photo by ShAnE duRRAnCE |
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Monster. He was hoping for one kicker, but the change yielded the two keepers that sealed their victory.
McKie described the best retrieve as one with minimal action. Discipline and patience to maintain a glacial pace were important.
“ We were dragging them along really slow and trying to count each shell or rock on the bottom,” McKie says.“ We were dragging our shaky heads so slowly over those shells that it chipped the paint off of them.
“ We weren’ t making really long casts, especially when it was windy, because the wind and the current would put a big bow in our line,” he adds.“ If I tried to set the hook on a long cast I would have a lot of slack
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in my line, and I’ d end up with a bad hookset. I got close enough to the spot where I didn’ t have to make that long of a cast to hit the key area.”
the area
While many of their competitors focused on ledges, Champy and McKie did most of their damage on a more subtle spot. Essential elements included ambush structure, bait schools marked on sonar and proximity to deep water that drew in more fish over time.
“ It was a really small hump with a steep drop into the river channel, and on the upstream side it had a small dip that you could see on the map,” McKie
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says.“ Also, on the side closest to the bank it had another little dip, and then it came up into the flat.”
The winners’ key spot rose to about 9 feet on top and dropped 30 feet on the river channel side. McKie says the adjacent depth definitely bolstered their spot’ s attraction to bass, but he surmises that the location offered another key benefit.
“ The TVA was pulling, like, 88,000 cubic feet per second on that last day, and that spot was right on a big bend in the river channel,” he notes.“ The current was not nearly as strong there as it was in one of the straightaways. I think right there it gives the fish a break in the current.
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That might have been a reason they were there.”
McKie and Champy took advantage of the lighter day-one winds and started out working from the spot’ s shoreward side, casting into the wind. Bringing their baits against the softened current produced fish, but changing their approach seemed to produce the best results.
“ We left and came back on day one, and we started fishing from the river channel, sitting in 30 feet and throwing on top of the spot and bringing the baits toward the drop,” McKie adds.“ That’ s the same way we worked it each time. It seemed to work better than getting right on top of the spot and spooking the fish.”
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anglers |
fIshIng team |
WeIght |
fIsh |
1. CHAD CHAMPY & KYLER MCKIE |
NORTH AUGUSTA |
57-10 |
14 |
2. AVERY BROWN & HUNTER REDMAN |
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK |
57-06 |
15 |
3. WILL SMITH & COLBY CHAPMAN |
GORDON LEE |
53-01 |
14 |
4. BLAKE COBB & LUKE MCHAN |
FANNIN COUNTY |
49-04 |
15 |
5. ALEX TIMM & EASTON FOTHERGILL |
GRAND RAPIDS |
48-11 |
15 |
6. HUNTER MUNCRIEF & LANDEN MCCARY |
WEST SABINE |
48-09 |
14 |
7. GARRETT BARTLETT & HENRY BRYAN |
SEYMOUR |
41-13 |
13 |
8. THOMAS MATHIS & CODY GREGORY |
OBION COUNTY CENTRAL |
41-12 |
15 |
9. ETHAN HAYES & JAMES HARPER BURKEEN |
MCCRACKEN COUNTY |
39-11 |
12 |
10. ADDISON YATES & GARRETT MCWILLIAMS |
BASS TACTIX |
33-05 |
11 |