PHOTO BY PATTERSON LEETH
PHOTO BY PATTERSON LEETH
One Lure, One Rod, $ 300,000
Atkins won the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Murray with a threeday total of 59 pounds, 4 ounces. He caught all 15 of the bass he weighed in with a single lure: an ima Little Stik 135 pencil popper in chrome.
Big pencil popper-style topwaters have emerged as top producers on herring lakes due to their extreme castability and loud, thrashing surface noise that“ draws up” or“ calls up” bass. Whether the pencil popper imitates a single herring really well or just creates so much commotion on the surface that bass believe they’ re missing out on schooling activity is up for debate. Either way, one thing Atkins proved unequivocally is when that bite is on, it only takes one lure to score big.
Atkins tied the Little Stik directly to 30-pound-test Berkley Trilene braid, opting not to tie in any kind of monofilament or fluorocarbon shock leader. Instead, he fished the lure on a 7-foot, 5-inch composite rod that features a deep parabolic bend to allow the fish to eat the lure and turn down with it with less risk of pulling the lure away too soon. An Abu Garcia Revo reel with a high-speed 7.1:1 retrieve ratio was critical for reeling in long casts quickly to get the bait back out to schooling fish before they swam back down.
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