Larry Nixon's Pattern, Baits & Gear

Larry Nixon spent several days downstream at Lake Guntersville during the week prior to the event, primarily honing his graph-reading skills. He said the best place he found during practice at Chickamauga, which was within sight of where Wooley won the event, stuck out on a map like a sore thumb. Evidently, a lot of competitors either missed it or weren't nearly as impressed by its potential as he was. "I was boat (No.) 105 on the first day and I about had a stroke when I showed up and there wasn't another soul there," he said. "Wooley showed up and started about 200 yards away, and there was nobody where he wanted to go, either. "It was an underwater bar in the middle of a creek, and it was the only one in there. It had a defined point to it and the fish tucked around on the sides. I guess people just missed them." His fish were in the 17- to 19-foot range - considerably deeper than Wooley's (12 to 15 feet). The action tailed off severely on the final day for both him and Wooley, and he had to settle for a pedestrian limit pulled from the mussel beds at the bases of bridge pilings. He caught all of his fish on either a Carolina-rigged Senko or a Texas-rigged Yamamoto Kut Tail Worm.

Carolina-rig gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Dobyns Champion rod, older model Abu Garcia Revo casting reel, 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line (main line), 17-pound Tatsu leader (3 feet), 1-ounce Mojo Carolina Slider weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu round-bend offset-shank hook, 5" Yamamoto Senko (green-pumpkin).

Worm gear: 7'4" medium-heavy Dobyns Champion Extreme rod, same reel, 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, 3/16-ounce Mojo Slip Shot weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu EWG offset-shank hook, Yamamoto Kut Tail worm (green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "Probably just having lots of patience. I couldn't get in a hurry - I had to hold the boat as still as I could and it was one situation where it would've been nice to have an anchor. I had to sit right on my markers because if I ever moved off, I'd probably never find the right spot again.

Performance edge: "No doubt it was the Lowrance electronics. It's just something I've gotten comfortable with and I've learned to read it real well. When I was down at Guntersville I really got zeroed in on what I needed to be seeing."

Lake Chickamauga 2-5 Patterns BassFan 6/17/15 (John Johnson)

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