Todd Auten hasn’t fished the Elite Series lately. His last apperances were in 2008 and 2009. But he’s a B.A.S.S. vereran. The 52-year-old Lake Wylie, S.C., resident, has been fishing the FLW tour for the past several years, but this is marks his 140th B.A.S.S. event. His career includes three Bassmaster Classic appearances, including a 13th-place finish in 2003 at the Louisiana Delta.
Auten has relied on a crankbait all week on Lake Lanier. At 12:30 today, his 14-pound, 15-ounce limit topped the field and moved him into fourth place after starting the day in seventh place.
Interestingly, Auten’s B.A.S.S. career includes four second-place finishes, two of which came on noted spotted bass fisheries – Alabama’s Smith Lake and South Carolina’s Lake Murray.