TW_Staff
06-11-2009, 10:15 AM
Lloyd Pickett Jr. of Bartlett, Tenn. had a feeling that when he finally won, it'd be somewhere along the Tennessee River. He'd been close a lot of times, but last weekend he was finally able to clinch a win when he dusted the competition by 5 1/2 pounds at the Wheeler Southeastern Stren in Alabama.
“I’ve probably led four or five of these Stren events going into the last day and then blown it, so it’s quite a relief to finally win one,” said Pickett, who has been competing in FLW Outdoors events since 1997. “I love fishing summer patterns when the fish are postspawn, and this lake is just full of those kinds of offshore places where fish stack up, so I was in my element this week.”
Pickett lives on the Mississippi and fishes a lot of events. In fact, he withdrew from the FLW Tour in order to stack his schedule with FLW Series, Stren, BFL and local events.
"It was stormy – the winds were blowing 30 mph, it was pouring down rain, there were tornado sirens," he said. "The first thing I did was go out on a ledge. They've killed all the hydrilla on Wheeler and now, if you're a ledge fisherman, you can actually get out on the Decatur Flats and find some mussel beds and work them over pretty good with a Carolina-rig, jig and crank.
"You couldn't do that before with the hydrilla and milfoil. You had a flip a heavy jig or tube or throw a topwater."
On his third cast he caught a 6-12 and within 20 minutes had 17 pounds in the boat. He won the event and scored the big-bass award. He then refined the pattern in preparation for the Stren.
Immediately prior to the Stren he practiced 5 days and put together a slew different spots. Six of them were mussel beds that would spit out 4-plus-pounders, while the others produced mostly limit fish with an occasional 3.
"One of the key things I found was that, when you found the shell – that rough bottom – if there were skipjacks present, by which I mean the 5" and 6" shad, you were fixing to find some 4- to 6-pound bass. If the shad were 3 inches or smaller, the bass were smaller. Then, when you found the big shad, if they were drawing a lot of current, you could catch them with a 1-ounce spinnerbait with a big No. 7 blade, a Carolina-rigged Brush Hog, a big worm and a 3/4-ounce jig.
Things would change somewhat as the competition began however. The current diminished, the wind sat down and the fish were really only on the Carolina-rig and jig.
Competition:
Pickett had a poor boat draw for day 1 – in the mid-60s. He figured his best spot had been found by others, since the bass were busting big shad at the surface. When he got there, four boats were around it, but none were on the sweet spot.
He set out two anchors, slipped a buoy in so his co-angler would know where to throw, and caught about 40 fish in 4 hours, he said.
"When I had 23 pounds I quit," he added. "Everybody was watching me, so I didn't want to leave. I didn't want somebody else to pull up and catch another 23 pounds. I just left my other holes alone."
He ended the day in 1st with a 5-pound lead.
"I had a lot of guys watch me that first day," he noted. "I had three or four boats that honored the 50-yard rule, but they came close enough to hit the GPS to try to get on that spot the next day.
"I had a horrible boat draw the second day – boat 98. I knew that after having eight or nine boats watch me, and four GPS me, I wouldn't get back on there. I pulled up and a guy that had watched me the first day sat his boat down and threw an anchor right where I'd been sitting. I sat there for 30 minutes, outside the 50 yards, and he caught a couple keepers. He was throwing absolutely the wrong way, so I knew he couldn't catch them."
Pickett left and put together 16 pounds from his other holes with no current running.
"I didn't touch my primary spot – that boy sat there all day and every time I came back, he was still there. He'd matched everything I threw – the Carolina-rig Brush Hog and all that. He had everything ready that morning. He just didn't catch them."
Pickett retained his 5-pound lead with 1 day left to fish, except now the field was cut to the Top 10 and he got on his spot right away the morning of day 3.
"But there was absolutely no current, and no shad," he noted. "I knew those fish were still in the area, and they didn't get pounded on the second day, so I hung out for about an hour and caught one about 5 pounds, then one about 4."
He moved around a bunch the rest of the day to finish his limit, and his 12 1/2 pounds easily secured the win
Winning Patterns:
Asked to describe his primary area, Pickett said: "It was the first high spot, a hump, just off the (Decatur) Flats. But it had a ditch that fed into the Decatur Flats and went perpendicular to the river, so it was creating an eddy in there. So it was a ditch coming off the flats and hitting the river, and then you had this high spot that was almost kitty corner to where the ditch and river came together.
"The high spot hooked up to both the river and the ditch and made an eddy on the backside. The shells were there and the shad were grouped up, and the big bass were coming in and out of the river and the ditch. They'd come in, sit in the ditch and wait for the shad to come across, then push them up into 5 feet of water on the high spot and annihilate them."
Winning Gear:
Carolina-rig gear: 7 1/2' heavy-action Hammer rod and All Star rod (same length and action), Shimano Curado (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SCER) casting reel, 15-pound Berkley Trilene Big Game (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTBG) line (4-foot leader), 4/0 Gamakatsu round-bend hook (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=GWHRB), 1-ounce lead weight, Zoom Brush Hog (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZBBH) and Berkley Power Hawg (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BPPH) (watermelon/red and green-pumpkin).
Jig gear: 7 1/2' medium-heavy/fast All Star rod, same reel, 15-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BVF), 3/4-ounce Strike King Premier Pro Model jig (green-pumpkin/red), Strike King Rage Craw (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SKRCR) (green-pumpkin).
Main factor in his success – "The current was a huge factor on that first day. The current really pushes the shad into position and brings bass out of the ditches and deeper water and they gorge. If I'd had any kind of current the next 2 days I could have weighed that same weight. They drew a lot the first day, some the second and none the third. And you could tell by how the weights fell. Another key factor was the fact that, I don't know if it's fishing pressure, but you had to move the baits real slow. The slower the better. And it seemed like the slower you worked it, the bigger the bites you got."
Performance edge – "The Carolina-rig. I think the shad they were eating were 4 to 6 inches, and the Brush Hog's really about 6 inches long. I think if I threw a baby Brush Hog or lizard I wouldn't have got the bites I got with those bigger baits."
The Field:
James Johnson:
Johnson threatened Pickett’s lead today with a final-day rally of 15 pounds, 11 ounces. But Johnson ran into battery trouble at the last minute, came in four minutes late and was docked 4 pounds for it, knocking his official day-three weight down to just 11 pounds, 11 ounces.
Fortunately for Johnson, the penalty did not cost him the win. Even with the additional 4 pounds, he still would have finished runner-up.
“Man, at least I can rest easy in knowing it was not the penalty that cost me the win,” said a relieved Johnson when the weigh-in ended.
Johnson, too, was dialed directly into the mussel-bed pattern where bigger shad were spawning near the river channel.
During the week, he mostly relied on a ¾-ounce Tightline jig teamed with a Zetabait trailer. Today he added a 10-inch Berkley Power Worm (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BPW10) to his arsenal. Both were fished on 17-pound fluorocarbon line.
“Today I had to let the jig and worm sit real still on those mussel beds,” Johnson said. “Sometimes I’d let it sit there two minutes before I got a bite. It was a really weird bite, but I once I figured out that’s the way they wanted it, I got more bites.”
Jay Kendrick:
Similar to the other top finishers, Kendrick fished shell beds on the main river channel in the upper end of Wheeler, where big shad were spawning.
He used a homemade football-head jig teamed with a Zoom Superchunk (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSC) trailer in green-pumpkin, tied to 15-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon line (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SAFL).
“One key I found today was to let the jig sit still,” Kendrick said. “I tie my own skirts with the old-style, big rubber skirt material, and that seems to make the jig flare out a little better when it’s just sitting still, wavering in the current.”
Scott Canterbury:
Canterbury, too, fished some shell bars, but he also fished up shallow as well, flipping grass as well as overhanging bushes and limbs near the bank.
His main weapons included a variety of jigs including a Berkley finesse jig (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BIFJ) and jigs from Dirty Jigs Tackle. His jig trailers were Berkley Chigger craws (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BPCC) in green-pumpkin.
Ronnie Watts:
Watts fished shallow around bream beds early in the morning with a topwater toad and an Optimum Double-Diamond (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ODDS) swimbait. In the afternoon he moved to docks to target shade with a ½-ounce Shooter jig.
TW Staff
“I’ve probably led four or five of these Stren events going into the last day and then blown it, so it’s quite a relief to finally win one,” said Pickett, who has been competing in FLW Outdoors events since 1997. “I love fishing summer patterns when the fish are postspawn, and this lake is just full of those kinds of offshore places where fish stack up, so I was in my element this week.”
Pickett lives on the Mississippi and fishes a lot of events. In fact, he withdrew from the FLW Tour in order to stack his schedule with FLW Series, Stren, BFL and local events.
"It was stormy – the winds were blowing 30 mph, it was pouring down rain, there were tornado sirens," he said. "The first thing I did was go out on a ledge. They've killed all the hydrilla on Wheeler and now, if you're a ledge fisherman, you can actually get out on the Decatur Flats and find some mussel beds and work them over pretty good with a Carolina-rig, jig and crank.
"You couldn't do that before with the hydrilla and milfoil. You had a flip a heavy jig or tube or throw a topwater."
On his third cast he caught a 6-12 and within 20 minutes had 17 pounds in the boat. He won the event and scored the big-bass award. He then refined the pattern in preparation for the Stren.
Immediately prior to the Stren he practiced 5 days and put together a slew different spots. Six of them were mussel beds that would spit out 4-plus-pounders, while the others produced mostly limit fish with an occasional 3.
"One of the key things I found was that, when you found the shell – that rough bottom – if there were skipjacks present, by which I mean the 5" and 6" shad, you were fixing to find some 4- to 6-pound bass. If the shad were 3 inches or smaller, the bass were smaller. Then, when you found the big shad, if they were drawing a lot of current, you could catch them with a 1-ounce spinnerbait with a big No. 7 blade, a Carolina-rigged Brush Hog, a big worm and a 3/4-ounce jig.
Things would change somewhat as the competition began however. The current diminished, the wind sat down and the fish were really only on the Carolina-rig and jig.
Competition:
Pickett had a poor boat draw for day 1 – in the mid-60s. He figured his best spot had been found by others, since the bass were busting big shad at the surface. When he got there, four boats were around it, but none were on the sweet spot.
He set out two anchors, slipped a buoy in so his co-angler would know where to throw, and caught about 40 fish in 4 hours, he said.
"When I had 23 pounds I quit," he added. "Everybody was watching me, so I didn't want to leave. I didn't want somebody else to pull up and catch another 23 pounds. I just left my other holes alone."
He ended the day in 1st with a 5-pound lead.
"I had a lot of guys watch me that first day," he noted. "I had three or four boats that honored the 50-yard rule, but they came close enough to hit the GPS to try to get on that spot the next day.
"I had a horrible boat draw the second day – boat 98. I knew that after having eight or nine boats watch me, and four GPS me, I wouldn't get back on there. I pulled up and a guy that had watched me the first day sat his boat down and threw an anchor right where I'd been sitting. I sat there for 30 minutes, outside the 50 yards, and he caught a couple keepers. He was throwing absolutely the wrong way, so I knew he couldn't catch them."
Pickett left and put together 16 pounds from his other holes with no current running.
"I didn't touch my primary spot – that boy sat there all day and every time I came back, he was still there. He'd matched everything I threw – the Carolina-rig Brush Hog and all that. He had everything ready that morning. He just didn't catch them."
Pickett retained his 5-pound lead with 1 day left to fish, except now the field was cut to the Top 10 and he got on his spot right away the morning of day 3.
"But there was absolutely no current, and no shad," he noted. "I knew those fish were still in the area, and they didn't get pounded on the second day, so I hung out for about an hour and caught one about 5 pounds, then one about 4."
He moved around a bunch the rest of the day to finish his limit, and his 12 1/2 pounds easily secured the win
Winning Patterns:
Asked to describe his primary area, Pickett said: "It was the first high spot, a hump, just off the (Decatur) Flats. But it had a ditch that fed into the Decatur Flats and went perpendicular to the river, so it was creating an eddy in there. So it was a ditch coming off the flats and hitting the river, and then you had this high spot that was almost kitty corner to where the ditch and river came together.
"The high spot hooked up to both the river and the ditch and made an eddy on the backside. The shells were there and the shad were grouped up, and the big bass were coming in and out of the river and the ditch. They'd come in, sit in the ditch and wait for the shad to come across, then push them up into 5 feet of water on the high spot and annihilate them."
Winning Gear:
Carolina-rig gear: 7 1/2' heavy-action Hammer rod and All Star rod (same length and action), Shimano Curado (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SCER) casting reel, 15-pound Berkley Trilene Big Game (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTBG) line (4-foot leader), 4/0 Gamakatsu round-bend hook (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=GWHRB), 1-ounce lead weight, Zoom Brush Hog (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZBBH) and Berkley Power Hawg (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BPPH) (watermelon/red and green-pumpkin).
Jig gear: 7 1/2' medium-heavy/fast All Star rod, same reel, 15-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BVF), 3/4-ounce Strike King Premier Pro Model jig (green-pumpkin/red), Strike King Rage Craw (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SKRCR) (green-pumpkin).
Main factor in his success – "The current was a huge factor on that first day. The current really pushes the shad into position and brings bass out of the ditches and deeper water and they gorge. If I'd had any kind of current the next 2 days I could have weighed that same weight. They drew a lot the first day, some the second and none the third. And you could tell by how the weights fell. Another key factor was the fact that, I don't know if it's fishing pressure, but you had to move the baits real slow. The slower the better. And it seemed like the slower you worked it, the bigger the bites you got."
Performance edge – "The Carolina-rig. I think the shad they were eating were 4 to 6 inches, and the Brush Hog's really about 6 inches long. I think if I threw a baby Brush Hog or lizard I wouldn't have got the bites I got with those bigger baits."
The Field:
James Johnson:
Johnson threatened Pickett’s lead today with a final-day rally of 15 pounds, 11 ounces. But Johnson ran into battery trouble at the last minute, came in four minutes late and was docked 4 pounds for it, knocking his official day-three weight down to just 11 pounds, 11 ounces.
Fortunately for Johnson, the penalty did not cost him the win. Even with the additional 4 pounds, he still would have finished runner-up.
“Man, at least I can rest easy in knowing it was not the penalty that cost me the win,” said a relieved Johnson when the weigh-in ended.
Johnson, too, was dialed directly into the mussel-bed pattern where bigger shad were spawning near the river channel.
During the week, he mostly relied on a ¾-ounce Tightline jig teamed with a Zetabait trailer. Today he added a 10-inch Berkley Power Worm (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BPW10) to his arsenal. Both were fished on 17-pound fluorocarbon line.
“Today I had to let the jig and worm sit real still on those mussel beds,” Johnson said. “Sometimes I’d let it sit there two minutes before I got a bite. It was a really weird bite, but I once I figured out that’s the way they wanted it, I got more bites.”
Jay Kendrick:
Similar to the other top finishers, Kendrick fished shell beds on the main river channel in the upper end of Wheeler, where big shad were spawning.
He used a homemade football-head jig teamed with a Zoom Superchunk (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSC) trailer in green-pumpkin, tied to 15-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon line (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SAFL).
“One key I found today was to let the jig sit still,” Kendrick said. “I tie my own skirts with the old-style, big rubber skirt material, and that seems to make the jig flare out a little better when it’s just sitting still, wavering in the current.”
Scott Canterbury:
Canterbury, too, fished some shell bars, but he also fished up shallow as well, flipping grass as well as overhanging bushes and limbs near the bank.
His main weapons included a variety of jigs including a Berkley finesse jig (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BIFJ) and jigs from Dirty Jigs Tackle. His jig trailers were Berkley Chigger craws (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BPCC) in green-pumpkin.
Ronnie Watts:
Watts fished shallow around bream beds early in the morning with a topwater toad and an Optimum Double-Diamond (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ODDS) swimbait. In the afternoon he moved to docks to target shade with a ½-ounce Shooter jig.
TW Staff