckett did – not
fish for ghost bass. That’s why Duckett didn’t
practice on Lay Lake. Then he wouldn’t try to
catch bass in the same places where he’d caught
them when and if he pre-fished the lake. Actually Duckett
probably spent less time on Lay Lake this year than
any other tournament pro who fished in the 2007 Classic.
But rather than telling Duckett’s story, let’s
let him tell you how, why and where he won with 48 pounds,
10 ounces and took home $500,000, beating out second-place
Skeet Reese, who had 48 pounds, 4 ounces and won $45,000
and third-place Kevin VanDam, who won $40,000 with his
45 pounds, 4 ounces.
Phillips: Boyd, how did you catch your big fish?
Duckett: You’ll have to excuse me, I haven’t
had much sleep. I bounced back and forth b etween
fishing the Rat-L-Trap, which was my confidence bait,
and flipping the Chigger Craw, which was my big-bass
bait. Now I did catch a good number of big fish on the
Rat-L-Trap, but I knew I had to fish for pre-spawn bass
to catch bass big enough to win. I knew that the Lay
Lake area would have a full moon 8 or 10 days after
the Classic. And regardless of what the water temperature
did, the bass would be looking for a place to spawn.
I’m primarily a sight fisherman. A lot of my
success as a bass fisherman has come from sight fishing
for bass. So I knew that the bass had to be near the
spawning areas, even though they weren’t there
yet. I searched for spawning flats that had good bottoms
where the bass could spawn. I checked out the bottoms
in the regions where I’d normally be sight fishing
when the bass would go to the beds. Then I’d pull
out to the first grassy areas away from those spawning
flats to look for the big females that were staging
and getting ready to spawn. And those were the places
I fished.
Phillips: This is a two-part question. Were you doing
anything different with the 
Rat-L-Trap to catch your bass, and what does it feel
like to be a native son and win the Classic in your
home state?
Duckett: I’m really tickled about being a home
state angler and winning the Classic for the State of
Alabama. There were eight of us from Alabama in the
Classic. We all talked about how great it would be if
one of us could win this Classic for the state. We felt
like we had the best chance ever, not because we knew
the lake that well, but because we had eight Alabama
anglers in the Classic. But I had a lot of confidence
that I could win this 2007 Classic before I came here.
Of course, I feel that way in most of the tournaments
I fish in, although I don’t always win.
To answer the Rat-L-Trap question, yes, I was fishing
the Rat-L-Trap differently - really, really slow. I’d
cast it out and fish it like it was a jig – letting
it go to the bottom and then barely crawling it across
the bottom. It would pick up trash on its hooks every
time I cast it. I was constantly cleaning all the trash
off the hooks and hanging my jig up. In
really-cold water, bass won’t chase the Rat-L-Trap
if it’s up off the bottom. But if this lure is
just bouncing across the bottom, the bass will come
and get it.
Phillips: Where did you catch your bass that won this
Classic?
Duckett: Three of my bass were flipping fish I caught
below the narrows on Lay Lake. The whole Classic was
about flipping for bass. I’d catch my limits on
the Rat-L-Trap and then cull my Rat-L-Trap fish with
the bass I caught on the Chigger Craw. I spent most
of my time flipping. I could always catch the Rat-L-Trap
bass early each day, but then when it came to finding
the big bass, the bites were few and far between. However,
I had to catch them flipping.
Phillips: What was your gear setup?
Duckett: For my flipping setup, I’m fishing with
a 7-1/2-foot Airrus N-Sync rod, an Abu Garcia reel,
65-pound-test Stren Super Braid line, a No. 5/0 hook,
a 1-ounce tungsten sinker and a Berkley Chigger Craw.
The Berkley Chigger Craw is black with red flake. I
was cranking with a 7-foot Airrus medium-action crankbait
rod and throwing
15-pound-test Trilene fluorocarbon line.
Phillips: What time did you catch your 6-pounder on
the last day of the Classic?
Duckett: I caught it at 2:00 p.m.
Phillips: What size was the Rat-L-Trap were you using?
Duckett: I was fishing a 1/2-ounce orange with a brown
back Rat-L-Trap. Every flipping fish that I got came
on the Chigger Craw, including the 6-pounder that anchored
my string.
Phillips: What went through your mind after you caught
the big fish that last day at the Classic?
Duckett: I felt I had good chance to win if Kevin Van
Dam didn’t have a big string, and Skeet Reese
didn’t catch a big fish. I was also afraid that
Terry Scroggins might surprise everyone with a big fish
because he was a really-good flipping fisherman. But
the other guys didn’t catch their bass they needed
to win.
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