Casey Martin Wins FLW Lake Chickamauga
Casey Martin Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear
Living in New Market, Ala., Martin has easy access to a handful of TVA lakes, including Lake Guntersville. Leading up to the event, he fished Guntersville each day to bone up on how schools would change and move around day to day and how they picked up on different baits. "It fished pretty much the same," he said. "It's not a bad practice field. The thing about Guntersville is you can run a bunch of spots and find fish on most of them. You couldn't do that at Chick." Once official practice got going, there was so much current ripping through Chickamauga that it was challenging to get a read on how the fish were setting up. He didn't find much on Sunday or Monday and considered locking up to Watts Bar Lake for the final day. "They were pulling so much current that you couldn't easily graph the fish," he said. "On (Tuesday), they let up on the current and fish started to suspend and showed themselves. By then, most guys had gone shallow or were looking at mid-range stuff. Only a few guys were looking out deep on the last day." The little bit of freedom allowed him to pinpoint a couple zones that held quantities of fish and also some bigger specimens, including the mega school, which was holding on a big ledge in 15 to 25 feet of water. Like many of his competitors, though, it was difficult to gauge the actual quality because setting the hook usually drew the attention of others (pros and locals) in the vicinity. "I never looked at anything less than 15 feet," he added.
Competiton:
Being able to get on the school alongside Rose on day 1 was a key factor to Martin's success, but he still had to figure out how to fire them up and put them in a feeding mood. He swung through them with the Picasso Bait Ball Extreme umbrella rig and also threw an Omega football-head jig and a Z-Man ChatterBait. "There was a little turn on it where the fish would just stack up and suspend," he said. He also had a few other areas where he could pick off one or two fish, usually 4-pounders, that he'd hit throughout the day, but those were mostly one-and-done spots. The area where Martin caught his biggest fish was a long point that separated two spawning bays. It was visible from where he and Rose were fishing so he could keep tabs on it. "When there were no boats around on days 1 and 2 , I'd sneak in there and get back out," he said. "They were post-spawn fish moving out and looking for shad to feed on. It wasn't really a timing spot because there weren't a ton of fish there, but every 45 minutes I could go there and get a good bite, usually between 4 and 8 pounds." His 22-15 stringer put him in 3rd place, 3 ounces ahead of Rose. "That was huge," he said. "I knew if I had another good day on day 2, I was going to make the Cup."
The mega school spot attracted more attention on day 2 and the way the boats aligned, Martin wound up with the best angle on the fish. He couldn't trigger bites with the umbrella rig or jig or ChatterBait and eventually resorted to 6" Roboworm rigged on a dropshot. "It wasn't the rig that day," he said. "I think I had the line on where they were, though, since I was on the outside. JT (Kenney) was throwing a rig on the other end and not getting a bite. I had the line where they were active feeding." He caught 20 pounds out of the mega school and then made some key upgrades from his big fish area, including a double that resulted in a 7-11 and a 5-pounder, that pushed his weight up to 27 pounds and gave him the lead. By day 3, his one-fish spots were spent so he focused on the mega school since those he was sharing water with missed the Top-20 cut. The umbrella rig was the big producer Saturday as he hauled in another 23-pound bag to extend his lead to 10 pounds. He used the same formula on the final day and it resulted in the second-biggest bag of the season in a Tour event as he closed out the win and season in style. He notched a Top-10 finish in the season opener at Lake Okeechobee, but struggled mostly the rest of the way. Never did he think he'd win an event as a rookie. "No, the trophy is great and everything's great," he said, "but the money's the huge factor for me. I do this pretty much out of my own pocket and this allows me to do this for a couple more years."
Winning Pattern:
Having the community hole with a massive school of fish was one thing, but having another group of big fish that saw nothing but Martin's baits all week was his saving grace. "That was a huge factor," he said. "I knew the mega school was thinning out and it was getting harder to get the bites there. I was tempted to go into the (big fish spot) on Saturday, but I'm glad I didn't go." When he chunked the rig, he'd let it fall to the bottom before he started cranking it back. "I was sitting in 22 to 26 feet and throw up onto 12 or 14," he said. "They were suspended right off the ledge."
Winning Gear:
Umbrella rig gear: 7'11" extra-heavy Duckett Fishing casting rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (5.5:1 ratio), 25-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Picasso Bait Ball Extreme, 3/8-oz. Omega swimbait heads, Zoom Swimming Super Fluke Jr. (albino), 6" Strike King Shadalicious swimbait (blue gizzard), 6" Basstrix swimbait. He used the five-arm version of the Bait Ball, but only used three hooks to stay in compliance with Tennessee law. He used 10 teaser baits. Of the 20 fish he weighed in, 12 came on the rig.
Dropshot gear: 6'10" medium-action G. Loomis spinning rod, Daiwa Sol 2500 spinning reel, 10-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Picasso tungsten dropshot weight, 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, 6" Roboworm straight tail worm (green-pumpkin and morning dawn). He rigged his bait 12" to 15" above the weight on his dropshot set up to catch them when they were suspended just off the bottom. When they suspended high, he picked up the rig.
Football jig gear: 7'1" heavy-action G. Loomis GLX casting rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. Omega Custom Tackle Derek Remiz football-head jig (Ozark special), NetBait Paca Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).
ChatterBait gear: Same rod/reel/line as jig, 5/8-oz. Z-Man ChatterBait (white), 5" Castaic Jerky J swimbait (albino).
Main factor: "Finding the right schools and finding a group of big fish and knowing how to adjust over the 4 days and not burning through them. Saving some fish for the final day was key."
Performance edge: "My Lowrance electronics and their mapping are critical when it comes to ledge fishing."
Lake Chickamauga Winning Pattern Bassfan 7/2/13 (Todd Ceisner)
Wesley Strader's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Swimbait gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Powell Max swimbait rod, Lew's casting reel, 20-pound Toray Excellent fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. Pure Poison Jigs swimbait head (white), 6" Basstrix swimbait (scaled sardine). He opted for the 3/4-oz. swimbait head to counter the effects of the current. "It was just enough to keep it down in the current," he said. "As the current got stronger, I had to slow down my cadence on the retrieve because if I would reel too fast, it would get up too high in the water column and go over their heads before they had a chance to bite it."
Worm gear: 7'1" heavy-action Powell Endurance casting rod, same reel, 16-pound Toray Excellent fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Reins Tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu offset EWG worm hook, 10.5" Zoom Ol' Monster worm (red bug). The color of the worm was a key in Strader's mind. "When it gets hot like this, I don't know if it's the bluegill, but for some reason, they bit red bug better than anything."
Main factor: "Just being able to commit to an area even when they weren't biting and adjust when they slid out on the rock pile. The only other boats I saw were the two or three that ran to Watts Bar."
Performance edge: "The Toray line I used. It's almost like braid, but it's fluorocarbon. There's no stretch, which was important when the current would get going so hard. I had to stay in contact with the lure because it was easy to miss bites with all that current. I went fishing with (former FLW tour pro) Michael Murphy recently and it's what he uses. I used his rods and I never had to re-tie. I flipped trees all day and never broke off. The stuff is remarkable."
Lake Chickamauga Patterns 2-5 Bassfan 7/3/13 (Todd Ceisner)
Michael Neal's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Jig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Duckett Fishing casting rod, Lew's Super Duty casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. Warrior Baits football-head jig (spring craw), 4" Warrior Baits craw trailer (road kill).
Swimbait gear: 7'10" extra-heavy Duckett Fishing casting rod, same reel, 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1-oz. unnamed swimbait head, 5 1/2" Strike King Shadalicious swimbait (blue gizzard).
Main factor: "The one place I had the morning bite on days 2 and 3. Eight of the 10 fish I weighed those days came from that spot and that's what got me into the Top 10. It wasn't a huge school. I about caught them all, but that one spot was key because I had it all to myself."
Performance edge: "My Yamaha motor. I was burning a lot of gas and I hit plenty of spots over a 25-mile stretch. I ran it twice each day."
Lake Chickamauga Patterns 2-5 Bassfan 7/3/13 (Todd Ceisner)
Dan Morehead's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Trick Worm gear: 7' heavy-action American Rodsmiths casting rod, Shimano Calais casting reel (6.2:1 ratio), 12-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/16-oz. Picasso tungsten worm weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu offset round bend worm hook, Zoom Magnum Trick Worm (red bug).
Ribbonworm gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, 1/4-oz. Picasso tungsten worm weight, same hook, 9 1/2" Luck-E-Strike Original Ringer worm (plum).
Shaky-head gear: 7' medium-action American Rodsmiths spinning rod, Shimano Stradic spinning reel, 8-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/8-oz. Picasso Shakedown jig, Zoom Trick Worm (plum).
Main factor: "I got on something nobody else was doing. Even though there were several others in the area, they weren't on shallow grass. I was fishing unpressured fish."
Performance edge: "It comes together as one, but I relied heavily on my Lowrance electronics. They kept me in productive water. I logged over 300 miles running up and down the lake and I'm pretty proud of my Evinrude. I haven't needed to take the cowling off it yet this year. Another thing that was key was the Fish Guardian, which dispenses Rejuvenade directly into your livewell. I never lost a fish all season and never had a fish close to being in trouble."
Lake Chickamauga Patterns 2-5 Bassfan 7/3/13 (Todd Ceisner)
Andy Morgan's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Worm gear: Assorted 7' medium-heavy casting rods (Powell, Joe's Custom Rods, G. Loomis), assorted casting reels (Abu Garcia Revos, Lew's, Shimano), 12- and 16-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Strike King tungsten worm weight, 5/0 Owner Z-Neck offset worm hook, Zoom Ol' Monster worm (plum and green-pumpkin). He also caught keepers on a dropshot and on day 3, he stuck a couple 4-pounders cranking the Strike King 10XD.
Main factor: "Everything just fell into my lap. I usually don't like a slugfest and this really wasn't one. It was a grind, especially the way I was fishing. I could go a couple hours without a bite, but I like the hopping around and working all day. That's what was up my alley."
Performance edge: "I was really impressed with my Lowrance electronics. It was a deal where I could go straight to my stuff and line up straight on exactly what I was throwing on. My Bullet XRS has been great all year and the Evinrude E-Tec what more can you say? I never had a malfunction or a failure."
Lake Chickamauga Patterns 2-5 Bassfan 7/3/13 (Todd Ceisner)