Russ Lane got off to a strong start at the Wheeler Lake FLW Tour Open, catching his best fish from a school located on some deep, offshore structure. The only problem was he was unable to pinpoint other schools that he could pull a SPRO Fat Papa 70 crankbait through and connect.
He remained in the Top 10 the first 2 days after weighing 15-10 on day 1 and 11-04 on day 2, but an 8-01 limit on day 3 dropped him to 11th and he missed the final-day cut by 1-01.
“This was a weird tournament because you had such drastic condition changes between practice and the tournament,” he said. “In practice, it was almost impossible to find fish out deep. It was really cool and the skies were dark all 3 days. The wind was blowing – it was just not the conditions to find fish deep.
“But on the Tennessee River, nine times out of 10, the tournament is going to be won out there on a ledge somewhere. That’s just how it is. This one was setting up perfect for that with the bright skies and the conditions that were coming in. I’d finally found one school on the last day of practice, but I was going to have to find more during the tournament to have an opportunity to win.”
He caught some early fish on day 1 flipping a Big Bite Baits Coontail Worm around docks and laydowns in creeks. He then moved out to his schooling area and immediately culled up to 16 pounds within 30 minutes.
“I thought, maybe I can make this last for 2, days so I went out and started looking for more deep fish, but I never found any the rest of the day,” he said.
Day 2 started with a 4-pounder out deep followed by a couple other short strikes that felt like good fish. Then came the turning point.
“I finally slowed my retrieve down and a dang giant just ate it – like a 6- or 7-pounder,” he said. “He came up and jumped and had the bait completely inhaled and as he was pulling back down deep, the bait just came out of his mouth. I don’t even know if I ever had the hooks in him. That bite right there is what did me in.”
He went back to flipping to finish his limit and felt he likely would’ve made it through to Sunday if he’d committed to shallow areas on day 3, but he was hung up making a charge to the top of the leaderboard.
“Looking back, I probably could’ve gone back and pitched the Coontail to laydowns and docks in creeks and caught 11 or 12 pounds pretty easily and made the cut, but it still wouldn't have given me the opportunity to win,” said the Prattville, Ala., resident. “So I just stayed on the ledges and kept looking for another school of fish. In June, that’s probably the better plan when the fish are coming out to you, but I was actually behind them as they were already going to the bank. Looking back, I probably should’ve gone to the bank with them, but that tournament still was going to be won on the ledges so I’m okay with what I did.
“I know I’m not the only one, but I’m so consumed with trying to win one of these tour-level events that I let that affect my decisions when I feel like I’m in a position to be close.”
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.
