a pair of areas
name
hometoWn
WeIght
1. BRADLEY HALLMAN
NORMAN, OK
68-04
Technically, the entire lake
2. ZACK BIRGE
BLANCHARD, OK
65-10
and its rivers were Hallman’s
3. JOSEPH WEBSTER
WINFIELD, AL
65-02
winning area.
4. JASON JOHNSON
DAWSONVILLE, GA
65-01
Pros tended to dedicate
5. BRAXTON SETZER
MONTGOMERY, AL
63-02
themselves to one of two
areas: the stained, large-
mouth-filled waters of the
Chattahoochee and Chestatee rivers, or the clear, deep, spotted bass haven that is the
lake’s lower end below Brown’s Bridge.
The vast majority – Hallman included, at least the first three days – hung below Brown’s
Bridge. The lower end’s prespawn spotted bass bulged with eggs and bellies full of blue-
back herring. And their abundance was staggering. Many pros claimed seeing 500 fish a
day on their graphs.
Schools could easily be found staging on deep points and shoals, while some giant lon-
ers hung in and around marinas.
Despite the potential in the lower end, Lanier’s rivers and their largemouths also came
into play. Hallman joined runner-up Zack Birge and fellow top-10 finishers Joseph Webster
and David Williams up in the stained water the final day. The spotted bass were just as
plentiful offshore there, but many big largemouths were roaming patches of emergent
dogfennel in the backs of shallow pockets.
fIsh
20
20
20
20
20
WInnIngs
$102,700
$30,100
$25,000
$20,000
$19,000
WINNING CO-ANGLER
daily patterns
Day 1: Hallman’s Plan A was to run about 45 rocky points on the lower end with a jerk-
bait and a swimbait. If the points were shallow or the fish he marked were suspended,
Hallman used the jerkbait, but mostly he used the swimbait. He’d cast it out, let it hit bot-
tom and slowly crank it back, nearly dragging it. He had a magic day with more than 20
pounds by 1 p.m.
Day 2: At 1 p.m. Hallman had one fish. That prompted him to turn to Plan B: the “fence
panda” pattern – a local pattern on Lanier that involves tossing a swimbait along the out-
side floating break walls (“fences”) of marinas. The walls might float over 100 feet of water,
but some giant bass (“pandas”) like to hide underneath them, particularly on any point,
turn or end in the fence. Hallman quickly crushed 18-7 to extend his lead to more than 7
pounds.
Day 3: With clouds rolling in, neither of the Oklahoma angler’s first two plans produced.
In practice, many pros were on solid patterns skipping shaky heads under docks and walk-
ways inside marinas, and that’s exactly what Hallman did to grind out another solid limit.
Day 4: Clouds turned into solid rain on the final day, prompting Hallman to abandon
his other patterns, which relied on sunshine, in favor of fishing in the stained rivers. He
started out going after some spots near takeoff before bouncing around the backs of
pockets where he threw a spinnerbait around docks and shallow vegetation.
may-june 2018 I flWfIshIng.com
joe anders
easley, S.C.
Winning Weight:
31-10 (10 fish)
Winning program:
Anders fished offshore
with Michael Wooley on day
one. He tried to make fish
bite a shaky head, but it was
a brown 1/2-ounce E&L jig
that produced a pair of 5-
pounders to help him take
the lead with 17-6.
While Anders caught
three bass on the jig the
next day fishing with Billy
Hines, it was the shaky head
that did the heavy lifting.
“Both my big ones [on
day two] came on a shaky
head,” says Anders, whose
combo of choice was a 5/16-
ounce Big Bite Baits Stand
Up Fintwist jighead rigged
with a green pumpkin worm.
His 14-4 bag was just
enough to beat out Brad
Wiley of Alto, Ga., by 9
ounces for the co-angler
crown.
85