Casey Ashley loves to throw a topwater bait. And he likes to catch bass on a jerkbait too. But Ashley doesn’t want to have anything to do with mixing these hard-fighting, acrobatic smallmouth bass and treble hooks. He had a brief reminder of that yesterday.
“I know I could catch ’em on a jerkbait, but I don’t want to hang one on it,” he said. “I’m serious. It had gotten to the point today where I couldn’t catch ’em on anything else. I threw across a point, jerking a jerkbait, and hung a good one. It was almost a four. He jumped up and spit it out. I put (the jerkbait) down. I don’t even want to see him if I’m going to lose him. I don’t want to catch any of these big jokers on treble hooks.”
Based on the Day 2 standings, the 33-year-old Donalds, S.C. angler is leading the Angler of the Year points race. Ashley, however, is most concerned about qualifying for the 2018 Bassmaster Classic at South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell, where he won in 2015.
“All I’m worried about is points for the Classic,” Ashley said. “If those points rack up to be AOY, that’ll be fine too.”