Zack Birge's Pattern, Baits & Gear

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)