All captions: Craig Lamb
Photo: Nate Sims
Photo: Nate Sims
“I flipped cypress trees and cast to shallow water cover from 8 to 12 feet,” said the 12th-place finisher. Jason Williamson relied on this 1/2-ounce Buckeye Lures Mop Jig, Brown pattern. For a trailer he used a 2-inch Zoom Super Chunk, Green Pumpkin.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
“I kept it simple all week,” said the 11th-place finisher. Gerald Swindle used this 1/2-ounce Evergreen Jackhammer by Chatterbait, Green Shad. He added a matching 4-inch Yamamoto Zako Swimbait specifically designed for the jig. Key areas were hydrilla beds in 3 to 6 feet of water.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
“I fished points with chunk rock for postspawners,” said the 10th-place finisher. Kelley Jaye used this Megabass Ito Vision Oneten FX jerkbait, Pro Green pattern.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
“It was just like fishing back home in the swamp,” said ninth-place finisher Cliff Crochet. The Cajun Baby used this Spro Dean Rojas Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog, Midnight Walker pattern. Cypress trees and brushpiles were targets and especially during the bluegill spawn.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Alton Jones Jr. keyed on a shallow water bite using these two categories of topwater lures. Doing so helped the Bassmaster Elite Series rookie finish eighth.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
“I fished grass beds over spawning areas that funneled back into the main lake,” said the seventh-place finisher. Jason Christie chose a selection of walker, popper and swimming frogs to catch his bass.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Greg Vinson went video game fishing to finish sixth. “I found specific isolated targets in 18 to 20 feet using the Panoptix feature on my Garmin.” Find the target and drop the bait on the bass. He did that with this 11-inch NetBait C-Mac Worm, rigged with 5/0 Owner 4x Jungle Flippin’ Hook and 1/2-ounce Reins Tungsten Weight.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
“I fished over hydrilla beds extending into the deepest water in the backs of pockets,” said the fifth-place finisher. Hank Cherry intercepted postspawn bass using this Livingston Lures JerkMaster 121 (Cherry Picker), AYU pattern. A key was the EBSMT Technology and specifically using the EBS Shad tone. He also switched to Mustad KVD Elite Series Short Triple Grip 4 Hooks for the jerkbait.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Jordan Lee targeted transitional bass returning to deeper water using these baits. He used this lineup to finish fourth.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Jacob Wheeler keyed on bass holding around isolated stumps and wood cover to finish third. “Guys were saying no way could I fish a big jig in heavy brushpiles without getting hung up.”
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Brent Ehrler fished shallow and deep using two lures to finish second.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Shallow and deep. Brandon Palaniuk fished both strike zones to win the tournament. Using sonar he discovered bass near tight bottom contour lines from 5 to 30 feet of water. To cover that broad water column he chose three lures.
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon
Photo: Garrick Dixon