BRADFORD BEAVERS

RIDGEVILLE, S. C.

26LBS by Curtis Niedermier

Tactics

Bradford Beavers’ chances of winning were greatly reduced by what he describes as a bad call on the first day, when he weighed in only four fish for 9 pounds, 7 ounces. He started on a mid-lake spot where bass had been schooling on shad in practice, but the school was mostly gone. Beavers suspects the cool-down over practice pushed the shad into the creeks.

He managed to catch one keeper on a buzzbait and then bounced around to points, ledges and brush to scrape up three more keepers with bottom baits. A broken rod cost him his fifth.

On day two, he rebounded with a limit for 16-9 by fishing down the lake on points, cane and other schooling places for herring-eating bass. Though he never cast at a fish that broke the surface first, Beavers easily called up a limit on topwater then culled two with bottom baits that afternoon. In hindsight, he wishes he’ d uncovered that program sooner.

“ I was down there in pre-practice and I threw a Fluke,” Beavers says.“ Typically in August they’ re not aggressive enough to hit a topwater. In practice I went down there and just couldn’ t get them with the Fluke, and it never dawned on me to throw a topwater. That’ s what I threw on the second day, and they were coming up no problem.”

Baits

For structure fish, Beavers threw a drop-shot, Texasrigged worm and 5 / 8-ounce Katch-Her Lures jig. His topwater choice for herring fish was what he called a long“ finessetype” walking bait.

Tactics

Lake Murray yielded two limits weighing a combined 25 pounds, 15 ounces for Jeff Sprague, earning the Texas angler 12th place. Indicative of how good the fishing was, had Sprague been competing in the Cup at Lake Murray in 2014 and matched his 2017 catch, it would have put him in second place after two days behind Philip Jarabeck.

Sprague stayed in the vicinity of Dreher Island and ran new water both days. He says he missed the schooling bite and instead worked main-lake shorelines and small coves with topwater, and also targeted isolated docks. The fish repositioned on day two, setting up closer to points as the water continued to drop.

A keeper each day from brush piles helped, but Sprague says that pattern wasn’ t strong enough to rely on. And by midmorning the buzzbait bite had evaporated, so he switched over to a drop-shot rig. Lost fish and missed opportunities wound up keeping him out of the top 10.

Baits

Sprague fished a Santone buzzbait with a Gene Larew Biffle Bug trailer( green pumpkin candy and jalapeno pepper) on a 6th Sense Lux Edition baitcasting rod( 7-3, heavy action) for his morning approach. When he swapped out the buzzbait for a drop-shot, he rigged up a 6-inch Gene Larew TattleTail Worm( Sooner run) and fished it on a 6th Sense spinning rod( 7-2, medium-action). Either outfit was loaded with P-Line braid and P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon leader.

PHOTO BY JODY WHITE

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FLWFISHING. COM I OCTOBER 2017