15 daVidDUDLEY
Tactics
by Sean Ostruszka
29 LbS, 14 oZ
When the deep pattern never materialized in practice,
Dudley fell back on a shallow pattern that he literally saw
during pre-practice.
“During pre-practice I pulled into the backs of a few
creeks and saw bass swimming around,” says Dudley. “In
practice I never hit any of the areas I ended up fishing during
the tournament.”
Dudley says there was only one key element in common
among the creeks he fished: There were no other anglers fish-
ing them. He says he fished his way as far back as he could go
without getting his boat stuck.
Baits
As per his usual, Dudley did a bit of junk-fishing with
three lures.
He fished isolated targets with a 5-inch green pumpkin
wacky worm on a 2/0 hook.
Around flats and grass he tossed a 1/4-ounce white
buzzbait with a pearl soft-plastic toad as a trailer.
On any deeper banks, he relied on a Livingston Lures
crankbait in citrus shad.
16 ShanELEHEW
Tactics
by Curtis Niedermier
29 LbS, 13 oZ
LeHew says he was never really dialed in at the Cup.
“I was just junk-fishing,” he says. “Practice was not very
good, but I like junk-fishing.”
His primary approach was to fish laydowns and other shal-
low cover in a 200-yard-long stretch in the back of Anderson
Creek off the Elk River. Heavy rains the day before the tourna-
ment had muddied the water some and lowered the water tem-
perature about 13 degrees, which hurt the bite. Still, he caught
quality keepers there on day one and landed 20 to 30 small
keepers on day two when the fish were schooling under a tree.
LeHew’s second tactic was swimming a jig around riprap
near Decatur. On the third day, he was able to fish a couple of
main-lake schooling spots that were previously occupied,
and caught fish off two barges near one of the gas docks when
he stopped to refuel.
Baits
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2016 I FLWFISHING.COM
An E.R. Lures jig with a Bizz Baits Bizz Bug trailer was a
key bait combo for LeHew.
“I was trying to key on bigger fish with that bulky jig and
flipping trailer, but I caught a ton of 12- to 13-inch fish
instead,” he says.
He added a Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil topwater to catch the shal-
low schoolers in Anderson, but for the main-lake schoolers
and the barges, LeHew cast a small Keitech Easy Shiner on a
1/16-ounce head to mimic small shad in the area.
His final lure was a Shane’s Baits in-line buzzbait with a
Bizz Baits Pad Daddy trailer.
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