Wood Key For Baumgardner, Docks For Gallagher

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Both Chris Baumgardner and Casey Gallagher have fished Wheeler Lake in the fall before. However, neither said the fishing at the TVA impoundment before and during last week's Rayovac Series Championship squared up with how they'd caught bass there in the past.

As such, both were forced to set aside their memories and fish the here and now. For Baumgardner, the seasoned FLW Tour pro, that meant chucking a big spinnerbait around log jams in one of Wheeler's major feeder creeks. Meanwhile, Gallagher, who prior to this season hadn't fished an FLW event since 2010, drew a beat on several stretches of docks and keyed in on fish in the backs of pockets.

The end result for both was the same –– a 40-00 total over three days of competition. Baumgardner won the tiebreaker for 2nd place based on heaviest single-day weight (18-05 on day 2) while Gallagher settled for 3rd. Aside from the cash each collected, both locked up berths to next year's Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita.

Below are additional details about how Baumgardner and Gallagher picked apart Wheeler Lake.

2nd: Chris Baumgardner

> Day 1: 5, 10-01
> Day 2: 5, 18-05
> Day 3: 4, 11-10
> Total = 14, 40-00

Baumgardner, a North Carolinian who qualified for the championship via the Northern Division, initially thought Wheeler's towering bluff walls would hold some good fish for the tournament, but that line of thinking went south during practice.

"I've fished those lakes at this time of year before and I kind of had an idea how to catch them," he said. "I thought we'd catch them on bluffs, but that wasn't working real good. The bait's out there and fish are suspending this time of year."

Eventually, he worked his way into the Elk River and started heaving 3/4-ounce spinnerbaits and ChatterBaits around logjams on many of the mud flats.

"The first day was a little slow until I figured out a few things and what to look for," he said. "Once I started with the ChatterBaits and spinnerbaits, I had three 5- or 6-pounders. I started thinking about 15 pounds a day would be good."

He said the log jams were easy targets. Part of the logs were sitting on dry land and the rest was hanging out over the channel. He'd position his boat in 12 to 14 feet of water and throw his bait nearly on dry land and bring it back out.

"The fish had to pull out somewhere," he said. "They were just on old mud bank flats and the river ran up right close to them. It gave the shad a place to pull up out of the current and the fish were up there feeding on them. It wasn't anything special really."

Upsizing the blades on his spinnerbait was key, he said.

"I figured it would trigger bites and bigger bites, too," he added.

He opened the tournament with a modest 10-01 bag, but made a big move into the Top 10 on day 2 with 18-05.

He pulled away from the dock on the final day in 2nd place, just under 3 pounds behind leader Richard Peek. Windy conditions on day 3 hampered his game plan, though.

"That wind really blew on Saturday and that hurt me a lot," he said. "It was blowing right down with the current on the section I'd been catching them on and it made it hard to a throw a spinnerbait in there. I tried smaller spinnerbaits and I tried flipping, but the fish just weren’t biting for me.

"I had a main-lake spot I'd been hitting early. I'd caught a 5 and lost a big one there on day 2. I caught a 4-pounder on the spinnerbait first thing on the final day and went up the Elk to where I caught the 18 pounds and never caught a fish there."

He stayed on his best spot until noon, but with just one fish in the livewell, he pulled out of there and fished a set of bluffs that he'd fished on past trips to Wheeler.

"I hadn't even practiced on them so I didn't know what was there, but I caught three there and that's what got me up to 2nd anyway," he added.

After missing this year's Cup, Baumgardner was more than pleased to pre-qualify for next year's event at Lake Ouachita.

"Everybody likes that," he said. "This year, I really wanted to make it to Lake Murray. I fished all year with that in mind and I kind of made sure I was catching enough fish at each tournament. Then at the last tournament I got to thinking I could catch them on ledges at Kentucky Lake and I had an awful day and bombed out. This way, I don't have to worry about that next season."

> Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Duckett Fishing White Ice casting rod, Duckett Fishing casting reel (6.3:1 gear ratio), 17-pound Seaguar Red Label fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. War Eagle double willow spinnerbait (white/lime/chartreuse), Zoom Split Tail trailer (chartreuse glitter).

> With the fish feeding on shad, Baumgardner felt the profile of the Split Tail trailer made a difference in triggering strikes.

> Main factor in his success – "Probably using a bait that was a little different from everybody else and having multiple patterns I could do go to. I've been noticing more and more lately that it helps to have three patterns going in a tournament. You know one will probably go away and maybe two will, but if you have three, one will likely hold up for you. I heard Roland Martin say that a while ago and it really works. Four or five deals is maybe too much because there are too many decisions to make. Three's about right."

> Performance edge – "I have to credit my Evinrude. Having to run that river the last day, it got me back in."

3rd: Casey Gallagher

> Day 1: 5, 14-14
> Day 2: 5, 9-10
> Day 3: 4, 11-10
> Total = 14, 40-00

Gallagher's quest last week centered mainly around financing his trip to Alabama from Wisconsin. Bottom line: He wanted to cash a check big enough to cover his travel expenses.

The third-place showing that earned him a berth in next year's Cup more than exceeded his expectations and it came on the heels of his victory at the NABC North Region Championship in early October at the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis.

"It's been a good month," he quipped. "I was very excited to have made it (to the championship) and do as well as I did. The Cup is just a bonus. It wasn't even part of my goals when I went down there."

Oddly enough, Gallagher had some experience at Wheeler in early November dating to the Rayovac Series Invitational held there in 2010. He finished 58th at that event, but came away with an understanding of how the bass behave in the fall on the Tennessee River.

"I learned about a lot of stuff that worked, but this time I had to do it differently," he said. "I had to go to a different area since the fish were holding in different spots."

He headed down the week prior to the tournament and fished nearby Wilson Lake for a day before official practice at Wheeler started the Saturday before competition.

He couldn't rekindle any of his patterns from 2010 at the start of practice and he shifted to search mode not long after.

"The fish were very shallow in 2010 up in Spring Creek and they were eating Rat-L-Traps and (Sebile) Magic Swimmers," he said. "I didn't find them very shallow in the Elk so obviously they were out on the edges this year."

He started keying in on docks later that day – "I had a piece of the puzzle there," he said – and decided to launch up the river the next day.

"I caught some good spots, but couldn't get any big bites," he said. "I must've caught 60 fish, but none had any size to them."

By Monday, he'd boiled his search down to five sets of docks.

"I'd catch a good one on every set," he said. "I knew the fish were there and I had enough areas."

On the final day of practice, he tapped into some fish feeding on shad in the backs of pockets, but it was nothing more than a plan B in his mind.

The docks he targeted on day 1 of competition were as close to the main lake as he could find and he pitched a jig at them to score a good starting limit for 14 pounds by 12:30 p.m.

"I fished some out-of-the-way stuff after that because didn't want to burn any more fish than I had to," he said.

He scrounged up 9-10 on day 2 fishing the same dock pattern to qualify for the final day in 9th place.

Getting out of the wind on day 3 was vital and once he found a group of docks that weren't getting blasted, he realized the fish had moved out to the first ledge on the outside of the docks.

"I realized the water had dropped 10 degrees," he said.

He promptly boated a 3-pounder, then a 5 1/2-pounder and had a limit within 20 minutes.

"There were definitely better sets of docks than others," he said. "On day 3, knowing they were there and deciding to get off what I was on and staying in the area was key. It was all about making the right adjustments at the right time."

He said the majority of his bites off docks in practice came around the walkways – "the second or third post out from shore in 8 or 9 inches of water," he said – but the fish gradually pulled out off the bank during the week.

"It was amazing how situational they were," he said. "If you found them on one dock in one position, they'd be on the next one in the same place. It was my first time fishing docks in a tournament like that so it was interesting to see."

> Flipping/pitching gear: 7'4" heavy-action St. Croix Legend Tournament casting rod, Shimano Core Mg casting reel, 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Dirty Jigs Tour Level pitchin' jig (green-pumpkin craw), Net Bait Paca Chunk trailer (green-pumpkin).

> Swimbait gear: Same rod, reel and line, 3/8-oz. unnamed football jighead, 4" Keitech Swing Impact (electric shad).

> The swimbait was his go-to bait when fishing the backs of pockets. "I threw it when they missed the jig," he said. "They'd never come back to the jig a second time, but I found they'd eat a swimbait laying on the bottom. I'd let it settle to the bottom and give it one little hop, then they'd hit it."

> Main factor in his success – "Taking my time on the docks was key. There were quite a few people around docks, but nobody really committed and that's probably why they didn't catch them. On day 1, I caught a 4-06 and then went 3 hours without another bite. I stuck with it and knew that once I figured out where they were again, I knew I'd run into them sooner or later."

> Performance edge – "My Minn Kota Talons were essential with the wind and fishing the docks. It was important being able to position boat and concentrate on fishing versus holding the boat."

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