Brad Knight's Pattern, Baits & Gear

Knight, the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup winner, had by far his best finish of a tough season Ð his previous high this year was a 42nd. It was his maiden trip to St. Clair and he's naturally already looking forward to returning. He found the spot he divvied up with Hays (located about 20 miles from the take-off) in practice, but didn't realize its potential until competition got under way.

"I found a big concentration of fish on the first day of the tournament and for the first 2 days I didn't fish there later than 10 o'clock," he said. "(On day 3) I stepped it up a little bit more and started expanding and learning more about the place. "I knew it had good ones and the more I fished, the more I learned about it and where the little sweet spots were. Dylan and I worked really well together and my hat's off to him. He had his little places and I had mine and we'd chat throughout the day and compare weights and try to leave at the same time to make sure we got back (for check-in). It was very affable and there were no problems whatsoever." His weigh-in fish were split about evenly between a dropshot rig and a tube.

Gear:

Dropshot gear: 7' medium-fast Lew's Custom Speed Stick Magnum spinning rod, Team Lew's Pro Speed Spin 300 spinning reel, 10-pound Gamma Torque braid (main line), 6-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon (15' leader) 1/0 Gamakatsu Split Shot/Drop Shot hook, unnamed goby imitation (perch) or Strke King Z Too (Arkansas shiner), 3/8-ounce Strike King Tour Grade tungsten weight.

Tube gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Lew's Custom Speed Stick Magnum Tube rod, same reel and line, 5/16-ounce Strike King Tour Grade tube jighead, 3 1/2" Strike King Coffee Tube (green-pumpkin/purple or copper flake).

Main factor in his success Ð "My objective in going there for the first time was to keep things simple. I did a lot of fishing in practice for the purpose of catching fish and marking concentrations of fish instead of places where it seemed like I was getting bites randomly."

FLW Tour St. Clair Patterns 2-5 BassFan 7/6/18 (John Johnson)