Brent Chapmans Pattern, Baits & Gear

Brent Chapman split his practice between the Waccamaw River and the Cooper and eventually settled on the latter once the tournament started. "I'd planned on fishing the Waccamaw, but had two or three keepers bites there on the first day of practice," he said. "It wasn't a lot to build on. I knew Randy (Howell) was committed to the Santee and never left it. That was the other area I thought might pan out, but my homework told me the water levels weren't ideal for the Santee so I scratched it off." He had a flurry of bites on one stretch of the Cooper on the second day and tried to expand on it. He went back to the Waccamaw on Wednesday, but after getting just two more bites, he turned his attention back to the Cooper. "I figured I'd be an idiot to not go," he said. "I figured in three hours time I could get more than I could in 8 hours in the Waccamaw." He nearly scrapped his plan on the morning of day 1, but he eventually wound up in the Cooper. "Thanks goodness I didn't (not go)," he said. "I wasn't dialed in at that point. It's hard to expand with 3 hours to fish. I just beat the bank. Had only I just turned and casted over my right shoulder, who knows? They were out in that little depression." He caught two pitching a beaver-style bait and two throwing a Picasso Shock Blade on day 1 for 7-04. He still felt confident in choosing the mouth of the East Cooper River. "It's interesting because we think we have to have 10 different spot, but lo and behold, there was a lot more there than what I realized," he said. Over the next two days, he caught 31-plus pounds as he got dialed in on an ultra-shallow crankbait bite around grass. "(On Friday), I got back to the other side of my stretch and worked the bank," he said. "I tied on a shallow crank for the purpose of trying something else and the last 90 minutes was crazy. I caught a fish every five casts. I probably should've fished longer, but I knew I had enough for Saturday and I left an hour early." The crankbait accounted for most of his 16-09 on day 3 as he worked his way into the Top 10 heading into the final day. When the crankbait bite waned, he also caught fish on a TightLines Enko and a 7-inch worm - classic junk-fishing.

Crankbait gear: 7' medium-action Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting rod, Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 20-pound Gamma Polyflex line, various shallow-running crankbaits (shad). The key to his crankbait presentation was holding the rod tip up to prevent the plug from digging into the grass. He wanted it to barely tick the top of the vegetation about 2 feet down. The co-polymer line helped him achieve that as it kept the baits 6 to 12 inches higher in the water column than fluorocarbon.

Worm gear: 7'6" heavy-action Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting rod, same reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/8-oz. Picasso Tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Lazer TroKar EWG worm hook, 7" unnamed worm (green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "Without a doubt, it was coming down to pre-practice. That allowed me to get down here and at least see what my options were. I made the run from the Cooper River back to Georgetown so I didn't have to take a practice day to do that. I knew what to expect and that made a huge difference. I'm so glad and thankful that I came over to check it out. It's so big and so overwhelming, it was a confidence thing knowing my options ahead of time."

Performance edge: "My Triton/Mercury rig was great. I put roughly 1,000 miles on my boat this week."

Winyah Bay 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/13/16 (Todd Ceisner)

6 Options

Picasso Tungsten Worm Weights

$4.97 - $7.89

Lazer Trokar EWG Worm Hook

$4.99 - $12.99

5.0

3 Reviews

Video

Gamma High Performance Copolymer Moss Green

$10.95 - $17.95

5.0

3 Reviews

Gamma Edge Fluorocarbon Line

$20.95 - $289.95

5.0

2 Reviews

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