TOP PICKS FOR PICKWICK
Complementing the techniques that Marshall Deakins used to win the BFL All-American, other top-10 finishers
employed various strategies. Several stood out.
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Brandon Gray
Grass Game: Investing a week for pre-practice, North
Carolina boater Brandon Gray sought an alternative to
what he knew would be crowded ledges by targeting grass
beds from the shoreline to as deep as 10 feet. A Strike
King swim jig with a Zoom Z-Hog Jr. delivered a fourth-
place finish with 46-3.
Stick-Bait Jigging: Finishing eighth, Ronald
Nutter spent most of his time on a main-river ledge
near Pickwick Landing Dam where he targeted a
steep, rocky drop-off that went from 18 to 22 feet.
He caught his fish on a 3/4-ounce football-head jig
with a 4-, 5-, 6- or 7-inch Yamamoto Senko.
Essentially, he rotated through the bait sizes as
needed to generate bites. On days one and two,
Nutter also skipped jigs and Senkos under main-
lake docks within about a mile of the Pickwick
Landing Dam. The key to these particular docks
was a deep trough running roughly parallel to the
bank that fish used to move in and out of the area
and utilize the docks during the sunny times.
Ronald Nutter
Lloyd Pickett Jr.
Brent Anderson
Bar Hopping: As a Kentucky Lake guide, second-place
boater Brent Anderson is no stranger to the deep ledge
game, but he didn’t want to get locked into that routine
for the tournament. Instead, he located a couple of big
schools of fish on shallow bars near Kroger Island.
Fishing in 8 to 10 feet, he caught several of his fish on a
Profound Outdoors Z Boss crankbait. When the crankbait
bite dwindled, he switched to a soft plastic on a
Scrounger Head.
Dig the Rig: Surprising no one, fifth-place finisher Lloyd Pickett
Jr. did most of his work with the rig that has earned him the better
part of his $430,000 in FLW winnings: a Carolina rig. He spent
some time on the main river, but he also found keepers back in
Bear Creek and Yellow Creek on flats. Long casts with a long rod
and a 5-foot leader comprise Pickett’s trademark technique.
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