DAYTON, Tenn. — You know you’re doing something right when you’re throwing back 4-pounders. Such was the case for Gage King and Banks Shaw of the University of North Alabama, who tallied a two-day total of 54 pounds, 10 ounces to win the Bassmaster College Series event at Chickamauga Lake.
Both juniors majoring in geography, King and Shaw placed second on Day 1 with 27 pounds. Turning in a second-round bag of 27-10, they claimed a hard-fought victory by a margin of 4-11 over Day-1 leaders Dalton DeFelice and Evan Ludlow of the University of Montevallo.
“It never goes like that out here for us,” Shaw said. “Usually, you’ll get a big bite and several solid bites and then you’ll have a really good bag. We had a big bag the first day, but it was mainly a 9-6 that helped us.
“Today, it was all solid ones, and we were fishing the same stuff. Yesterday, we had a 3 1/4, a 3 1/2 and a 3 3/4 in our bag that we couldn’t cull. Today, our smallest was a 4 1/2-pounder, and we threw back some 4-pounders. It was pretty crazy.”
Committing their tournament to ledges and bars in 15-25 feet, the winners sought small schools of fish that were likely to be overlooked. King and Shaw kick-started their morning with a 7-pounder and had their limit by about 8:30.
The winners caught several fish on a Strike King 10XD in citrus shad and green gizzard. Both days, they’d start with crankbaits to catch the most aggressive fish and energize the school.
Once the fish were fired up, they’d pick off targets with a Damiki rig comprised of a 3/8-ounce Picasso tungsten ball-head jig with a 6-inch Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ and a 3/4-ounce Picasso football jig with a Zoom Super Speed Craw trailer.
Describing key technique details, King said: “With the crankbaits, we changed angles on the fish. We got a couple of key culls by showing the fish a different look from what they’d seen.
“With the football head, we changed the cadence. We’d work it like a spoon, then slow down. The more active presentation was best.”
Despite a solid second-day start, King and Shaw knew that victory would require a stronger performance. A gutsy decision would lead them to the opportunity they sought.
“After catching our limit, we went to one of our main areas from yesterday and the fish weren’t there,” Shaw said. “So, we just started bouncing around and checking new stuff, because I knew those fish would set up at some point and I didn’t want to waste time sitting there.
“While we were looking, we stumbled across a school that hadn’t been there all week. My local knowledge told me they should be going there, and we just happened to look at it at the right time and we caught two of the fish we weighed in there.”
DeFelice and Ludlow finished second with 49-15. After taking the first-round lead with 29-7 – the event’s heaviest bag – they added a Day-2 limit of 20-8.
“We fished the same midlake area we fished on Day 1,” DeFelice said. “It was a 5- to 6-acre area, but there was a 400-yard stretch where it went down.”
During practice, DeFelice and Ludlow noticed a stretch of bluegill beds in 7-8 feet of water while they were exploring their area’s offshore composition. They didn’t fish the beds during practice, but when the ledges that delivered their Day-1 mega-bag turned stingy, they switched gears and focused mostly on that bluegill opportunity.
A Strike King 10XD crankbait and a custom-painted Biggs Denali glidebait produced Felice and Ludlow’s Day-1 fish. On Day 2, they caught one fry-guarder (male bass protecting hatchlings) on a 1/8-ounce jig head with a 5-inch Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ, with the glidebait producing the rest.
“I would look at my (Garmin) Livescope and watch for active fish,” DeFelice said. “If it was swimming fast, I knew it was ready to eat, so I would try to cast the glidebait ahead of the fish and work the bait in front of him.”
Fisher Heard and Hunter Brewer of the University of North Alabama placed third with 42-15. Their daily weights were 17-10 and 25-5.
“We spent both days at the dam and fished rock piles in 8-10 feet,” Heard said. “We just stayed in the (tailrace) all week and fished anything that would break the current.”
Anchoring their second-round bag with an 8-pounder, Heard and Brewer caught their fish on a 1/2-ounce Davis Baits scrounger with a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader and a dropshot with a 4 1/2-inch Zoom Finesse Worm.
“We never really expected to have 25 pounds; we were expecting 15 to 18,” Heard said. “It just turned out that there were a lot of big fish there. It’s just about getting the right bites at the right time.”
King and Shaw won the Big Bass award for their 9-6.
