Bass Fishing Jul 2018 | Page 101

On days one and two of the name hometoWn WeIght tournament, conditions swung 1. BRYAN THRIFT SHELBY, NC 70-02 back around, and sunny, warm 2. ALLEN BOYD SALEM, IN 68-08 weather sent the lake’s large- 3. CLENT DAVIS MONTEVALLO, AL 67-10 mouths and smallmouths into 4. GREG BOHANNAN BENTONVILLE, AR 65-09 their favored staging areas (They 5. ANDY MORGAN DAYTON, TN 65-04 would eventually be spawning *Includes Ranger Cup during the tournament.). Stained water and strong winds prompted a strong shallow spinnerbait bite for largemouths that were set up around flooded cover, but Thrift bided his time targeting smallmouths. His patience paid off on days three and four when overcast skies and heavy rains returned and set up perfectly for smallmouths to win out. All he had to do was make a minor tackle adjustment. “I used the Armor Shad when it was sunny the first two days,” Thrift adds. “When it got cloudy, I started throwing the 3.8 swimbait. The Armor Shad is a more subtle swimbait.” Thrift’s approach was to cover water throughout his home area by making long casts and fishing every inch of the lead-in banks located in and outside the creek. He never really worked into the adjacent pockets. He did make a few stops at a secondary area, which, on the final day, coughed up a 5-pound kicker. When a surface chop was present to camouflage his approach, Thrift stayed close to the bank and fished parallel, but it was usually more effective to position a long cast away. “When I would sit way out would be places the wind wasn’t blowing in on,” he says. “I think after four days, they were a little wary of the boat overhead.” The presentation was very slow and subtle. Thrift launched his swimbait up along the shoreline and crawled it back out. The result was an impressive series of limits that tallied 15-9 and 17-4 on days one and two, followed by 18-11 and 18-10 sacks on the weekend – weights the largemouth anglers just couldn’t keep pace with in the hills of central Kentucky. fIsh 20 20 20 20 20 WInnIngs $125,200* $30,100 $25,000 $20,000 $19,000 WINNING CO-ANGLER HAGEDON BROWN & GREEN The smallmouth bite was impressive at Cumberland, but largemouths com- prised a greater percentage of the catch among the top 10. Tournament winner Bryan Thrift and third-place pro Clent Davis were the only ones to weigh in only smallmouths. They each fished swimbaits. The rest of the top 10, including James Watson, shown here, either weighed in an even mix or leaned heavily on the large- mouths, and they all relied mostly on spinnerbaits. Most of the largemouth action came in the backs of pockets where high water had inundated bushes and sycamore trees, with bushes being the better producer. Those who weighed in a mixed bag fished similar areas, but also targeted second- ary points and lead-in banks. Both species were in the midst of the spawn, and the overall catch included a mix of prespawn, spawning and postspawn bass. juLy 2018 I fLWfIshIng.com joel Willert Prior Lake, MN. Winning Weight: 24-02 (10 fish) Winning program: On day one, Willert fished a small swimbait along bluff walls in a deep-water area upstream from the General Burnside State Park takeoff site. The Minnesota co-angler weighed in a mixed bag of largemouths and small- mouths. Fishing down the lake on day two, he tossed a spinnerbait to bring in a full limit of largemouths. 99