Tom Redington missed the final-day cut at last week's Lake Chickamauga FLW Tour by about half a pound. If he had it all to do over again, he might spend a little time on the lake's ever-popular community holes where the enormous schools of bass reside, but he feels like he maximized his potential by earning an 11th-place finish from out-of-the-way locales.
"I hardly looked at all on the main river (during practice)," he said. "I focused on the side channels and I avoided anything that looked obvious. I found about a half-dozen places, but even those were found by other people.
"There weren't as many schools (in the creeks), and the schools weren't as big."
He found himself fishing near Greg Bohannan and Ramie Colson Jr. for much of the event – and not always in the same location.
"We all found a lot of the same stuff. One time Bohannan called me in when he was 'on the juice,' and he certainly didn't have to do that."
He spent most of his time dragging a large Texas-rigged worm, although the last couple hours of each day, when the current hit its peak, usually produced some decent action on a swimbait and a spoon. On day 3, he fished almost exclusively with a dropshot rig.
"I had two spots that were about 2 miles apart and I'd fish one for an hour and get two bites at the most, then go back to the other one for an hour and it'd be the same thing," he said of day 3. "If I'd had to do that again for another day, it would've been excruciating.
"I figure if I fished the tournament like I did 10 straight times, 11th place is probably the best I'd ever do."
The Big Bite Lookback, which focuses on the angler who's first out of the final cut at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great folks at Big Bite Baits.
