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Wal-Mart FLW Tour Stop #3 Lake Norman – Charlotte, North Carolina
By Duke Jenkel
Lake Norman marked the third stop of the 2008 FLW Tour. Both of the first two tournaments were great learning experiences, with that said, this tournament most likely will be the single greatest learning experience of the entire tour for me, I’ll explain below.
Practice I normally practice with Jasper Engines and Transmissions pro Chad Morgenthaler, but he was not going to make it to Lake Norman until Monday due to the Toyota Texas Bass Classic being held at Lake Fork. Fortunately, I have been able to form a few friendships with other tour anglers, which allowed me to be able to practice all four days. The first two days of practice, I was in the boat with Coppertone Pro Wesley Strader from Spring City, TN. Wesley and I have been good friends for a couple of years, so I knew if the fish didn’t cooperate, we’d have a good time.
The Lake Norman fish were in all three phases of the spawn, with the greatest protion of those being in the spawn phase. As I practiced with Wesley we trolled the bank on high, looking for spawners. Coming from Southern Illinois, where the water doesn’t always allow us to see them, this was definitely shaping up to be very interesting. As Wesley and I fished, we saw numerous fish that wouldn’t be big enough to help him during the tournament, so he would slow the boat and practice catching a few of the spawners, just to help understand their mood. After about 4 or 5 fish, Wesley invited me to the front deck and began to give me a bed fishing tutorial. WOW, by the end of the second day, I could not only spot them, but could quickly understand if they were going to cooperate enough to be caught. The arsenal of baits that we used was relatively small. We used Zoom 6” lizards, a 3/8 oz jig, and a tube. Wesley explained that it’s not necessarily the bait that gets the fish to bite, you have to read their body language, and one of the three baits above will and can invoke a strike from a bedding bass. Of course any practice wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention that a large number of fish could be caught on a shakey head. Lake Norman is full of docks, and the pre-spawn and post-spawn fish were relating to these docks. With the water clarity at approximately 4 feet, the shakey head on light line was definitely going to be a player. The last day of practice with Chad also confirmed what I had seen with Wesley, as a co-angler, I had better be slinging old faithful around, that’s right the shakey head. One other pattern that seemed to be prevalent was a top-water bite early in the morning and in the afternoon. On several occasions during practice, I had extremely nice sized largemouth blow up on my topwater bait, enough so, that I was going to carry one with me during the tournament. As a note, it was especially nice to be able to fish with two different guys, to watch the way they approach the different situations, and the way they react. I can say without a doubt, all of these guys can see fish that most can not; Wesley and Chad have the eyes of ospreys, they saw fish that only after a while could I identify. So as I prepared my rods for the tournament, Here’s the list: 1 1 GLoomis 6’10” Shaky Head Rod Model # SHR822S rod spooled with 6lb Maxima Fluorocarbon line and rigged with a 1/8 ounce Lunker Lure Shaky Head Jig and a Reaction Innovations 4.95 Flirt worm in Green Pumpkin. 1 GLoomis 7’0” GLX rod model CBR 843C rod spooled with Maxima 10lb monofilament line and rigged with a Lucky Craft Sammy 100 in Chartreuse shad color 1 GLoomis 7’0” IMX rod model JSR 842C Spooled with 6lb Maxima fluorocarbon, rigged with an 1/16th ounce Lunker Lure Shaky Head and a Reaction Innovations 4.95 Flirt worm in Green Pumpkin 1 GLoomis 7’0” GLX rod Model # MBR844 spooled with 10lb Maxima Fluorocarbon, a 1/8th ounce weight and a 6” Zoom Lizard on a Gamakatsu 3/0 EWG hook.
Tournament Day 1 Finally Tournament day is here. I was drawn out as boat 5 and paired with Mike Hawkes from Sabinal, Texas. Mike was around a good number of fish, and assured me we would have plenty of opportunity to catch a few. He went on to tell me exactly how he was going to fish, and to a “T”, that is what he did. We spent our tournament day in the upper-lake region fishing for bedding fish and cruising fish. He did however start out on a dock that was holding some better quality largemouth. I was able to catch two early on the top-water, proceeded to lose the next fish, a quality 2lb bass, before boating number three. By 9am Mike had a limit, and we began to search new water. As we entered a cove, I saw two bedding fish; we came back to them, neither of which would help Mike. In an effort to help me get my limit, Mike stopped the boat and told me he would give me several casts to catch that fish. I honestly was surprised that anyone at this level would give up some of their time. I was also glad I got a two-day bed fishing tutorial from Wesley and Chad, on the second cast the fish swung sharply around on my bait, and on cast three I caught the 2lb bass. I owe Mike Hawkes a huge thank you. I managed to catch one more fish and had an opportunity at one other bedding fish that wouldn’t cooperate. I finished day one with 4 fish; I knew that the 2lber that got away was going to hurt me. In summary, I had a great partner, and had an excellent day on the water. I just failed to execute as well as I needed.
Tournament Day 2 My day 2 partner was John Tanner from Quitman, Texas. John is a guide on Lake Fork, and from my experience with him, if you are planning to go to Lake Fork, look him up. John was in decent position after day 1; I knew I needed to catch 4 more fish today to finish decent. Unfortunately for me, John’s fish set up on the docks in extremely specifics spots on the docks, this allowed John to be very efficient at catching them. He did slow down and allow me to catch one bedding fish, and I managed just one other off a dock as we were leaving it. The day ended with only two fish in my livewell, and I didn’t lose any today. I did however struggle to fish well, and in all honesty, I probably pressured my pro too much. I am going to have to learn to fish the water that is available to me a little better than I have been. Undoubtedly there was opportunities for me to catch fish, and I became too focused on the specific locations where John was catching his, and trying to catch fish in those places as well. Tournament Notes: Wow, losing a 2lb fish cost me a check and some serious points. I finished the tournament in 108th place, which really hurt, but I am still in good position in the point’s race, I’m currently 26th on the co-angler side. I definitely learned a ton about bed fishing this tournament, I feel now if there was a tournament where bed fishing was the deal, I could be competitive. A special thanks to Wesley Strader for letting me practice with him, and of course to my travel partner Chad Morgenthaler/ Good Luck and Good Fishin’,
Duke Jenkel |
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