Bradley Hallman Wins FLW Lake Lanier

Bradley Hallman had competed at Lake Lanier one time prior to last week's FLW Tour event. It was a Professional Anglers Association (PAA) derby nearly a decade ago and he didn't fare well, but that memory helped him determine where to focus his practice time on his second visit. A bit of Internet research helped, too. "The other time I went up the river (to fish for largemouths) and got trounced," he said. "This time, going off the results of (a recent) BFL, I knew the spots were really going on in the bottom part of the lake and I knew that last time I didn't catch anything in the river. "Just from looking at the lake, I was really intrigued by all the docks and stuff at that bottom end." Hallman fished the lower portion for the first 3 days of last week's event, making solid adjustments to keep up with the ever-changing weather conditions, to establish a commanding lead. Then he switched locations and species for the final day to lock up his second Tour victory in a little more than two calendar years. His 68-04 total for 4 days gave him a 2-10 margin over runner-up and fellow Oklahoman Zack Birge. The wire-to-wire triumph propelled him from 78th place to 33rd in the Angler of the Year race - inside where the cutoff for the Forrest Wood Cup will fall as he attempts to qualify for the circuit's championship event for the first time. Following are some of the specifics.

Practice:

Like most of the field, Hallman spent the majority of the 3-day practice period in the southern part of the lake, where the blueback herring that the spotted bass feast on are most prevalent and the "Kentuckys" get the fattest during their annual pre-spawn feed-up. "I thought I could take a jig down there and get a pretty good bite going with it," he said. "I didn't get it going so much on the docks as on the shoals and islands out in the middle of the lake. "I had a lot of 3- and 4-pounders just nipping at the jig, but when I switched to a shaky-head it usually wouldn't even make it to the bottom. They'd just throw their head back and swallow it. "By the time practice was over I'd say I had at least a dozen points, shoals and stuff like that I felt pretty good about," he continued. "We had very little wind in practice, but I figured when it blew on the first day (of the tournament) I could get bit on the same places, but I might have to fish differently." He surmised that a 16-pound stringer would equate to a good day and 18 to 19 would be really good. Little did he know that he'd box considerably more than that in the opening round.

Competition:

The bulk of Hallman's massive day-1 bag was accrued from a single point - the second one he stopped at that morning. "They were just there," he said. "My first cast with a jerkbait I caught one close to 6 pounds, and then I got a 4 a few minutes later. After awhile I switched to a swimbait and caught two more 4s. "Before it was done, I had like 19 pounds off that point." He said fortune definitely smiled upon him that day.

"I didn't have a clue there was a group of fish there like that. It was just a place I'd found in practice where I'd gotten a few bites dragging a shaky-head. I was hoping that would happen in some of those places - with the wind blowing and the front coming, they'd really get up on top and feed." He made one big upgrade late in the day that helped him for day 2. He'd fished some seawalls on the outer edge of marinas during practice, but hadn't been able to dial in a consistent bite. He hadn't tried the swimbait on them. He visited one at about 1 o'clock, after then sun had positioned the fish tight to the structure, and caught a 5 3/4-pounder within his first five casts. "I thought tomorrow, if the points don't play, this is what I'm going to do."

He caught just one small keeper off the points on day 2 and that was the only fish in his livewell when he arrived at the marina in the early afternoon. Before the day was over, he collected five specimens that extended his lead from less than 3 1/2 pounds to more than 7. The marina gave him one good fish - a 4 1/4-pounder - on day 3, but that was it. The sun was still out for most of the day, but he thinks the biggest difference was a complete lack of wind. He moved into the docks and picked up some 2-pound-class fish that allowed him to keep his advantage at 5 1/2 pounds. He had about 20 minutes to fish after arriving back near the launch in Gainesville, Ga. It had begun to rain, and he made some casts with a spinnerbait to the dogfennel (a type of grass) in the Chattahoochee River. "I hooked two and I lost a 3-pounder," he said. "I started thinking that night, I knew there was no way I was going to cahttp://bassfan.com/news_article/9169/hallman-s-bait-species-changes-were-key#.Wqf7roJG3q0tch them on that bottom end the next day with it raining all day. "I decided I'd stay up and throw the spinnerbait for at least an hour or 2, and I caught two or three so I stayed with it until I had a limit. The I went down to the bottom for 2 hours and got no bites, so I came back and made one cull. I should've just stayed there all day." In the end, that fruitless 2-hour foray to where the big spots live didn't hurt him.

Winning Pattern:

The fish he caught from the points and shoals on day 1 were in the 10- to 15-foot depth range. The seawall fish were suspended at 5 to 10 feet in water that ranged from 30 to 135 feet deep. The dock fish were in 10 to 20 feet of water and the river-dwelling largemouths were in 5 feet or shallower.

When fishing the seawall, Hallman made long, parallel casts and let the bait sink for 4 to 5 seconds. "I'd engage the reel and then just turn the handle really slow. Those fish would hit it so hard that they'd bruise your wrist. They'd knock a foot of slack into the line and the hook would be all the way back in the white part of their throat."

Retrieve speed wasn't an issue on the points on windy day 1. "They were so aggressive that I couldn't get two cranks before they had it."

The dock fish generally wouldn't take the shaky-head on the fall. "I'd have to let it hit the bottom and then finesse it around a little bit."

He got a look at almost every fish before it inhaled the spinnerbait on day 4. "It was the outside edge of the dogfennel and the bait would flutter over a piece of grass and you'd see them come up and flash on it."

Winning Gear:

Jerkbait gear: 6'6" medium-heavy older model All Star TX40 rod, unnamed casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 10-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, Megabass Vision 110+1 (sexy ghost).

Swimbait gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Falcon Amistad rod, same reel (7.1:1 ratio), 15-pound unnamed fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce Buckeye Lures J-Will jighead, 3.8" Keitech Fat Swing Impact swimbait (sexy shad).

Shaky-head gear: 6'9" Fenwick Elite Tech rod, Lew's Mach II Speed Spin reel, 10-pound Power Pro braided line (main line), 10-pound unnamed fluorocarbon leader, 1/4-ounce War Eagle jighead, Zoom Trick Worm (green-pumpkin).

Spinnerbait gear: Same rod and reel as swimbait, 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait (white with silver double willow-leaf blades).

The reason he can't name a make or model on his casting reels is the graphics on them are all in Chinese. He purchased them on eBay.

Main factor: "The biggest key was getting that swimbait going on the first day. I realized that was going to be special."

Performance edge: "The Chinese reels, without a doubt."

FLW Tour Lake Lanier Winning Pattern BassFan 3/13/18 (John Johnson)

Birge, whose residence in Blanchard, Okla. is less than a half-hour drive from Hallman's place in Norman, set a personal record by catching a 5-06 spotted bass on the final day. He said it was the fourth time during the week he'd set a new standard for himself. He focused exclusively on points that tapered out into the main Chattahoochee River channel. The bulk of his fish came from the 8- to 15-foot depth range, but he caught a few out to 18 or 20. "Almost all of (the points) had fish, but some had more and better ones than others," he said. "I rotated through six or eight points and I hit each one four or five times each during the day."

All 20 of his weigh-in fish were enticed with a small swimbait that he threw on both spinning and baitcasting gear. It was a prototype YUM Pulse model that will be introduced this year at ICAST. He didn't sort through a lot of numbers - the majority of his bites were of tournament quality. "I had to fish really, really slow - it was important to maintain bottom contact constantly. I was getting six to 12 bites a day." He was in 20th place after day 1, but catapulted to 3rd with an 18-03 haul the following day. He moved up to 2nd on day 3 and held that position through the final round.

Winning Gear:

Swimbait gear: 7' medium-action Falcon Cara rod, unnamed spinning reel, 10-pound P-Line TCB braided line (main line), 10-pound P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon (15 to 18' leader, 1/4-ounce ball-head jig, 3 1/2' prototype YUM Pulse swimbait.

He used straight 10-pound P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon on his baitcasting set-up. He switched to that rig on the final day braid-to-fluoro knot caught on a guide in his rod and broke a couple of times (he thinks that phenomenon might've been caused by the rain).

Main factor: "I knew that a storm front was coming through and I spent most of practice trying to fish a pattern that would work in those conditions."

Performance edge: "The rod, line and bait set-up. The bait's just different and something the fish hadn't seen before. It's got some pretty unique features that some other swimbaits don't have."

FLW Tour Lake Lanier 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/14/18 (John Johnson)

Unlike Birge, Joseph Webster mixed things up in terms of baits. He caught his day-1 fish cranking, then threw a shaky-head and flipped docks on day 2. He went back to the crankbait and added a spinnerbait over the final 2 days. He never strayed far from the launch ramp in Gainsesville, Ga. He employed the crankbait and shaky-head in the same type of cover. "I was mostly in the backs of pockets," he said. "I'd find a secondary point or a pile of rocks or a few stumps and there'd usually be 10 or 12 fish in each place. Most of them were 6 or 8 feet deep."

His dock fish were suspended and he had to get his bait far back underneath the structures - often skipping it. "It was usually the last dock in the pocket where the water was 5 or 6 feet deep. They'd be sitting under the floats in the dirty water." He targeted largemouths with the spinnerbait, but caught only two - one in practice and one in the tournament. He weighed 20 spotted bass during the event.

Winning Gear:

Cranking gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Hammer Fishing Cranking Stick, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 12-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Bill Norman Deep Little N (chartreuse/black back).

Shaky-head gear: 7' medium-heavy Hammer Fishing spinning rod, Shimano Sustain spinning reel, 8-pound Seaguar InvizX flurocarbon, 3/8-ounce Buckeye Lures Spot Remover jighead, Zoom Trick Worm (green-pumpkin).

Flipping gear: 7'3" Hammer Fishing flipping stick, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 17-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon, 7/16-ounce 4x4 jig (green-pumpkin), Zoom Super Chunk Jr. trailer (green-pumpkin).

Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Hammer Fishing rod, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon, unnamed 1/2-ounce spinnerbait (yellow/white with No. 5 and No. 4 gold and silver willow-leaf blades).

Main factor: "Staying close to the ramp gave me more fishing time."

Performance edge: "Probably that Hammer cranking rod. I had to kind of baby the bait across the rocks and when the fish would get the bait, the rod would double up. I didn't lose a fish on it all week."

FLW Tour Lake Lanier 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/14/18 (John Johnson)

Jason Johnson, who lives in nearby Dawsonville, Ga., fared the best of a handful of local competitors who fish Lanier year-round. "I fished a lot of history from 20 years of being out there all the time," he said. "I didn't go to any of my best places during official practice because I didn't want to be seen there. "I had more than I could've fished, but I had a handful I wanted to check on day 1 and after I caught a decent bag, I decided I need to focus on them and rotate through them and give them a break. The key was pulling up at the right time."

Those places had water in the 22- to 30-foot depth range. Much of the time, the fish were suspended about 10 feet off the bottom and they were suckers for a weightless, wacky-rigged worm - usually biting it on the fall. He also picked up a few with a small swimbait. He said it was critical to make long casts. "You need to stay off the top of those places at Lanier. If they've got a boat on top of them, they don't tend to hang around too long."

Winning Gear:

Worm gear: 7'3" medium-action Daiwa Cronos rod, Daiwa Tatula 2500 spinning reel, 20-pound Seaguar Kanzen braided line (main line), 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon (8' leader), size 2 Decoy hook, Zoom Fluke Stick (natural shad with split tail removed).

Swimbait gear: 7' medium-action Daiwa Tatula rod, Daiwa Tatula HD casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 10-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, 1/4-ounce ball-head jig, Keitech 3.3 (pearl white).

Main factor: "Just having confidence in those places."

Performance edge: "With the wind blowing like it was the first couple days, it was definitely my Phoenix boat."

FLW Tour Lake Lanier 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/14/18 (John Johnson)

Braxton Setzer said that a pre-practice trip he made to Lanier before the lake went off-limits paid off handsomely for him. "I came over for a couple days and spent both of them riding around, looking at the lower end. I only fished for a couple hours. "By the end of practice I felt like I had 50 or 60 places I could get bit on, and that number got cut down by what I saw other guys on. I was able to find a couple more in the tournament that benefited me."

Depth was the critical factor in his program. "If I could find a place, even offshore like a hump or something, if it touched 25 feet on the highest part of it, I could get bit off it. Some places got shallower than that and the fish would come up to feed and then they'd drop off the side." It was primarily vertical fishing for the first 3 days with a Ned rig-style bait. He switched to a swimbait on rainy day 4. He caught two weigh-in fish on a jerkbait.

Winning Gear:

Worm gear: 7'4" medium-action Phenix M1 rod, Shimano Stradic spinning reel, 15-pound Yo-Zuri braided line (main line), 6- or 8-pound Duel fluorocarbon (15- to 20-foot leader), 1/8-ounce Nichols Toad Stool jighead, 5" Yamamoto Senko (green-pumpkin candy).

Swimbait gear: 7'7" medium-action Phenix Feather rod, same reel and line, 1/8-ounce prototype Nichols jighead, Keitech 3.3 (rainbow shad).

Jerkbait gear: 7'1" medium-light Phenix Feather rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 10-pound Yo-Zuri 100% fluorocarbon line, Duel Hardcore Flat 110 (ghost pro blue).

Main factor: "I felt like if I was around fish, it was fairly easy to get them to bite. Anytime I couldn't see them on the graph in one of my areas or I couldn't get bit casting, I wouldn't stay long. I knew if they were there, they were going to bite."

Performance edge: "If I had to narrow it down, I'd say my Lowrance electronics. Without them I couldn't have seen those fish I was catching. I was video game-fishing a lot and the graphs played a big role in that." Read more: http://bassfan.com/news_article/9174/options-abounded-all-over-the-lake#.Wqlap4JG2i4#ixzz59kbl732X

FLW Tour Lake Lanier 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/14/18 (John Johnson)