ON TOUR
BFL REGIONAL
DEtAILS
Nov. 11-12, 2016
hosted by tri-County Lodging Association/Convention & Visitors bureau
participation: the Wild Card is open to anglers who pay an entry fee prior to the
tournament for all five tournaments in a division, fish at least two tournaments
in the same division and do not qualify for Regional competition in any division.
KNIGHT VICTORIOUS AT BFL WILD CARD
j
DOCK-FISHING PATTERN WINS AGAIN AT LAKE OF THE OZARKS
eff Knight of Cleveland,
Tenn., capitalized on his
opportunity to qualify for
the 2017 T-H Marine Bass
Fishing League All-American by
winning the BFL Wild Card at
Lake of the Ozarks Nov. 11-12.
The leader after day one with
21 pounds, Knight returned to
the scale on day two with
another impressive bag weigh-
ing 17 pounds, 12 ounces. He
won by nearly 2 pounds with a
two-day total of 38-12.
Knight’s winning pattern
was flipping and pitching a jig
around boat docks.
2017
All-American
Qualifiers
boaters:
Brent anderson
Kingston Springs, Tenn.
dylan duncan
Kansas, Okla.
jeFF knigHt
Cleveland, Tenn.
jeremy lawyer
Sarcoxie, Mo.
Bennie mutter
Glasgow, Ky.
adam oHms
Edwardsville, Ill.
Co-anglers:
ricHard Hooter
Natchitoches, La.
steFan marginean
Glenview, Ill.
roB melendeZ
Frankfort, Ill.
dale rentH
Mascoutah, Ill.
craig rose
Olathe, Kan.
mike youngBlood
St. Louis, Mo.
72
“I found this pattern during
practice early and could dupli-
cate it in most any cove with
boat docks near shallow
water,” he says. “The jig bite
was producing quality keepers
for me both days, all day long.”
His jig of choice was a 1/2-
ounce green pumpkin jig
tipped with a Strike King
Rage Craw trailer.
“There wasn’t anything
special about the jig I was
using, but the trailer was key
in the action needed to pro-
duce the fish I caught,” Knight
says. “The action from the
trailer seemed to cause the
bass to bite the jig on the fall.
I was very confident in the jig
pattern. I heard some of the
other guys were catching fish
on topwater, but I knew I
could catch quality bass with
a jig, and I never put it down
the entire two days.”
He concentrated on the
inside of the boat dock slips
when presenting the jig.
“The bigger bass were
holding all the way back
inside the boat slips, near
the walkways on the docks. I
didn’t leave my jig in there
long,” he says. “If they didn’t
bite quickly, I picked it up and
made another flip. The bites
were mainly coming on the
fall or just after the jig hit the
bottom.”
Knight set his sights on
coves with boat docks in the
Shawnee Bend area of the
lake, a 12-mile run each day
from the takeoff site. He
stayed near the 9-mile mark-
er the entire time both days,
focusing on boat docks
between Galena Point and
Lynch Hollow.
The boat dock location
within these coves was
another key to Knight win-
ning the event.
“I only focused on docks
that had 8 to 15 feet of water
under them,” he says. “If the
water under the back of the
slips was 10 to 12 feet deep, I
was confident the bass would
be there on anything less
than 10 feet or deeper than
15 feet, I got very few bites.
“Most any dock with the
right depth would produce
By Marc Rogers
for me,” Knight continues.
“But the docks owned by fish-
ermen seemed a little better.
I found most of the fisher-
men’s docks had some kind
of cover sunk near the docks.
Most had brush piles out on
the ends of the docks, but
the best ones also had brush
under the walkways near the
back of the slips. I think the
bass were holding near the
brush, using it to ambush the
shad. I think the shade from
the docks also helped.”
CO-ANGLER CHAMP
Name: Craig Rose
hometown: Olathe, Kan.
total Weight: 22-6 (8 fish)
Winning program: Co-angler champ Craig Rose kept it
simple at the Wild Card. He threw a green pumpkin Zoom
Trick Worm on a War Eagle shaky head and “spiked” the
worm’s tail with chartreuse dye. He caught all of his bass
from 1 to 7 feet deep near docks on gravel banks.
FlwFisHing.com i january 2017