Day on the Lake with Shryock

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Welcome to Bassmaster’s reality series! Here we challenge Bassmaster Elite Series pros to locate and catch bass on small lakes they’ve never seen before within a seven-hour time frame, while we log their every move. This month, it’s Fletcher Shryock’s turn at bat. The 28-year-old Newcomerstown, Ohio, pro won the Northern Open at Lake Norman in North Carolina in 2011, which qualified him for the 2012 Classic. Prior to becoming a professional angler, he was a professional motocross racer. Here’s what happened Jan. 29, 2013, when Shryock took on Lake N, a small reservoir. 6:54 a.m. Ohio pro Fletcher Shryock begins his day on Lake N by fishing a jerkbait at the dam.

Photo: Don Wirth

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7:05 a.m. Shryock catches his first bass of the day, a nonkeeper largemouth, off a deep retaining wall on a jerkbait.

Photo: Don Wirth

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7:41 a.m. Shryock switches gears.

Photo: Don Wirth

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7:41 a.m. Shryock opts to probe shoreline wood cover with a jig.

Photo: Don Wirth

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Shryock tries a jig around shoreline wood cover on Lake N.

Photo: Don Wirth

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8:10 a.m. Shryock tags a bass from a brushpile on a jig, but it won’t measure.

Photo: Don Wirth

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8:25 a.m. Shryock opts to try a Lucky Craft jerkbait in the bright aurora perch pattern.

Photo: Don Wirth

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9:25 a.m. Shryock hangs a bass on the jerkbait.

Photo: Don Wirth

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9:25 a.m. Shryock’s first keeper bass of the day, 1 pound, 12 ounces, hit a Lucky Craft Pointer jerkbait on a windblown point.

Photo: Don Wirth

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10:41 a.m. Shryock hangs a bass on a jerkbait.

Photo: Don Wirth

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10:41 a.m. Shryock swings aboard a bass that hit his jerkbait near a retaining wall.

Photo: Don Wirth

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10:41 a.m. Shryock’s second keeper, 1 pound, 3 ounces, hit his jerkbait near a retaining wall.

Photo: Don Wirth

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11:35 a.m. Still trying to connect with a lunker bass, Shryock probes wood cover on a main-lake point with a jig.

Photo: Don Wirth

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1:41 p.m. Shryock carefully plays a bass that hit his jerkbait near a deep retaining wall.

Photo: Don Wirth

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1:41 p.m. Shryock’s third keeper, 1 pound, 13 ounces, hit his jerkbait with mere minutes remaining. “I caught fish today, but I was disappointed in their size,” Shryock told Bassmaster. “Winter is a good time to catch a really big bass, but this weather today had ’em knocked for a loop — I had a couple big fish on, but I couldn’t stick ’em. But, hey, it’s January, and you can’t expect the fish to be superactive in the dead of winter. If I were to fish here tomorrow under these same conditions, I’d stick to the lower end of the lake, where the water is deeper and clearer and stay primarily with those jerkbaits.”

Read more in the digital version of Bassmaster Magazine.

Photo: Don Wirth

Day on the Lake with Shryock

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