PHOTO BY JOEL SHANGLE PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE
9th – Randy Howell – 35-5 ( 15 )
During practice , Howell committed to fishing dirty water areas and was determined to catch them with a shallow crankbait . It worked for getting bites , but not for the quality he needed ; so , he called an audible near the end of practice and found what he fished the rest of the week .
“ I switched to the area near takeoff and by the dam in the last couple hours of practice and discovered that the fish were spawning near the warm-water discharge in the last couple hours of practice ,” he said .
Howell primarily caught spawning fish with a wacky-rigged 5-inch Yamamoto Senko in green pumpkin with purple green flake on a No . 1 Pro X Finesse Wacky Hook . He also caught some cruisers with a Livingston JerkMaster 121 in pro green . When he saw one sitting on a bed , he would pitch a Yamamoto Flappin ’ Hog in green pumpkin hues . He rigged it on a 4 / 0 Pro X worm hook with a red 3 / 8-ounce XPS tungsten worm weight .
10th – Ott DeFoe – 34-14 ( 15 )
DeFoe relied on two primary patterns , spending a good amount of time targeting spawning bass and mixing in a wake bait .
“ The sight-fishing deal was much better the first few days and helped me catch some key fish to advance ,” he said . “ That bite got weaker as the event went on and finally went away for good . It was primarily largemouth , but I also caught some spotted bass on beds .”
He fished a wacky-rigged Bass Pro Shops Fin-Eke Worm in bubble gum rigged on a # 1 VMC RedLine Series Neko Hook to catch his bedding bass . His other primary pattern was fishing a 4 1 / 2-inch chrome wake bait fished in the backs of pockets and on secondary points .
40 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | APRIL-MAY 2023