Chris Zaldain's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Zaldain's runner-up finish was his second of the year - he also placed 2nd at Lake Lanier. He won the tiebreaker over Arey by virtue of the heaviest single-day haul, which he caught on day 3. He relied on a single location for the first three days. He described it as a "mini-ledge" that featured a shell bar with eel grass behind it. The productive area spanned no more than 50 yards and nobody else fished it during the event.
"The grass patches were real blotchy; I called them points," he said. "The bar in front of the blotchy grass was where the fish were. My Humminbird 360 showed me exactly where I needed to cast on the grass lines and the breaks." His bait arsenal consisted of a Neko-rigged worm, a crankbait and a big spoon. His fish came from 12 to 14 feet of water. His hot spot was rendered ineffective by the powerful wind on day 4. He caught a pedestrian limit on a swimjig from other locales and got some big bites on the spoon late in the day from a place within 5 miles of the ramp in Scottsboro, Ala. He caught a couple of those, but several others eluded him.
Gear:
Neko-rig gear: 6'11" medium-light Megabass Destroyer Addermine rod, Shimano Sustain spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid (main line), 12-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon (5' leader), size 2 Trokar finesse hook, unnamed 6" straight-tail worm (redbug), 1/16-ounce Eagle Claw Pagoda tungsten nail weight.
Cranking gear: 8'8" medium-heavy Megabass Destroyer Mark 48 rod, Shimano Curado casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Megabass Big M 4.0 (ayu).
He said the crankbait ran to a depth of 12 feet. He chose the color to imitate the yellow bass that the largemouths in that area were eating.
Spoon gear: Same rod, reel and line as crankbait, 2 1/4-ounce Daiwa Steez spoon (chrome).
The spoon was designed by fellow Elite Series competitor Yusuke Miyazaki. Zaldain said he asked Miyazaki whether he had any when both were in the parking lot after day 1. He was hoping to get just one, but Miyazaki gave him three.
BASS Elite Guntersville 2-5 Pattern BassFan 6/27/19 (John Johnson)
