MOST OF THE TOP 10 FISHED SHALLOW
Buddy Gross might have won the Costa FLW Series event on Seminole fishing out in deeper hydrilla, but the majority of the rest of the top 10 focused on grass flats and sandbars in the 2- to 6-foot-deep zone where bass were moving up and spawning. Sight-fishing was difficult due to high winds, so many of the top finishers fished ChatterBaits, lipless crankbaits, Carolina rigs and lightly weighted soft plastics on the flats and bars. see shad and fish arches on my Lowrance, suspended in those drains.”
Gross then circled back to his waypoints, backed his boat far out into the channel and cast a swimbait up into the grass-lined drains.
“ I wanted to see if I could get those suspended fish to bite a swimbait,” he says.“ And they certainly did. Those little ditches had timber right down the middle of them, which is where some of the bigger fish were suspended.”
During the tournament, Gross alternated his three swimbait / jerkbait configurations, often slow-rolling the bigger baits( Zoom Swimmer and Mag Fluke) off the deepest clumps and through the timber. He used the smaller bait to fish the back ends of the cuts where the grass was more shallow.
keys to victory
Sticking to his strengths and a fortuitous warm winter, which kept a lot of green hydrilla intact, helped propel Gross to victory.
“ I tried to go up shallow and fool around with catching bass off beds in practice, but it’ s just not my thing,” Gross says.“ I feel more comfortable fishing deep vegetation, so I kept hunting that kind of bite. That cold front [ immediately before the tournament ] may have helped me a bit, too, keeping those fish backed off and feeding on shad a few more days before running up on beds.”
The healthy condition of the hydrilla helped Gross keep his baits clean while running through the grass.
“ A lot of times I can’ t fish swimbaits in grass this early in the year because it’ s still dormant and clingy, gumming up the bait and keeping it from running right,” Gross says.“ But that deep hydrilla was still what I call‘ crispy green,’ letting me snap my bait out of it cleanly. I would count the bait down until it just touched the grass, and then I’ d start reeling it over the top, popping it to keep it rolling clean without it gumming up and wasting a cast.”
Buddy Gross’ s cheering section included his daughter, Bella, his wife, LeAnn, and his mother, Elouise Gross.
CO-ANGLER CHAMPION
Name: Dwayne Fricks Hometown: Starr, S. C. Winning Weight: 33-03( 14 fish) Winning Program: Fricks’ primary lure all three days at Lake Seminole was a Zoom Super Fluke( pearl white) fished weightless over bedding flats. He rigged the Fluke on a 5 / 0 Gamakatsu hook tied to 15-pound-test Berkley Trilene line.
“ The Super Fluke is just a big confidence bait for me, so that’ s what I used all three days,” Fricks says.“ I’ d just cast it out, work it real slow and even just dead-stick it at times.”
may-june 2017 I flWfIshIng. com 85