Nick Hatfield Wins MLF Bass Pro Tour Heavy Hitters
Shop Nick's Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear
Tennessee pro Nick Hatfield scored his first BPT-level win and did it primarily from one spot. a prominent main lake point near the Smith Mountain Lake State Park that ended up producing much better than he expected. Hatfield also hit a few similar points nearby and cashed in on the feeding flurry each morning. He found those points in practice, did the forward-facing stuff, and caught a few like that. He also rotated through your typical herring baits but couldn't catch many of them. It developed as the tournament happened, but he realized he didn't need forward-facing and could drag up shallow and catch them as long as you could keep your bait out of the rocks.
One of his primary weapons was a 3.8-inch Geecrack Bellows Gill on a free rig with a 4/0 Hayabusa hook with a 3/8-ounce drop-shot weight. Among his other baits were a 7-inch minnow on a 3/16-ounce Scottsboro Tackle Hellfire Finesse Jighead with a 4/0 hook, a 5/8-ounce SPRO Aruku Shad, and a Scottsboro Tackle Line Through Swimbait. All baits were in various shad patterns.
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MLF Bass Pro Tour - Heavy Hitters - Top 10
2nd Place - Justin Lucas - 29lb - 0oz - $30,000
Weighing roughly half smallmouth and half largemouth, Lucas stuck to the lower end of the lake and used three main lures: a jighead minnow, soft plastic jerkbait, and a Berkley Magic Swimmer 125 in chrome.
3rd Place - Dustin Connell - 22lb - 15oz - $20,000
Connell had one of the most diverse gameplans of the final 10 anglers, catching them across the lake with various approaches. He sampled the lakeÕs lower end near the dam and multiple rivers and creeks.
T h e d r o p - s h o t q u a l i f i e d m e t o f i s h t h e f i n a l d a y , a n d Ihe w a s u s i n g a g r e e n R a p a l a C r u s h C i t y J a n i t o r W o r m o n a 1 / 0 V M C N e k o H o o k a n d 1/4 - o u n c e V M C t u n g s t e n w e i g h t . T h e l a s t d a y , he c a u g h t t w o n i c e s m a l l m o u t h o n a g i z z a r d s h a d C r u s h C i t y F r e e l o a d e r o n a 1/4 - o u n c e V M C H y b r i d J i g h e a d .
4th Place - Cole Floyd - 19lb - 14oz - $28,000
He was using white Strike King Sexy Frog and a 3/8-ounce Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover Swim Jig with a white Strike King Rage Bug on the back. Those were his two main weapons, and was fishing them on main river stuff, bluffs, and channel swings. He was looking for places where the shad spawn was happening in the mornings.
5th Place - Edwin Evers - 16lb - 10oz - $15,000
T h e f i r s t d a y , he c a u g h t s o m e o n a N e d r i g , b u t m o s t o f t h e m c a m e o n a s p i n n e r b a i t , a 1/2- o u n c e B e r k l e y P o w e r B l a d e i n w h i t e w i t h s i l v e r d o u b l e w i l l o w b l a d e s . I t w a s a l l a b o u t h i g h p e r c e n t a g e a r e a s ; s o m e w o u l d b e s h a d e f r o m o v e r h a n g i n g t r e e s , a n d s o m e w e r e o n c u r r e n t r e l a t e d p o i n t s .
E v e r s a l s o u t i l i z e d h i s 3 0 - m i n u t e r i d e - a r o u n d p e r i o d e a c h m o r n i n g t o s c a n f o r t h e s h a d s p a w n .
He w o u l d r u n a r o u n d a n d l o o k f o r t h e b i r d s a n d m a r k t h e m a l l. He then would f i s h t h o s e s t r e t c h e s , m a i n l y o n s t e e p e r b a n k s o r r i p r a p .
6th Place - Zack Birge - 14lb - 13oz - $14,500
Birges was running bluff banks chasing the shad spawn and then targeting shade. The first couple days, he caught quite a few fish on a 3/8-ounce TrueSouth LiveWire Three-Blade Spinnerbait in the payday color, but the ChatterBait was the predominant bait of the week, using a 3/8-ounce Z-Man Evergreen Jack Hammer ChatterBait with a minnow trailer in a green shad color.
7th Place - Matthew Stefan - 11lb - 3oz - $43,500
He w a s f i s h i n g a n y w h e r e f r o m t h e f i r s t b r i d g e t o a s f a r a s one c o u l d g o , t h r o w i n g a 3 / 8 - o u n c e C o r e T a c k l e S w i m J i g i n G o l d i l o c k s w i t h a B e r k l e y P o w e r B a i t G r a s s P i g o n t h e b a c k o r a 1/2- o u n c e w h i t e v i b r a t i n g j i g w i t h a w h i t e B e r k l e y P o w e r B a i t P o w e r S t i n g e r . T h e s w i m j i g w a s f o r w h e n he w a s a r o u n d b u s h e s b e c a u s e i t w o u l d go t h r o u g h b e t t e r , a n d he u s e d t h e v i b r a t i n g j i g i n m o r e o p e n a r e a s , a n d t h e s t e e p e r r o c k s s e e m e d t h e b e s t.
8th Place - Drew Gill - 10lb - 10oz - $12,500
He targeted deeper bed fish around stumps and shallow brush with a Big Bite Baits Nekorama in green pumpkin on a Neko rig with a 3/32-ounce weight.
9th Place - Jeff Sprague - 9lb - 15oz - $111,000
He mixed it up all week, fishing a few miles on either side of the Hales Ford Bridge and into the Roanoke River, but stayed shallow with a 1/2-ounce white swim jig and a 3/8-ounce vibrating jig. He used two trailers, a Lake Fork Trophy Lures Magic Shad and Pro Craw, both in ice pearl white.
10th Place - Michael Neal - 6lb - 5oz - $8,000
He was the 3/8-ounce SPRO Blade spinnerbait in shad and pearl white shades with a Big Bite Baits Kamikaze Swimon Split Tail on the back. The spinnerbaits featured double willow blades, one gold and one silver.
