ON TOUR
YETI FLW COLLEGE FISHING
YETI FLW COLLEGE FISHING WINNING TACTICS
c
NorthErN coNfErENcE – chaUtaUQUa laKE – JUly 22
By Chad Love
oncentrating on patches of green grass after their primary pattern
Jarrett Martin (left)
failed to produce was the key for Adrian College anglers Jarrett martin
and Zachary Graham
and Zachary Graham, who won the YETI FLW College Fishing Northern
Conference tournament on Chautauqua Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops
with a 16-pound, 3-ounce five-bass limit.
“During practice for Chautauqua Lake our pattern started off focusing on
the little bit of rock that was in the lake,” says martin, a senior studying busi-
ness administration. “The day before the tournament we checked the
weather and saw that it was going to be overcast the majority of the day, so
we decided to focus on topwater and faster moving soft plastics.”
After an hour fishing the rock with no bites, martin and Graham decided
to abandon the pattern and continue down the shoreline. The plan was to fish whatever shoreline vegetation they could find,
but the lake had recently been sprayed, and the pair had a hard time finding enough green grass to fish.
“most of it was brown and dead, but we found some green grass right near some rock, so we decided to stick with that
grass in order to get bites,” says martin.
“We were fishing on the north end of the lake,” adds Graham, a sophomore double majoring in environmental studies and
geology. “We found a stretch of bank with no docks with a long rocky flat. About 40 yards off of the bank the rock would meet
the grass, and we just worked the grass line all day long.”
The team’s tournament day change of plan paid off. Within an hour, throwing an XCalibur Zell Pop (martin) and a Bugsy’s
Baits USA Sic minnow (Graham), the team had boated a limit and began culling, eventually catching an estimated 20 keepers.
“I think the key for us was the cloud cover,” adds martin. “If it would have been sunny, the fish would have been in the shade.
But the way the clouds were, the bass were in the mood to eat all day and were extremely active.”
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fLWfIshIng.cOm I OctOber 2017