HortoN tops co-aNgLer fIeLd
oN tour
bait plan
Although he caught some of his keepers on a Castaic Heavy Metal Spoon and a V & M J-Proz Series J- Mag Worm on a 5 / 8-ounce V & M Pacemaker shaky-head jig, Lambert did most of his damage with a 1- ounce Scrounger head fitted with a 7-inch green shad Castaic Jerky J. The straight-tail bait working in concert with the Scrounger’ s wobble presented a look that was less-intrusive, yet more intriguing.
“ A traditional paddle-tail swimbait is a little more aggressive in the water, but that straight tail is a little more subtle,” he says.“ It’ s almost like finesse power fishing. It’ s still a great big bait, but it’ s a softer vibration than a paddle tail, and it’ s something that I don’ t think a lot of people use.”
On its own, the Jerky J offers little motion, but the Scrounger imparts enough wiggle to overcome this deficit. Maintaining bottom contact is the only key to the presentation.
For the big shaky head and the Jerky J, Lambert used a 7-foot, 10-inch, extra-heavy Duckett Micro Magic rod with a 6.3:1 Duckett 360RW reel and 17-pound-test Vicious Pro Elite fluorocarbon. For the big spoon, he used a 7-foot, 8- inch Duckett White Ice Series flipping rod with a 7.1:1 360RW and 20-pound-test fluoro.
“ I threw the spoon and the shaky head a lot the first two days when I couldn’ t get the fish to bite the moving bait,” Lambert says.“ On day two, I spent the last couple of hours trying to build confidence in that swimbait [ Jerky J ] because days three and four we fished by ourselves and we didn’ t have a net guy. That spoon is very likely to lose one for you. So I fished a big single-hook swimbait to avoid catastrophe.”
PHOTO BY MATT PACE
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE
HortoN tops co-aNgLer fIeLd
Co-angler Mark Horton of Nicholasville, Ky., faced two different scenarios on Kentucky Lake, but he adapted well and sacked up the winning total of 33 pounds, 8 ounces to claim the $ 25,250 top prize.
Paired with Jacob Wheeler on day one, Horton caught five keepers at a community hole by fishing a morning dawn 6-inch Roboworm on a drop-shot with a 3 / 8-ounce weight and also a 3 / 8-ounce shaky head with a 9-inch plum NetBait Super T-Mac. With limits secured, Wheeler went looking for quality by long-lining crankbaits in deep water, and Horton took advantage of a golden opportunity to upgrade using a deep-diving Z-Boss crankbait, Nichols Magnum Spoon and football jig to compile the 21-05 sack that fueled his victory.
For day two, Horton fished with Jason Meninger and spent the entire day on a flat adjacent to where a creek channel intersected the main river channel in 20 to 24 feet of water. The fish were scattered across the broad area, and Horton caught all of his fish on a wacky-rigged redbug Zoom Magnum Trick Worm with an O-ring, 1 / 0 Roboworm Rebarb hook and 1 / 8-ounce nail weight in the tail.
“ I think it was just something different,” Horton says of his bait choice.“ My boater had four different variations of a morning dawn Roboworm on a drop-shot – different sizes, wacky-rigged, Texas-rigged. I don’ t like to fish the same thing as my boater, so I wanted to give them a different look.” ■
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fLWfIsHINg. com I august-september 2016