“ All the clouds and the rain had all the bait pushed up , and I said , ‘ It ’ s about to go down .’ And it did , big time .” reservoir , running about 10 miles to a shoal that formed a current break . There , he caught 12 spotted bass for 36-3 using a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader on a scrounger head in about three hours , leaping from outside the Top 10 to first place .
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
current seams with a scrounger . One of his stops took him into a bay near Lacoosa Marina , where he caught a 4- pounder . Seeing a healthy population of shad , he made a mental note of the spot .
But after weights zeroed overnight , Connell instead opted to start the Knockout Round up the river , in the tailrace below Logan Martin dam . For a while , it looked like the wrong decision . At noon , Connell found himself outside the Top 10 and below the elimination line . Meanwhile , several of the anglers plying the area where he ’ d caught his fish on Day 1 rocketed to the top of SCORETRACKER ®.
Connell knew he needed to make a move . But , still believing there would be too much pressure in that area for the event to be won there , he stayed in the riverine portion of the
“ All the clouds and the rain had all the bait pushed up , and I said , ‘ It ’ s about to go down .’ And it did , big time .” reservoir , running about 10 miles to a shoal that formed a current break . There , he caught 12 spotted bass for 36-3 using a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader on a scrounger head in about three hours , leaping from outside the Top 10 to first place .
“ There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to get some bites here and there , but the speed at which I was going to get a bite was just slow ,” Connell said after the Knockout Round . “ It was just dead . So , finally , I made a decision : I pulled the plug . ... I pulled up on a place and stomped ‘ em right off the rip .”
a clutch call on championship day
On the eve of the Championship Round , as he drove from Lay Lake to the REDCREST Expo in Birmingham , Connell declared himself “ all in on the river .” Not only had he found a productive spot with no other competitors in sight , he relished the idea of winning the way he ’ d fished growing up , without using forward-facing sonar .
But the more Connell mulled it over , the more he realized that , while nostalgia urged him to return to the river , the morning success of those anglers chasing suspended fish on the main lake suggested they could stack up even heavier weights during the final-day shootout , when there ’ d be no reason to ease off the proverbial throttle .
When he arrived at the launch ramp Sunday morning , Connell still wasn ’ t sure whether to run upriver or down the lake . He settled on a compromise of sorts , planning to start the day fishing the lower lake , then , if need be , returning to the current in the afternoon , when the bite had been better the previous two days .
Dustin Connell works a hard-fighting spotted bass toward the boat during the Championship Round of REDCREST 2024 .
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