Scott Canterbury's Pattern, Baits & Gear

Scott Canterbury had a hard time catching fish out deep in practice so he devoted half of the last day of practice to seeing what he could find up shallow. Eventually, he migrated back out and recorded his 15th career top-10 finish in a Tour event. Conditions in practice weren't ideal for locating schools of fish off shore. "It was rough idling," he said. "The wind muddied up the flats. The weather wasn't good and the fish weren't out there either. On the Tennessee River, you have to have some mid-80 to 90-degree days to get those fish on the move." When the tournament started, he'd committed to fishing deep, but he had a flipping rod rigged and ready just in case. There was a may fly hatch going on and he'd caught a 3 1/2-pounder in practice shallow. "I knew I was committed after catching a few out deep," he said. "I idled a bunch during the tournament and on day 4, too. I've only been fishing deep for 5 years. I'm growing with it and learning each time out." While others in the Top 10 had success in the 12- to 16-foot range, Canterbury's baits were in the 18- to 30-foot range before he'd get bit. "The secondary stuff had bigger fish," he noted. "The main channel had bigger schools, but not the quality. Most of my fish were in smaller groups and there were just bigger fish around. Some spots had mega schools, but the quality was not as good." His bigger fish came on a swimbait or deep-diving crankbait and he filled his limit with a 9" finesse worm on a shaky head or dropshot. He fished from north of Paris Landing to the dam through the event. On Sunday, when he caught his best stringer of the week, he stuck with moving baits. Two came on a paddletail swimbait and three came on a deep-running plug. "I didn't catch a ton, but every one was quality," he said. Looking back, there's not much he'd change about how worked his way through the event. "Maybe not dropshot as much," he said. "It got me in the top 10 so I can't complain. I wanted to get a good finish and get a check and get points to get to the Cup and I ended up doing better than that, so I wouldn't change anything."

Swimbait gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Halo Fishing Twilite Series casting rod, Ardent Apex Elite casting reel, 15-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, 1-oz. Dirty Jigs Scott Canterbury swimbait head, unnamed 6" and 7" hollow-belly swimbait (shad patterns). The key to his swimbait presentation was letting it sink to the bottom and a slow, steady cadence on the retrieve. "After you caught one or two, they'd bust up," he said. "After that, I wouldn't let it go to the bottom."

Cranking gear: 7'10" extra-heavy Halo Twilite rod and a new Ardent cranking reel with a 5.3:1 gear ratio. When he resorted to finesse tactics, he threw a 1/4-oz. jig head with a 9" NetBait Super T Mac worm (black). "That's what got me into the top 10," Canterbury said.

Main factor: "I didn't lose any fish. I fished clean and that's huge in a tournament like this."

Performance edge: "Just confidence in what I was doing and relying and trusting my Lowrance electronics. I did a lot of idling and looking and spent a lot of time staring at that screen."

Kentucky Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 6/17/16 (Todd Ceisner)

P-Line Ultimate Fluorocarbon Line

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Ardent Apex Elite Casting Reels

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