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He's a stick! Here's how he banked another W.
Going in and practice
> "I was thinking the majority of the fish would be post-spawn. I felt like they should be in their summer haunts because it was so hot. Based off of my previous tournament at Eufaula, there should be some fish moving out.
> "Right off the bat in practice I found a pretty good group of fish offshore, kinda where the fish should be headed for summertime. I was like, Man this looks good...a fair amount of 'em, I caught some good ones.
> "If I could find a couple more groups I felt like it would definitely be the deal for me...something I could compete on for sure. I ended up finding multiple groups and I knew, Yeah I know can I can win doing this.
> "...I fully committed to the offshore ledge fishing/schools of fish deal. Just committing to it I found stuff that some other guys didn't who mixed it up in their practice...vs me fully committing to it.
> "The deepest school I found was 25' and the majority were in the 15-18' depth range.
> "Once I picked up on the first couple groups, I understood what they were relating to. It seemed like if you were around a point that was kinda bare, it wasn't that great. But if you had a point that had some pretty good hard bottom to it...mainly chunk rock is where fish would be sitting....
> "...pretty obvious secondary points on your way out of a big creek, and some points at a mouth of a big creek.... I would mainly find [fish] on down scan because they were so hard to see on side scan...most were sitting like 0.5-2' off the bottom [and] living around rocks – they were hard to see on side scan.
> "I'd have to make passes and passes over a point where I thought they'd be and dissect it. I would see just a few fish most of the time that I knew were probably bass, then I would drop my FFS down and I could tell what really going on.
> "I went to Grand for Toyota Series championship last fall...I finished up in 8th place. I actually fished a completely different end of the lake – up the lake in the dingier water."
Tournament
> "Day 1 basically went as planned. I had a really big school of fish found, the farthest school I had down the lake. ...starting on those because I could use my 30-minute ride-around time before the period starts to make my way all the way down, then rotate my way up the lake.
> "It went completely as planned – nobody was sitting on my group of fish. I caught 'em the 1st period really good throwing a DT20...overcast and a little bit of wind.
> "Day 1 and little bit of day 2 they bit a crankbait really good for me because a lot of the schools were so fresh.
> "I treated it just like I would on the TVA. I knew what guys fishing what [areas], what was getting beat on, what I could save and what [spots to]...competed with other guys on the schools because they were going to get fished for pretty hard anyway.
> "I survived on that stuff and saved what I could for later in the tournament.
> "[After 2 good periods] I was pretty much able to go look around 3rd period. I mainly just used my FFS that 3rd period to run through all my groups of fish and check on 'em.
> "Day 2 I understood what was going on as far as which schools of fish were community holes. I had an early number so I was like, I'm gonna start here. There's probably going to be 4 boats that hit it anyway – I know I'll be able to survive day 2 and make the cut.
> "It went completely as planned. I caught 14 lbs right off the bat and knew I was for sure in the cut. Then I went looking for new groups of fish and I found 1 new school of fish that definitely helped me out a lot.
> "I was able to catch some on a DT20, and I mixed in a 3/4-oz football jig with a CrushCity Cleanup Craw on the back. But I didn't fish a ton on day 2. I just tried to dial it in as much as I could...and try to add a couple more places into my rotation.
> "Day 3 I had a good idea where there'd be some bigger fish in the morning. I started on those and caught 1 almost 6 and another 5-lber on a jig right off the bat. ...got in my rotation and...I was just outside the cut after period 2.
> "Then I used my FFS to just rotate through my schools and pluck a few...1 here and there, just staying inside the cut but staying around the fish. That way I could easily catch fish if I needed to....
> "The last day I knew would boil down to a really good decision in the morning. After the 1st and 2nd period I had around 26-27 lbs so I knew would be able to at least have a shot at running them down in that last period with FFS.
> "...the schools were starting to get so educated, and they were moving around because the current was shutting off. It got a lot tougher for me to catch 'em without FFS. And there were a lot of little fish moving in on those places, so I knew I was going to need FFS to...target those bigger fish....
> "I pretty much resorted to a jighead minnow.
> "One of the places I'd saved up all week I knew nobody had found. ...went just as planned. I pulled up and caught a couple 4-lbers, a 5.75 and I think 2 2-lbers and sealed the deal.
> "[About that last spot: The fish were] probably halfway back in a major creek, so they weren't relating to any current at all. They were probably there for the summer."
Baits
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