Scott Canterbury's tournament didn't end when he weighed four fish for 10-00 on day 1 of the Forrest Wood Cup. His Lake Murray adventure was just getting started.
"Twelve to 13 pounds a day is what everybody wanted to do," he said. "I felt like I was on the right pace. I was right there. I fished so clean. It was a strange thing."
There's no telling how day 1 or his tournament for that matter would've gone had he not hand-lined a fish back to the boat after his line broke in his reel upon setting the hook. His 10-pound bag had him in 16th, but he moved up the ledger each day after that.
"Eighty percent of the time you're going to lose that fish," he said. "It was one of those deals where strange things happened."
He made a critical decision toward the end of day 2 to scrap his plan to target schooling fish on the lower end of the lake and instead power-fish shallow water with a buzzbait and jig.
He targeted shallow grass with a clean bottom out in front on days 2 and 3 before focusing more on dock piers on the final day when he caught 13-14 to finish 2nd to Anthony Gagliardi.
"It was all about covering new water," he said. "If there was a fish up there that hadn’t seen a bait it would bite. They were so aggressive, but if you went to a place where you'd catch one, it seemed like the others would just look at your bait and not bite.
"If I could've figured that out during practice, I could've won by 5 or 6 pounds. If we went to new places fish would just choke the bait."
The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses on the angler who makes the most significant single-day move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.
