Following are the patterns of the anglers who finished 3rd through 5th at the Guntersville BASSMASTER.

3rd: Tom Biffle

Here's how Biffle fished in the tournament:

> Day 1: 12-08
> Day 2: 21-07
> Day 3: 18-12
> Day 4: 18-09

Obviously something changed between days 1 and 2. But it wasn't just that Biffle saw the big limits Kelly Jordon, Kevin VanDam and others weighed-in on day 1, and went out and tried to catch more on day 2. It was something different.

Biffle said he had one goal in mind when he arrived at Guntersville: make sure he qualified for the BASS Masters Classic. So his strategy going in was to play it safe: he opted to fish a Carolina rig on a single hump for 12-13 pounds per day.

Everything was going according to plan until he ran back to the day 1 weigh-in. "I had a few minutes left to fish, so I ran over to this laydown tree, pulled out my flipping stick and caught a 4-pounder on the first flip," Biffle said.

As BassFans are well aware, flipping is Biffle's passion. That single 4-pound bass set Biffle on fire. When he caught it, he said, "I decided that on the second day I would go flipping after I got my limit."

Day 2: As soon as Biffle's fifth Carolina-rigged keeper landed in the livewell, he went flipping. "I just ran up the river looking for logs, stumps, docks -- anything made of wood."

He put his flipping stick to work and quickly boated 21-07, in the process culling every fish from the Carolina rig hole.

And that's what he did for the remainder of the event: Biffle fished the Carolina rig hole until he got a small limit, and then flipped wood for bigger fish. Not only did he maintain good catches for the rest of the tournament, on day 3 Biffle weighed the big fish of the day: 8-12.

Biffle's gear:

> Carolina rig: 20-pound mainline and leader; 1/2-ounce weight; 2/0 Owner hook; green-pumpkin lizard.

> Flipping equipment: 3/8-ounce Rattleback jig (black/blue); Biffle MegaCraw trailer; 40-pound test Stren Magnathin; All-Star 7 1/2 foot Titanium flipping stick; Quantum Energy 600 reel.

4th: Randy Blaukat

During the practice rounds on Guntersville, high winds hampered the fish-finding efforts of many pros. Randy Blaukat was no exception.

"The only bait I could use effectively during practice was a crankbait," he said. "I checked several areas I'd fished in previous tournaments and I could barely stay on those areas in practice."

In one spot Blaukat caught "just a couple of keepers" on a crankbait. It wasn't until he returned there the first day of the tournament (when the winds had died) that he could stay on the area and refine his technique.

He fished a main-lake hump in the upper portion of the lake that was "a long cast from the main river channel." The hump was flat on top, 4-6 feet deep, with scattered milfoil growing about a foot off the bottom. Blaukat said he was catching mostly pre-spawn fish.

"I fished up and down the whole flat -- there wasn't one key spot," he said. "The strange part was that the water was really mixing there. One place would be dirty, then I would fish down a hundred yards, and it would be clean. I focused my efforts on the cleaner water."

Blaukat actually caught smaller limits each day -- 22-10, 18-00, 16-01, 14-08 -- but fished so well initially that he outdistanced most of the field.

Baits and tackle:

> Once the winds subsided, Blaukat settled on Texas-rigged lizards and craw worms for his primary baits. He used a 6-inch Luck 'E' Strike Enforcer Lizard (green pumpkin) -- the tail died orange with Spike-It dye -- and a Luck 'E' Strike MegaCraw (green pumpkin). He used a variety of sinker weights to match the wind. "For each plastic bait I had a range of weights from 1/8 to 3/8 tied on to adapt to the wind changes -- I tried to use the lightest sinker I could get away with," he said.

> The baits were tied to 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon. He also used a Megabass Destroyer 6' 9" rod teamed with a Quantum baitcaster.

5th: Tim Horton

> Day 1: 21-14
> Day 2: 15-01
> Day 3: 15-13
> Day 4: 18-00

At Guntersville, Tim Horton focused on post-spawn bass relating to main-lake ridges. "The ridges were in 3-5 feet of water with milfoil on top," he said.

On days 1-3 he fished 1/2-ounce Cordell Spots in chrome/blue back and shad colors. For these baits he used a 7-foot Pflueger Trion rod in a medium-light action, a Trion baitcasting reel and 15-pound McCoy Mean Green line.

On day 4 he switched to a spinnerbait to give the fish a new look. Judging by the increase in his day 4 weight, it worked.

For spinnerbaiting his bait of choice was a 9/16-ounce Riverside Counter Attack spinnerbait (white/chartreuse) with a Colorado/willow blade combination. He used the same reel and line, but switched to a medium-action Trion rod.