As a local I was paying close attention to what Greg and the others were doing. You certainly won't get any augument out of me on the importance of "structure", but unfortunately in a system such as the Three Rivers, structure is more abundant than the smallies.
While waiting for the Pro's to lock up the Allegheny I stopped and fished some of my structures and as usual most yielded zero and one had fish all over it - which I caught on three different lures. When Greg came up he went up the Kiski presumably because it was a bit cleaner, but he got nothing. It wasn't until he moved around and started fishing the dams that he put together a pattern. These fish move daily (if not hourly) so finding them is far more important than finding the right bait.
What I took away is that you can't get locked onto structure just because it makes sense to you. Too often I waste time in a spot changing lures because I saw layers of breaks and structures that I talked myself into thinking it was a goldmine. Could Greg have predicted that the stronger current pushed the fish further off the dam? (beyond the keep out buoys) More than likely he found a fish through experienced trial and error and then used that to build into a winning pattern. Every pro did the same thing and each came up with a different conclusion - Greg just put together a better puzzle.
This contest was less about structure and more about starting out with an open mind every day and processing enough information in a short period of time (you can't check all spots) to turn it into a good day.
