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Herring lakes have always been their own bassin' world. FFS has opened up that world to non-herring guys, but herring spotted bass fisheries are still kinda their own deal. So I guess it's not a big surprise that just like Casey Ashley back in the day, an experienced herring-lake fisherman (even if he is a rookie) won a herring-lake tournament.
Here's how Paul got his first blue trophy.
Going in and practice
> "Going into it I knew I could catch a lot of fish, it was just going to be running into the right ones in practice. I had about 16-17 lbs every day and I was pretty much just running new water....
> "I've spent a little bit of time on Hartwell, so I had a decent bit of stuff I already knew I was gonna fish. So all of practice I'd look for new stuff and try to find a new bait. I had 19 rods out on my deck every day of practice trying to figure something out."
[ I asked him if there's 19 herring baits?? I mean, I could maybe name 6. He said: "Yep."]
What is new stuff:
> "Particular structure – hard bottom, rock and clay points, sneaky little hard spots going down a bank or something where some herring might be spawning and bass are set up, brushpiles I didn't have marked. Some places where they might be set up on a bank that has a steep drop that you can't see on a map, where they'll be schooled up and eating topwater in the mornings.
> [On day 1] I was just going to run around in the morning and hit as many places as I could topwater and a Fluke Stick."
Tournament
> "Day 1 started out pretty quick. I caught 15-16 lbs by like 8:30 or 9:00.
> "I'd found a bed fish the last day of practice I knew was over 4 lbs...I caught it in like 10 minutes. That jumped my bag up a lot – it ended up weighing 5 lbs. I ended up finding a bed fish right after that that was 3.5 and it barely helped cull again.
> "After that I pretty much ran around and looked for the next day...for bed fish and stuff like that.
> "The 2nd day of the tournament I started out on some herring stuff. It was a little bit slower. I moved out to 10-20' of water and started throwing a shakey head with a Fluke Stick Jr on it – I caught 17 lbs by 11:00.
> "I looked the rest of the day for bed fish but that was all I had.
> "Day 3 started out I caught 3.5-lb largemouth on the Zoom Fluke Stick on a herring-spawn point and another 3.5-lb spot on the same point.
> "The rest of the day I ran around and it was pretty tough. I had 14 lbs at 12:00. I went and fished some brushpiles my dad and Mark Hardin sank in 2018-19, long before I even dreamed of fishing the Opens or anything. It's pretty cool they're still there and holding fish.
> "I caught a 3.5 on the first one I hit and...the 3rd brushpile I hit I caught a 4-lb spot on topwater.
> "The last day I don't even remember [laughs]. I started on some herring spawn stuff and struggled. I didn't have any that I threw in the box – some non-keepers and some keepers because I didn't want to risk one dying.
> "I went down to where I caught 'em the 1st and 2nd day and caught 14 bs. I pulled up on a random spot around 11:00-11:30 and threw my Fluke Stick over a little sand drop, and a 3.5-lb spot came up and ate it...got me over 15 lbs.
> "The rest of the day I ran around like crazy and just never ran into any. I looked for some bed fish for like an hour and a half, never found any. I ran brushpiles the rest of the day. Really had no clue I won."
He said his best areas were:
> "...around herring-spawn points and shoals, and around mid-morning they'd move out around 10-15'. They'd quit schooling and move out there a little bit. I caught a few [of those fish] around rocks and brush, but mostly just swimmers."
He weighed 4 largemouths, of which were 2 bed fish.
Baits
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