PHOTO BY JUSTIN ONSLOW |
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE |
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amounted to a superhighway for a “ mother lode ” of big largemouth retreating back out to deeper water with the cold snap that moved through before the tournament . All he needed from there was a SPRO Aruku Shad 75 tied to 15-pound-test P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon to do most of his 66 pounds , 10 ounces worth of damage over three days to secure the win by more than 8 pounds .
5 . TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT PRESENTED BY BAD BOY MOWERS Lake Okeechobee Presented by 13 Fishing Feb . 11-14
Championship Sunday isn ’ t a bad day to weigh in the largest bag of a major tour-level tournament promising a $ 100,000 payday . If you don ’ t believe us , just ask Skeet Reese , who earned his first tour-level win since 2015 and proved he ’ s still very much one of the best in the business .
Reese treated the tournament like a patient pugilist , jabbing his way to 16th place after Day 1 with 17-
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12 . He ducked some haymakers on Day 2 and landed one of his own to vault all the way to second place before eventually landing the knockout blow on the final day with a huge 27-pound , 9-ounce bag to secure the win over Chris Lane by more than 7 pounds .
Reese focused his efforts in one primary area in South Bay all four days , leaning on a 6-inch Berkley PowerBait The General and a vibrating jig with a Berkley PowerBait The Deal trailer to get the job done . He primarily stayed a little further off the bank to target isolated reed clumps , opting more for the vibrating jig on Days 3 and 4 when the wind picked up .
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6 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . CENTRAL DIVISION Lake Guntersville Feb . 17-19
It was a wire-to-wire win for Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit pro Jimmy Washam in the first event of the Toyota Series Central Division season on Lake Guntersville . The event was pushed back one day to
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allow for safer travel conditions amid a brutal winter stormfront that left northern Alabama in a state of unusually frigid weather for the entirety of the event .
With that cold snap hanging around throughout the tournament – and weights subsequently much lower than we ’ ve come to expect from Guntersville – Washam suspected most fish would be hanging out in small depressions on the lake ’ s expansive grass flats . The Covington , Tennessee pro put his theory to the test with a variety of lipless crankbaits and bladed jigs – an Azuma Shaker Z doing most of the heavy lifting – and never skipped a beat . Washam went on to win the tournament by more than 5 pounds over Childersburg , Alabama ’ s Sloan Pennington .
7 . REDCREST 2021 PRESENTED BY OLD WISCONSIN SAUSAGE Lake Eufaula Feb . 22-26
Here ’ s the thing about latewinter tournaments : Water conditions can change dramatically
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from day to day , and you better be able to change your patterns and techniques right along with it .
That ’ s exactly what Alabama pro Dustin Connell did at REDCREST 2021 on Lake Eufaula , and the end result was a major championship trophy and a $ 300,000 payday .
Connell started the week with the full intention of sticking close to the shallow banks of Eufaula with a swim jig and crankbait , but as the week progressed and water clarity revealed itself as one of the deciding factors , Connell ’ s pattern gradually evolved . By the end of the nextto-last day of the five-day competition , Connell had identified a series of offshore brushpiles and cleaner water that was perfectly suited to a jerkbait .
Connell went to work on the final day with a deep-diving crystal shadcolored jerkbait and Lowrance ActiveTarget , visually identifying fish in and around those brushpiles , casting just to the right or left of the piles and goading fish into biting . He recorded 36-12 on the day , holding off a final-hour charge by Michael Neal and claiming the second-ever RED- CREST trophy by just over 5 pounds .
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