“ I came into the event with the preconceived notion that I was going to catch them in the dirt swimming a jig or throwing a spinnerbait , and I thought to myself ‘ Surely if I do this all day , I ’ ll get some fish ,’” Connell admitted . “ Well , it was absolutely horrid ( shallow ). I could tell from SCORE- TRACKER ® that it just wasn ’ t happening shallow – guys like Morgan and Chapman weren ’ t catching them either , and I knew that my chances of winning a tournament fishing shallow when Andy Morgan isn ’ t catching them shallow were slim to zero .”
Decision # 4
Calling the Right Audible
Connell started his morning on Day 3 ( one of two Knockout Rounds ) with the same spinnerbait he used to catch his biggest fish on Day 1 , fishing offshore but still “ gravitating toward mud ” in the mid-lower section of the river around Pataula Creek .
He found it slow going , with only one spinnerbait fish for 2-2 in the first 2 1 / 2 hours of competition . Connell pulled up his trolling motor and ran downriver toward Sandy Creek – where Thrift , Jacob Wheeler , Zack Birge , Ott DeFoe and a host of anglers had found success – and what he found there immediately caused the proverbial light bulb to go off in his head .
“ It went from chocolate-milk mud to really clear ,” Connell observed . “ I pulled up to the first brushpile I had marked , saw on my ActiveTarget that there were fish in it and caught one on a jig . I saw fish follow that one up and thought to myself ‘ Huh . Okay . Time to call an audible .’ I was done with dirty water .”
Connell stayed on the lower end of Eufaula for the rest of the day , gradually working his way through the brushpiles he ’ d identified in practice .
Decision # 5
Committing to the Jerkbait
Even though he has a strong personal affinity for catching fish on a jerkbait – and even though he knew that several of the other anglers in the field were probably catching fish on jerkbaits – Connell didn ’ t spent much time jerking until just after noon in the Knockout Round , when he unconsciously reached for a rod that was loaded with a crystalshad-colored deep-diving jerkbait .
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
Connell relied heavily on Lowrance ActiveTarget live sonar to identify fish on brushpiles .
The reward was instantaneous : Connell caught a 2-11 on the first cast , a fish that he watched respond aggressively on his ActiveTarget almost the second his bait hit the water . At that moment , one of his most critical decisions of the week was made .
“ I became fully committed to the jerkbait right then ,” he admitted . “ That was going to be what I was going to do for the rest of the event , no matter how far I got . I love throwing a deep-diving jerkbait , and once I ’ d caught a couple more and made the cut , I told my official and cameraman ‘ Alright , this is what we ’ re going to do .’ I had the most peaceful , relaxed feeling I can ever remember once I knew that jerkbait was going to be the deal .”
Decision # 6
Finding New Brushpiles
Once he was comfortably in the cut to make the Championship Round , Connell went on another idling mission for the final hour of the Knockout Round , snooping around some brusphiles that he had marked in previous years and adding a handful of new ones to his waypoints from practice .
He ended up zeroing in on a series of 10 to 15 new piles , all in the standard 7- to 10-foot depth zone that the rest of the field was smashing them on , but with the a handful of characteristics that seemed critical to Connell .
“ I had a little ‘ zone ’ that I liked ,” he said . “ All the places I really liked were connected to the bank . There was a big spawning bay behind me , and fish were staging up on those brushpiles , waiting connell the champion
to get into that bay . Those piles had deep water around them , and I had shallow water behind me . It was really textbook .”
Connell spent the entirety of the final day on those new ( ish ) piles , catching all 12 of his scoreable fish on roughly 10 of them .
Decision # 7
Forward-Facing Puzzle
If Dustin Connell was the star of the show at REDCREST , it ’ s safe to say that forward-facing / live sonar was a close second as seven out of the 10 anglers who made it to the Championship Round relied on patterns where they visually identified their fish on ActiveTarget and the like .
Connell figured out quickly that his most active fish were suspending in the brushpiles 2 to 3 feet off the bottom , and that his most effective presentation was to make quick , short casts to either side of a pile , make a couple hard sweeps with his rod to get the deep-diving bait to the right depth range , and then fish the jerkbait through a small window of space close to the fish he was looking at on his ActiveTarget screen .
Connell ’ s jerkbait setup included a relatively short 6-foot , 6-inch Favorite Fishing medium-action Rush rod and 12-pound-test Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon line on a 6.3:1 reel . He fished three slightly different shad-colored jerkbaits , all of which he swapped out the factory hooks for Owner ST-36 No . 4 hooks .
“ I put the puzzle together because of ActiveTarget ,” Connell admitted .
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