apowerful cold front with accompanying winds that gusted to 35 mph forced the cancellation of day one at Lake Seminole and also stalled the progression of a pile of fish bent on spawning. Rather than transition from prespawn areas, the school that turned out to be the winning fish held in patches of hydrilla on a channel turn in Spring Creek where Matt Baty did most of his damage.

Baty surmises that the cold front’ s chilling effect, plus the creek current and the cover afforded by the hydrilla, presented an ideal staging spot for bass waiting to move up.

WEIGHTING GAME

A prototype 1-ounce Buddha Baits bladed jig( purple haze color) with a 4- inch Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper trailer generated several aggressive bites on the morning of day two. A Jenko Fishing CD 20 Silent Stalker Deep Diving Crankbait also added a couple of keepers for Baty during the tournament. His primary bait, however, was a Carolina rig with either a Zoom Trick Worm or a 6- inch Big Bite Baits Trick Stick( both green pumpkin with the tails dyed chartreuse). He at times also rigged the Trick Stick Texas style with no weight for a finesse presentation.

“ I sat in 8 feet of water on top of the ledge and threw into 18 feet of water in the middle of the creek channel,” Baty says.“ I dragged the Carolina rig up to the edge of the ledge and up to the grass. When I felt that grass, I’ d let it sit there and fish it really slow until I felt him, and then I’ d get him.

“ On the Carolina rig, I would throw the Trick Worm trying to get a limit. Once I got a limit, I’ d put that big Trick Stick on there to get a bigger bite. I also used the Trick Stick on an unweighted Texas rig on the bars when I went up shallow later in the day. I caught one key fish both days doing that.”

Matt Baty was very particular about his Carolina-rig setup, and the key element was a 1 1 / 4-ounce hand-poured weight made by a local angler. The long, narrow shape is made to slip through grass smoothly with minimal resistance – an essential ingredient of Baty’ s slow, methodical presentation.

He rigged up with a main line of 16-pound-test Sunline Super FC Sniper connected to 3 feet of 16-pound-test Sniper for his leader. The lengthy tail end afforded Baty dual presentation benefits.

“ With the hydrilla sticking up so high, a lot of times those fish will suspend above it, so the long leader keeps the bait in front of them,” Baty says.“ The longer the leader, the more action your bait has.”

WINNING CO-ANGLER

shawn york Sarasota, Fla.

Winning Weight: 28-11( 9 fish)

Winning program:

York caught his dayone fish with a 6-inch Yamamoto Senko( watermelon green) along the bottom. He rigged the bait weightless, Texasstyle. That technique yielded a lone keeper on day two, forcing York to shift to a Strike King Magnum Caffeine Shad( smoking shad) to add three more to his total.

86 flWfIshIng. com I may-june 2018

Bass Fishing May - Jun 2018 | Page 88

COSTA FLW SERIES | LAKE SEMINOLE