Thirty years of fishing the James River paid off for former Bassmaster Elite Series pro Rick Morris, who won the second Northern Open of 2017 on Saturday.
The Lake Gaston, Va., angler weighed in a 16-11 sack and finished with a three-day total of 43-15. Morris received the top prize of a $45,000 Skeeter bass boat/Yamaha outboard rig and $6,784 in cash. He also qualified for the 2018 Bassmaster Classic, contingent upon him fishing the Northern Open finale at Douglas Lake in September.
Morris ran to the Chickahominy River Saturday morning and noticed a “dead low” tide when he got there.
“So, the bite was pretty fast and furious, and I caught a lot of fish early because the water is clean when it is low,” he said.
Morris’ vast experience on the river helped him put together the patterns that produced on all three competition days. He caught his fish on a Texas-rigged 6-inch Riverside ring worm (grape and powder blue) and Ditto worm in black and blue, a 3/4-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait and a 1/2-ounce War Eagle jig tipped with a Strike King Rage Craw. He knew bass on the James River feed on blue crabs, so he decided to use blue worms throughout the tournament to mimic the forage.
The worms produced best for Morris early Saturday morning. “I caught a good one of about 3 1/2 pounds and lost a real giant in a brush pile,” he said. “Then the tide started coming back in and the water was getting dirty, so we went to pitching the War Eagle spinnerbait and caught a few more.”
During midday, Morris moved out to the main river and started fishing dock blinds and barges with the War Eagle Jig and Strike King Rage Craw in various colors. Morris said he caught his fish the first two days running about the same spots and fishing with the same lures.
Henrico, Va., angler Jeff Hamilton finished 2nd in the pro division with 42-14. He decided to stick close to home Saturday and fished around the Osborne Landing area.
“I feel real comfortable fishing there, so that is what I did,” he said. “I just kind of grinded it out.”
The 40-year-old car salesman caught most of his fish Saturday on a Zoom Trick Worm. He also caught fish throughout the week on a Rapala DT6 crankbait, a Chatterbait and a Rebel Pop-R.
Here are the final totals for the top 12:
1. Rick Morris: 43-15
2. Jefferson Hamilton: 42-14
3. Shin Fukae: 40-14
4. Garrett Paquette: 39-14
5. Greg Dipalma: 39-07
6. Pete Gluszek: 39-02
7. Carl Jocumsen: 37-02
8. Cameron Smith: 36-11
9. Seiji Kato: 36-11
10. Jake Whitaker: 35-11
11. Cody Pike: 35-03
12. Matt Madlener: 28-11
