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28lb, 2oz (15)
AUSTIN FELIX | EDEN PRAIRIE, MN
Austin Felix made it a point to stay above Hamilton’s “clear-
water line,” which was formed by the waters of Lake Ouachita
flowing through Blakely Mountain Dam. He caught most of his fish
from main-lake docks, brush piles or schooling spots, with a few
coming from a culvert. Felix skipped docks with a wacky-rigged 4-
inch Yamamoto Senko and fished for schoolers with a Keitech
Swing Impact FAT 2.8 on a 3/16-ounce All-Terrain Tackle Smallie
Smasher Swimbait Head. The same swimbait rigged on a shaky
head was his brush tool.
JoSEPH WEBSTER | WINFIELD, AL
It was strictly a brush pile tournament for Joseph Webster, who
keyed on about 15 brush piles in 15 to 20 feet of water. Webster
settled on those piles because he saw life – bait or bass – around
them on his graph. Catching them was straightforward. He either
cast a plum-colored Zoom Ol’ Monster that he’d Texas-rigged with
a 3/8-ounce weight and a 5/0 hook or dropped vertically into the
brush with a morning dawn 6-inch Roboworm on a drop-shot with
a 3/8-ounce weight.
26lb, 12oz (15)
26lb, 3oz (14)
RYAN SALZmAN | HUNTSVILLE, AL
Each morning, Ryan Salzman went to the bank and picked off
shallow bass with a 3/8-ounce War Eagle Buzz Toad Buzzbait and
an Evergreen OB Popper. After a couple hours, he slid out to fish
brush piles, staying in the lower end of the lake for both patterns.
With about 60 of the tallest, widest brush piles marked on his
GPS, Salzman tore through a milk run, using Lowrance LiveSight
forward-looking sonar to line up and cast a Texas-rigged 11-inch
NetBait C-Mac Worm or a Reaction Innovations 6.95 Flirt Worm on
a drop-shot.
JoSH DoUGLAS | ISLE, MN
While Josh Douglas also caught some early fish on a buzzbait
during the first two days, he did most of his damage fishing brush
piles on Hamilton’s lower end. Most of his targeted piles were in
15 to 22 feet. His first casts to every pile were with a Texas-rigged
blue fleck Zoom Ol’ Monster with a WOO! Tungsten weight and a
5/0 Owner round-bend hook. Where he saw schoolers or bass
around the brush, Douglas threw a BioSpawn ExoSwimmer swim-
bait on an Outkast Tackle Goldeneye Swimbait Jighead.
22lb, 6oz (10)
10
30lb, 6oz (15)
/// 2019 FLW cUP
FALL 2019 I FLWFISHING.com
JoRDAN oSBoRNE | LONGVIEW, TX
Summertime finesse was the recipe for Jordan Osborne
around both brush and docks, though brush piles certainly were
his primary targets. Osborne’s better brush was in about 15 feet
of water. He picked it apart with a 6 1/2-inch redbug Strike King
Perfect Plastic Finesse Worm on a Picasso Shakedown shaky head.
The dock pattern was secondary. In order to show fish something
different than a buzzbait, which a lot of anglers used, he skipped
a weightless merthiolate-colored Zoom Trick Worm and twitched
it back.
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