T
odd Auten is known for his love of
working a vibrating jig or buzzbait
around shallow cover, so his high fin-
ish using shallow techniques at the
Cup came as no surprise to most folks
who know him. Still, at first Auten
wasn’t certain about how well the
shallow creeks would play, and he had
to dial in the details as the tournament
progressed.
His strategy at first was to catch a
quick limit to start the day by capitaliz-
ing on schooling activity, which was
heavy across the lake, before moving to
skinnier water to upgrade. To execute,
Auten kicked off the event with a spin-
ning rod and Texas-rigged Zoom Fluke
in his hand. That bite fizzled faster than
he expected, so Auten adjusted his
search toward the backs of creeks close
to takeoff. He was only able to scratch
one keeper out of a creek on day one,
giving him four fish for 10 pounds, 12
ounces.
Despite the slow start, Auten didn’t
scrap the shallow program. Instead, the
12-year Tour pro leaned on areas he
knew held fish from pre-practice and
banked on the shallow bite to save his
tournament.
A 1/2-ounce black and blue Z-Man
ChatterBait with a matching Zoom UV
Speed Craw and a 1/2-ounce Zorro
Baits Booza Brush Bug of the same
color with a Zoom Super Chunk trailer
became his primary weapons up shal-
low. He also caught some fish on a
prototype 1/2-ounce Zorro Baits
buzzbait. They all accounted for his
two biggest bags of the tournament in
the subsequent days – 14-6 and 17-10,
respectively.
Auten spent most of the last three
days working the back of Second Creek
A wizard with a buzzbait,
ChatterBait and jig, Auten
worked his magic in shal-
low creeks to finish third.
and a small creek up the Elk River that
held quality bass, though not quantity.
Both areas featured a mix of a little cur-
rent, plenty of bait, a deeper creek
channel and many laydowns. Auten hit
everything he could with the
ChatterBait and at times would swim
the Zorro jig to offer a different look.
“I started swimming the jig and
noticed they reacted to it a lot better,”
he explains. “I don’t know if they don’t
see it that often or what, but it made a
difference.”
Second Creek was by far the best
area for Auten. He says it was even bet-
ter on the third day when pre-frontal
conditions greeted the field and extra
current was flowing due to the opening
of the Wheeler Dam lock. On the final
day, his areas were simply tapped out,
and Auten brought in only three keep-
ers to slip from second to third.
AUTEN’S KEYS
TO SUCCESS
Wheeler Lake is known for its
stump- and laydown-infested flats
and creeks. The obstructions can
make navigation a little hazardous
and time-consuming.
That’s why Auten spent time at
his home in South Carolina well
before the Cup studying contour
maps and satellite imagery of
Wheeler to figure out the best way
to gain access to the miles of back-
water.
“Finding the channels with my
electronics was the key to getting
back into some of those places,”
says Auten. “I tried to find a few
places I wanted to look at before I
went there [for pre-practice].
“Once I got there for pre-prac-
tice I realized that my mapping on
my electronics was pretty detailed,
so I could trust them to run back
in following the channel. It saved
me a bunch of time when I wanted
to look at other creeks because I
didn’t have to sit down to idle.”
Map study ahead of time
allowed Auten to find more key
areas, and that helped to push
him from 14th place on day one
up to third, narrowly missing out
on the title.
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