PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON |
PHOTO BY ROB MATSUURA PHOTO BY ERIK GAFFRON |
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Connell had doggedly worked his way through the first two rounds of the event , catching enough fish to advance , but ( in his own words ) not enough to win . That is , until the Favorite Fishing pro decided to fish some history at a spot he ’ d had some success with years earlier , near the Smith Lake Dam . History paid off : Connell racked up 71-2 on 33 fish , drubbing second place by more than 15 pounds .
His keys to victory : Lowrance ActiveTarget and a drop-shot , with which Connell caught all of his scorable fish on that day .
12 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . WESTERN DIVISION Lake Havasu March 3 – 5
No one could touch Patrick Touey in the Toyota Series Western
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Division opener . With the biggest bag of the day on both Days 1 and 2 , the Santa Maria , California pro carried a lead of 12-12 into the final day of competition and ended up winning wire-to-wire by a margin of more than 17 pounds .
Touey has had some experience on Lake Havasu in the past , and leaning on the knowledge of what worked well and what didn ’ t , he put together a solid game plan predicated on medium-sized swimbaits to target fish chasing gizzard shad . Despite not seeing what he wanted during practice , warm weather moved in and grouped up some fish in a couple of his selected areas – fish more than willing to bite his swimbait .
On Day 1 , Touey fished in an area with steep banks in pockets with shade lines . The weather changed on Day 2 , so he moved to a different area with 45-degree banks , where
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he returned on Day 3 intent on just catching a limit to seal the deal . The result : 66-7 over three days and a $ 28,718 payday .
13 . TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT BASS BOAT TECHNOLOGIES STOP 2 PRESENTED BY FROGG TOGGS Harris Chain of Lakes
March 13 – 16
Pro Circuit rookie Christian Greico , a Tampa native who knows a thing or two about Florida fisheries , leaned on his considerable experience fishing in the Sunshine State to put together a winning program predicated on fishing offshore shell bars with a Carolina rig to target mostly unpressured postspawn largemouth .
Through three days , Greico plied several shell bars to tally 15-
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11 , 22-5 and 11-4 , respectively , but he knew his pattern was waning as he backed into the final day in eighth place . He did some probing of those shell bars early on Day 4 before calling an audible and proceeding to Lake Apopka – a backup plan he ’ d put in place the night before when he looked at the weather forecast and realized the south end of Apopka wouldn ’ t get blown out from the southerly winds .
In Apopka , Greico turned to his confidence technique – flipping – and managed to land 18-5 , including a 6-pounder he caught around 1:30 , which was only about 15 minutes before he had planned on making the run back to weigh-in . That 6-pounder proved to be the winning ticket , as he edged out fellow rookie Andrew Loberg by just 1 pound , 8 ounces to secure the trophy and a $ 100,000 payday .
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