Montgomery has a long history of success at Norman. He's fished team tournament trails there in the past with current FLW Tour star Bryan Thrift along with Louie Hull, the owner of Shooter Lures, and his dad. Montgomery and Hull teamed up to win the 2006 National Bass Circuit national championship at Norman while Hull and Montgomery's dad are team partners now. Having not fished the lake much in recent years, he leaned on his old partners prior to the official practice period. He spent a day on the lake each with Hull and Thrift. "It helped me remember a few things I might not have remembered," he said. "It's good to have somebody who you've already spent time on the lake with to get your bearings. We just did a lot of riding around. "I only get to fish there once or twice a year now, so just riding around and getting to visually look around, it started to come back to me. I did fish a little bit, at least enough to know I could get some bites."
Competition:
Montgomery went into the tournament with a target weight of 13 pounds. He figured hitting that mark would put him in contention for the victory, but it was no guarantee. "Usually this time of year, 13 to 14 pounds wins local one-day tournaments," he said. "I figured staying on 13 a day over 3 days would give me a shot." Morning fog that lasted until about 10 a.m. gave way to slick, warm and sunny conditions on day 1 and Montgomery was a man on the move. He ran around to docks he knew had brush piles around them and also mixed in new areas. "I caught close to 40 fish the first day and probably 30 were jig bites," he said. "Every day of the tournament I'd mix in new stuff I hadn't fished before and I also repeated some stuff from previous days. It was a healthy mix. There's no way I could fish all the stuff I knew on the lake. I didn't even touch 50 percent of the stuff I knew. "I also figured out that mid-lake was where the best bite was at. A lot of people shied away from it because it was looking like it was turning over. It may have been, but the fish still bit. I think that scared a lot of the field away." He hit his mark with 13-02 to start and that had him in 4th place.
Beside brush and docks, he started to unlock a pattern on docks that had longer walkways out from shore that were situated on flatter banks. "I got on that a little bit in practice," he said. "I fished some stretches that I don't typically fish and it seemed like they were on the poles or right under the walkway. That developed as the tournament went on, but on day 2 it was pretty strong." He made a move up to 2nd place with a 13-12 bag on Friday, which was cloudy and rainy most of the day. The weather change seemed to push the fish off docks and positioned them shallower. "I couldn't get bit in brush piles and the clouds and rain are typically not good for the jig," he said, "because the fish have a tendency to suspend." He spent the early part of the day on the extreme lower end of the lake, but he was unable to get into stretches that he wanted to fish because other competitors had swarmed there. He relented and headed back to the middle and upper sections of the lake, where "I could get on anything I wanted." He mixed in a couple topwater baits in the afternoon and caught three keepers that way. "It was tough until the afternoon," he said. Starting the final day 8 ounces behind David Williams, who led the first 2 days, Montgomery knew the fishing would get tougher under the bluebird, post-front sky. "That's when you want to fish a jig," he said. So that's what he did. He went back to his brush pile pattern and grinded out 12 to 15 keeper bites to come back with 10-12. It was hardly the biggest bag of the day, but when Williams managed just three for less than 5 pounds, Montgomery felt he'd done enough. "I mixed in some new stuff and ran some stuff that had been good," he said. "There was one stretch where I'd caught them good on day 2 that produced a couple weigh fish on day 3."
Winning Pattern:
Asked to reveal details about the type of docks that he targeted, Montgomery offered this breakdown: "For some reason, on Norman, docks are always good. It doesn't matter if they're in the backs of pockets or on the main lake or a point, docks are good year round. It's not like the fish go to the backs of the creeks in the fall like they do on other reservoirs. They live everywhere year round at Norman."
Winning Gear:
7' medium-heavy Daiwa Zillion casting rod, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (7.3:1 gear ratio), 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Shooter Elite jig (crawdad), Strike King Rage Tail DB Structure Bug trailer (green-pumpkin). Montgomery said he nipped a little bit of the Rage Bug off before threading it on the jig. "I used to just use chunks as jig trailers, but that bait has made for a deadly combo now," he said. Montgomery also caught three of his weigh-in fish in the afternoon on day 2 on an unnamed buzzbait.
Main factor: "Knowledge of the lake. That's what it boils down to. I wish I had something more interesting to say, but I know the lake extremely well and that's what helped me."
Performance edge: "My Daiwa rod and reel set up was another key for me. The two big factors for me were knowledge of the lake and being able to put it under there where they live."
Lake Norman Winning Pattern Bassfan 10/7/14 (Todd Ceisner)