Championship Strategy
Once the piles were located, the idea
was to “call up” bass from the piles to
the surface to get them to compete for
the bait. In order to do that, Atkins
opted for an ima Little Stik 135, a 5 1/2-
inch-long pencil popper that casts like a
bullet and produces a raucous action on
the surface thanks to a cupped nose and
thumping rattle chamber.
Atkins made roughly 30 stops per day
on his best cane piles. At every stop his
objective was to line up the submerged
pile, make a cast directly over it and walk
the Little Stik directly overhead.
When everything went right, the
“call up” was answered with a large boil
and a choked Little Stik in the throat of a
hefty Lake Murray bass.
Eventually he settled into a high-
speed, run-and-gun program of pulling
up to a cane pile, firing only a handful
of casts and then moving on. His strat-
egy allowed Atkins to put his bait in
front of more fish than most other pros,
while letting each spot rest and the bass
to reset after a catch.
Things went exactly right for Atkins
for a majority of the tournament, espe-
cially the final day, when he experi-
enced magic on Lake Murray and called
up a stringer of 4- to 5-pound bass.
As FLW Live coverage of the final
day unfolded at Murray, it was clear
Atkins could do no wrong, short of a
few missed opportunities early. After
that, his primary area came to life with
big largemouths crushing herring on
the surface. Time and again Atkins’ top-
water disappeared into voracious boils.
When the madness was over, Atkins
had sacked up a tournament-best 22
pounds, 1 ounce to clinch victory.
At one point during his final-day
magical melee, Atkins stopped momen-
tarily to catch his breath and calm his
trembling hands.
“This is unbelievable,” he gasped to
the folks watching on FLW Live, while
trying to keep his emotions in check.
“I’m having the best fishing day of my
entire life right now, and it’s on the final
day of the Forrest Wood Cup …”
Some things are just meant to be.
HOTO
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