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Sunline Strong Performer: St. Lawrence River

<b><font color=green>Sunline Strong Performer: St. Lawrence River</font color></b>

When it comes to smallmouth fishing, Matt Herren is like many of his Elite Series counterparts who hail from the South – he loves to fish for them, but the attraction to largemouth is sometimes too hard to ignore.

That’s been the case for Herren in past smallmouth events. He’ll say he’s committing to smallmouth patterns, but ultimately he fishes for largemouth.

Last week at the St. Lawrence River, where he finished 60th in 2013, Herren beat back the largemouth temptation, rigged up eight – yes, eight – spinning rods and got after some brown fish.

He was 34th after day 1, but made a big move up to 16th on day 2 with an 18-14 stringer and wound up finishing 14th with 52-06. He gained 10 spots in the Angler of the Year points and now sits in 14th place.

“I don’t get to fish for smallmouth very much and I still have a lot to learn, but at least my confidence is getting better at doing it,” he said. “It was good for points. Basically, it was all about survival and getting to the (Bassmaster) Classic.”

He caught some on a spinnerbait, a dropshot and a tube, but also did some flipping for largemouth on Saturday when his smallmouth areas started to peter out.

He said he has a better understanding now about how timing is so critical with smallmouth and how they relate to structure in the swift-moving clear water.

“They’re so aggressive when you find them that when you go back during the tournament, you have to hang around and re-locate the school,” he added. “What gets me in trouble is I get trapped running between schools instead of settling on a couple areas.

“The biggest scenario for me was getting over the phobia of fishing crystal-clear water. It’s taken me a while to get used to that clear water. I had to understand how the fish position while being able to see bottom in 25 feet.”

The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses ons 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.

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