How Dustin Connell turned his back on Gville’s big bass to win Redcrest

Is Dustin crazy? I mean, what person in their right mind would say adios to a giant lake full of giant bass and run 70 dang miles away from it to fish below a dam? I mean, this is Lake Guntersville, one of the best largemouth lakes in the country!

He said, “I literally ran past every bass on the whole lake.” Right past all those Gville giants so he could fish for spotted bass at the dam. That is – without a doubt – crazy.

Because at Redcrest, everyone was looking forward to seeing Gville’s massive bass population show out. And it did…sorta. But then that weather showed up.

I can pretty much guarantee you that not a single one of the guys fishing Redcrest, even including Dustin, thought that tournament was gonna be won way upriver. Just too many big fish in the lake and all of ’em were in some phase of the spawn.

But that rainy and windy weather the last day – it played right into DC’s hands. Or was it his plan all along?? Here’s how it went down for him – his 2nd Redcrest win in a row and 3rd overall.

Going in and practice

> “When they had this on the schedule…a year ago and knew it was going to be early April, my first mindset was – I want to fish pre-spawn fish. Because keep in mind, late March there are bass spawning but…the middle of April is the prime time when the majority are up.

> “I knew [pre-spawners] were probably going to be in 2 places. Typically on any body of water early in the year…the clearest, deepest water is probably going to be colder water [with] remnants of pre-spawners. And way up the river, at the dam – because current pushes them back and holds them back for spawning.

> “I really wanted to go up that river. I know I can’t sight-fish better than Bobby Lane, I can’t drag better than Mark Davis, I can’t pitch wacky worms better than David Dudley. I knew that. Dude for me to win this tournament, I gotta win it up the river.

> “I got up there the 2nd day of practice. The 1st day of practice I caught a few big ones [in the main lake]…random, I never found a group, just fishing.

> “I go up the river day 2 and caught 4-5 big smallmouth. I didn’t catch that many spotted bass. I didn’t fish at the dam a lot. Boats were everywhere – it was beautiful weather – catfishermen and stuff.

> “I wanted to find some groups of fish. I gave it an honest try and didn’t have a lot of hope for it.”

Tournament

> “[Day 1] I opted to stop about halfway up there. Let me just Scope around, use my FFS period and see if I can catch a couple big ones, and then go up there. I dipped all the way up and salvaged the day. That 1st period killed me. If I just went up there and committed….

> “Then the 2nd day, 3rd day and [day 4], I stayed up the river every single day. I had 50+ lbs every day.

> “That was a very bold decision to make that long of a run – because you’re losing fishing time and you’re so far away from a giant population of largemouth….

> “Every day I just expanded and found [a few more] new areas and figured out new baits.

> “I didn’t fully sell out at the dam until the Knockout Round. The 2nd day I stopped about 15 miles short…hit a place here, hit a place there, and just catch a few [on the way up to the dam]. But once I got to the dam every day I would stack weight.

> “I said in the Knockout Round I’m going straight there. And I pulled up and smashed them early. That was the day I figured out the Mooch Minnow bite, just tight-lining it. And I just utilized that in the Championship Round and that’s what won it for me.

> “That dam, the way it lays out it’s pretty deep for the most part. It has a shallow flat on the right-hand side, in the current, but the bait is not on the bank. The water is clear, the bait is not there shallow, the fish are not up there….

> “All the bait was near these lock walls and all the fish that were pre-spawners – and a few post-spawners – they were all around the bait. They’re bait-oriented and that bait would get washed around on those walls.

> “There was probably 4 or 5 places up there – little jut-outs where the current hit hard along the wall, the tip of the wall, the back corner of the wall, the front corner of the wall. Every day they would cut on different turbines [start with 1, then 2, etc.] Then I would have feeding periods every time they cut those [turbine warning] sirens on.

> “It would push the bait around, mix the bait up, and those fish would run down that wall and start feeding every time that happened. So I knew once that current shifted a whole new group of fish would reload on these places.

> “I just alternated between 5 places up there. I fished really good, slow.” [He mentioned places with current changes or slower current “where the baits’ at.”]

How he figured out the dam wall was key:

> “I pulled up down the wall and saw some fish blowing up down the edge of that wall. I thought they were stripers, and then I saw a 3-lb spotted bass jump out of the water. I went, ‘Oh God they’re on these walls.’

> “I didn’t think there were that many [bass]. But when I changed to that Mooch Minnow, I said, ‘Holy crap there’s a ton of fish up here.'”

He said his bite typically got worse as the day went on, but the bad weather the last day was “the perfect storm” in a good way for him. The bait stayed high, the fish stayed active and the weather kept the locals off the water.

Baits

> “The 1st part of the tournament I was catching them on a 2.5-inch Rapala CrushCity Mayor (gizzard shad). I was throwing a smaller bait because the water was clear and it was sunny so I was trying to downsize and just get some bites. They were slack-lining that little swimbait – it was so fun.

> “I noticed when it got sunny they laid off on that swimbait. So I changed on the 2nd afternoon late in the day. I started shaking a [CrushCity] Mooch Minnow [also gizzard shad], and on my 3rd cast I caught a 3-lber, then a 2.5, a 5-lber and another 2.5.

> “That’s when the lightbulb went off: They don’t see that up there much. They always see paddletail swimbaits but they don’t see that.”

He fished both those baits with a 3/16-oz VMC Tungsten Swimbait Jighead and 18-lb Seaguar JDM PEX8 Braid to 12-lb Seaguar InvizX fluoro.

His other main bait was a 1/2-oz Scrounger-type head with Rapala CrushCity Freeloader (gizzard shad) on 17-lb Seaguar InvizX:

> “I would throw it out there and keep it kinda high. The fish were suspended in 6-7′ so I kept it 5-6′ under the surface.

> “The Scrounger I was throwing was not hitting real hard. It was kind of subtle. I would slow-reel it down those walls. The key was keeping it as close to the wall as you could.

> “I’d see 4- and 5-inch gizzard shad up there – that’s why I switched to that [bigger] Freeloader – and every shad I saw was swimming close to that wall.”

He also caught a few smallmouth early in the week on a Rapala Mavrik Jerkbait (pro blue) with the stock VMC RedLine Trebles and 12-lb Seaguar InvizX.

Electronics

He did have his Lowrance ActiveTarget 2 on when he was allowed to have it on but pretty much never used it other than sniping 1-2 fish lower down day 1 before he committed to the dam:

> “I don’t think I caught a single bass with it…the rest of the tournament. I cut it on in the main river [for his allowed 1 period] just in case I wanted to run down on the flats and see the structure. But there’s so many trash fish and current – you can’t even see…. I didn’t have to cut any of that on all week.

> “I grew up fishing that way, and it’s pretty useless up there – for me.

> “I am very good at using FF technology. And I feel like I can gain an advantage if I can utilize it. But it can be a gift and it can be a curse [if you] get caught up wanting to do one of your strengths when it’s time to cut that off and be done with it….

> “I am running 2D on my boat as well [on a Lowrance HDS 12 Pro] and just had 2D going to always notice where the bait was at. I started seeing that bait get low – when the sun got up, I noticed the bait was laying real deep. The bite got really really tough, so I started shaking that Mooch Minnow deeper.

> “I would let it sink down that wall…working it deeper and getting more bites. Seeing the bait get lower in the water column [on 2D] helped.”

Shoutouts

> “Miller Tech Batteries. I was in that heavy current all week and ran those batteries all week on 10. I never had one issue. That’s a huge, huge deal….”