Two bags in excess of 40 pounds were weighed in at tournaments over the weekend, including one by former FLW Tour pro Casey Martin.
Martin boxed 40-11 en route to victory in a BFL at Lake Guntersville in Alabama. He did most of his damage in a 10-minute period on a single point, catching a 9-pounder, two in the 8-pound class and a 7-pounder. His winning margin was more than 19 pounds.
Martin told FLW media that the 9-pounder was enticed by a swimbait on a 3/4-ounce Freedom Tackle Hydra Hybrid jighead. The other three from the magic point bit a 4-inch Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ and he later caught a 7-pounder on a Rat-L-Trap.
On the same day at Lake Shearon Harris in North Carolina, Shane Burns and fianceé Bonnie Kelly (pictured) weighed 42.9 pounds to Piedmont Bass Classics event. That stringer was topped by a 9 1/2-pounder.
Here's a recap of the day from Burns:
"I found a pre-spawn staging spot and it was loaded! We caught them on 3/4-ounce Dave's Tournament Tackle Tiger Shad spinnerbaits (golden shiner) with 5-inch Dave's Skinny Swim swimbaits (pearl), slow-rolling them. The first cast was a 19-inch slot fish. After that, every fish was 6-plus pounds. We had over 30 pounds in the first hour.
"We probably caught 18 to 23 fish that were over 6 pounds. My last cull was a 7.78 for a 7.21 at 3 p.m. I actually put a 7.21 and a 7.37 on a balance beam! We had two over 9 pounds (9.56 and 9.39). Our day was probably what fishermen expect on a trip to a private lake in Mexico, but we experienced it right here in North Carolina."
