Carter Nutt Wins MLF TW Pro Circuit Stop 4 - Douglas Lake
Shop Carter's Winning Pattern, Baits - 48lbs 0oz
Earning the win, Carter Nutt stuck offshore and did most of his work with a plug - casting plenty and also strolling to reach the deeper schools. A handful of deep crankbaits did most of the damage for Nutt, with a Berkley Dredger 25.5 among them. He also caught fish on a jig with a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Crud Craw, a Scottsboro Tackle Top Hook Swimbait, a Nichols Mini Magnum Flutter Spoon and a Berkley Lab Series Minnow. Using 12-pound Berkley GinClear line was key for his cranking, and he also used pretty fast reels. For his deepest, biggest baits, he used a 7-foot, 11-inch, heavy Fenwick World Class stick paired with a 6.8:1 Abu Garcia Zenon X. For his slightly lighter-duty cranking, he used a 7-11, medium-heavy Abu Garcia Veritas Winch with an 8.3:1 Zenon.
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MLF TW Pro Circuit Stop 4 - Top 10
2nd Place - Dylan Nutt - 47lb - 10oz - $23,900
Leading after Day 2 and eventually losing narrowly to his twin brother, Dylan Nutt used a similar approach.
Cranking, Dylan went with a Berkley Dredger 25.5, and he also caught fish on a 3/4-ounce jig with a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Crud Craw and a Scottsboro Tackle Top Hook Swimbait. He used a 7-6, medium-heavy, moderate-fast Abu Garcia Veritas Tournament Edition stick to crank with, paired with a 6.8:1 Abu Garcia Zenon X and 12-pound Berkley GinClear. For his jig, he used a 7-3, heavy Abu Garcia Fantasista X paired with an 8.3:1 Zenon X and 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon. For the swimbait, he used a 7-4, medium-heavy Abu Garcia Zenon with a 6.8:1 Zenon X and 20-pound fluoro.
3rd Place - Keith Poche - 47lb - 0oz - $19,300
Douglas and nearby Cherokee both have a history of big-time tournament success in their upper reaches. Keith used his GatorTrax to get farther up the French Broad River than anyone else, and he reaped the rewards, catching unpressured bass with no company.
His best bait was a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Stank Bug, which he fished on a jig and on a 3/8-ounce Texas rig. He also used a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General on a 5/16-ounce shaky head, especially in the cleaner water. For his shaky head, he used 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon, a 7-1, heavy Fenwick World Class rod and an 8.3:1 Abu Garcia Zenon MG-X. For the Texas rig, Poche went with a 7-5, extra heavy Fenwick World Class, 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon and the same reel.
4th Place - Will Harkins - 45lb - 14oz - $17,400
Making his first Top 10 on the Pro Circuit, Will Harkins might have done more things than anyone else in the Top 10.
Harkins did his best work with a Strike King 8XD in green gizzard. On the docks the last day, he used a 19mm Hag's Prickly Pear rigged with a 1/0 treble and a 1/16-ounce weight. Cranking, Harkins rolled with a 7-11, medium Ark Invoker Pro, an 8.1:1 Ark Gravity 7 and 12-pound Berkley Trilene Big Game. His setup for docks was an Ark Essence Series spinning rod paired with a 3000-size Ark Gravity 5 reel with 15-pound braid and a 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon leader.
5th Place - Aaron Yavorsky - 42lb - 3oz - $16,500
Back on track after a toughie at Wheeler Lake, Aaron Yavorsky took the lead on Day 1 and stayed in the hunt the rest of the way.
Yavorsky plied a 6th Sense Crush 500DD, a 6.7-inch 6th Sense Bounce Worm on a 1/4-ounce shaky head and a 6th Sense Divine Shaky Worm on a 3/4-ounce C-rig. He used a 7-4 Fitzgerald Bryan Thrift Series rod for the crankbait and a 7-6, medium-heavy Fitzgerald All Purpose Series stick for the Carolina rig.
6th Place - Harbor Lovin - 42lb - 0oz - $15,600
Finishing up in sixth, Harbor Lovin surged up the leaderboard on Day 3, as the offshore bite seemed to be good on Sunday for a number of anglers.
For his minnow, Lovin used a 5/16-ounce Buckeye G-Stroll head with a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader and other 4- and 5-inch minnows. Most of his fish catching came on a Strike King 8XD, but a super important bait for him was the Bull Shad Live Gizzard, a deep-diving swimbait.
His rod for the Live Gizzard was a 7-11, extra-heavy FishUSA Flagship, and he used 20-pound K9 PRO100 fluorocarbon for it. He cranked with 12-pound K9 Original Fluoro and used K9 JDM Silk Braid on his minnow rod.
7th Place - Colby Miller - 41lb - 13oz - $14,700
Staying offshore, Colby Miller used a minnow and a jig.
Miller did his best work with the new 6.5-inch Berkley Lab Series Minnow on a 1/4-ounce head as well as a 3/4-ounce Epic Baits Tournament Grade football jig in PB&J with a matching Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Stank Bug.
8th Place - Brody Campbell - 41lb - 9oz - $13,700
Brody Campbell got himself back in the race for the Bass Pro Tour with a Top 10, and he mixed some wildly divergent patterns. Campbell rotated a slew of baits; a Heddon Super Spook worked well on the last day, and he caught a lot of fish on a shaky head as well. The one mainstay was of course his Bird Dog Rods.
9th Place - Bobby Lane - 41lb - 7oz - $12,800
Sitting in third after Day 2, Bobby Lane was in the hunt for the win. But he and a number of other anglers fishing the upper reaches of Douglas stalled out a bit on the last day, and he couldn't compete with the big days the Nutt boys put up.
Lane threw a bunch of baits, including a Berkley Cane Walker, a Berkley CullShad, and a Berkley Frittside 5. Fishing shallow and making long casts to schooling fish, Lane used 7-6 Abu Garcia Fantasista X rods, and a 7-6 Veritas PLX Winch for his crankbait. For his topwater, he used 40-pound SpiderWire DuraBraid. In Lane's opinion, the real star of the show was the Abu Garcia Revo X VoltiQ, which allowed him to make super long casts to fish his competitors couldn't reach.
10th Place - Drew Boggs - 41lb - 6oz - $11,900
Drew Boggs got to play to his strengths this week, and considering that Eufaula could be right up his alley, it'd be no surprise to see the Tennessee pro string three straight Top 10s together come June.
Fishing up the river, Boggs used a 1/2-ounce Greenfish Tackle Little Rubber Jig with a Zoom Super Chunk Jr., a 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait JackHammer in dirty shad with a Strike King Menace and a 1/2-ounce Dirty Jigs No-Jack Swim Jig with a Strike King Rage Craw trailer.
