ON TOUR
YETI FLW COLLEGE FISHING
YETI FLW COLLEGE FISHING WINNING TACTICS
By Curtis Niedermier
I
noRthERn ConFEREnCE – sMIth MoUntAIn LAKE – ApRIL 29
n practice for the YETI FLW College Fishing Northern
Conference tournament on Smith Mountain Lake in
late April, Michael Duarte (left) and Matthew Iman of
Community College of Baltimore County found plenty of
cruising bass, but very few on beds. On tournament day,
however, the team uncovered a pocket up the Roanoke
River filled with spawning bass that were locked down
and eager to defend their nests. Duarte landed a 6 1/2-
pound kicker by chugging a popper past a dock corner in
a secondary area, and then together they compiled the
rest of a 17-pound, 13-ounce stringer in their primary
pocket to take the win.
“One thing that I found that was kind of key about the
pocket is that it was a lot shallower than the ones we
were fishing in practice,” says Duarte. “This one was so
shallow that the boat was sitting in 5 to 6 feet of water. In
the other pockets the boat was sitting in 12 to 15 feet.”
Sunshine aided the anglers as they searched for beds
around and between docks. That, combined with the
consistent system they improvised, put the winning fish
in the boat.
“I threw a wacky-rigged [Yamamoto] Senko in there to
see if they’d eat that first,” Duarte says. “If they didn’t eat
that I’d throw a drop-shot rig with a Strike King Dream
Shot on it.
“If they didn’t bite in two to five minutes, I would leave
that fish alone and just move to another set of bedding
fish. Then I’d come back to them and they’d bite right
away. I’d just make sure and stay far away so they couldn’t
see my boat. I’d kind of hide behind the dock or some-
thing then let the drop-shot just sit on the bed.”
P
WEstERn ConFEREnCE – CALIFoRnIA DELtA – MAy 13
100
ost-frontal weather and postspawn lockjaw stymied
anglers’ efforts at the YETI FLW College Fishing
Western Conference event presented by Bass Pro
Shops on the California Delta.
For tournament winners BJ Kendrick (right, facing page)
and Josh Hanna of Sonoma State University, the conditions
forced an extreme changeup from the buzzbait bite they’d
tapped into a week prior, to a finesse approach.
“My whole game plan going into the tournament was
basically let’s get a bite and try to get one keeper in the boat,”
says Kendric