Mark Daniels Jr.'s Pattern, Baits and Gear
Mark Daniels Jr. caught more than 100 pounds in the Championship Round and made a valiant attempt to chase down Lucas at the end of the day. He was the winner of the previous day's Knockout Round, which he barely qualified for - he was the 20th-place finisher in Group A with a two-day total that was almost 130 pounds less than Lucas compiled. He had little confidence entering the Knockout Round and almost opted not to check on a place where he'd found fish during practice, but had been barren on each of the handful of times he'd visited it during the tournament. "I rolled over and it seemed like every bass in the lake was magically there," he said. "They'd decided to come back. Their timing was perfect."
The place was a large shoal on the bay side of the Door Peninsula. "I stayed on the outside of the shoal and casted to the top," he said. "The school would bust up a little bit after a while and then I'd pick off individuals using (Garmin Panoptix) LiveScope." Almost all of his fish bit a Ned-rigged Z-Man Finesse TRD.
"There was so much natural current due to the wind that I didn't have to work the bait - if I worked it, I wouldn't get bit. Letting the natural current wash it over the top of the shoal was the best presentation. "Just trusting my electronics and trusting my gut was the biggest thing for me. I knew that I'd found fish in several places and I had to have faith to go back and revisit them."
Gear:
Ned rig gear: 6'8" medium-action Favorite Fishing Hex rod, 3000-size Platinum spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown flash green braid (main line), 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon (7' leader), 1/5-ounce Z-Man Finesse ShroomZ jighead (green-pumpkin), 2.75" Z-Man Finesse TRD (green-pumpkin or green-pumpkin goby).
FLW Tour Lake Guntersville 2-5 Patterns - BassFan 7/20/20 (John Jonson)
