Mike Reynolds won the Clarks Hill Bassmaster fishing stained water up the Savannah River. His mixed bag of tricks included cranks, tubes and spinnerbaits. But it was a close tournament, and if not for the
final fish he caught in the last 10 minutes of competition, it would have been Jimmy Mize on stage holding the trophy.
Clarks Hill is a massive waterbody, and the pros had only 2 1/2 days to explore its 70,000 acres. Since it's been three decades since the last time BASS visited, only a handful of the competitors had ever seen the lake before.
Practice was brutal. Below-freezing temperatures at night, then howling winds in the afternoon, left the field in scramble mode. The biggest choice surrounded water clarity. In the main lake, water clarity was 6 to 8 feet, but up the rivers it dwindled to 6 inches to a foot.
And the fish were sluggish. They were still on a late-winter pattern and starting to stage, but the cold front put the hurt on their lips and most weights declined significantly after day 1.
Here's how the rest of the Clarks Hill Top 5 caught their fish.
2nd: Jimmy Mize
> Day 1: 5, 18-09
> Day 2: 5, 10-00
> Day 3: 5, 12-02
> Day 4: 5, 11-11
= Total: 20, 52-06
Jimmy Mize focused his practice on deep crankbait fish. "We were catching all our fish on deep crankbaits in practice – an old Rebel 1015 VR. (Rebel) only made them for a couple of years.
"I didn't fish hydrilla. I was trying to find clean banks and just fish rocks and stumps. I was about 8 minutes from takeoff, and you could see probably 6 feet down in the water. I was throwing firetiger in the clear water, which surprised everybody."
He caught most of his practice fish in 8 feet, but in the tournament, they moved up to 6 feet. "I was fishing the main lake, staying out on the very edge. What I fished wasn't anything very interesting – just a little long point that came out to the main lake. There was an island off it, and a little saddle in-between with gravel. Three-quarters of my fish came off that spot.
"I believe the fish were sliding up there to feed. It was a nice little flat area that had a little grass. The first day I had 18 pounds there, but the rest of the fish I caught were 13-inchers."
He had several similar island/saddle combinations that he also fished. When the crank stopped working, he switched to a Carolina rig in the same areas.
> Main factor in his success – "Just fishing this lake is a whole lot like fishing at home on Ouachita or DeGray (Ark.). Clarks Hill fishes the same way those lakes fished before they got grass in them."
> Cranking gear: 7'6" medium Quantum Tour Edition inshore saltwater rod, Quantum Energy casting reel ("5:1 gear ratio"), 12-pound Trilene XT line (green), Rebel 1015 VR crankbait (firetiger).
> Carolina rig gear: 7'4" heavy Quantum Tour Edition rod, Quantum 860 PT casting reel ("6:1 gear ratio"), 10-pound Trilene XT line (green), 2' leader of 15-pound Berkley Trilene XT (clear), 1 red bead, barrel swivel, 1/2-ounce bullet-shape weight, 2/0 Owner offset hook, Zoom Finesse Worm (watermelon seed) and Lake Fork Tackle Ring Fry (watermelon candy).
Terry Butcher worked laydowns up the Little River with an orange-blade spinnerbait.
3rd: Terry Butcher
> Day 1: 5, 16-07
> Day 2: 5, 12-04
> Day 3: 5, 12-00
> Day 4: 5, 9-05
= Total: 20, 50-00
Tour rookie Terry Butcher threw blades on wood, but caught one flipping fish on day 4. "On the first day of practice, I pretty much figured out they were on laydowns, and the second day of practice, I pretty much figured they were on the ends of the laydowns in about 8 feet of water," he said.
"And where I caught them, it was kind of on the points going into the pockets. I also found some laydowns on the main creek channel in the pocket that were coming into 8 feet of water. The key to the pattern was laydowns in 8 feet of water."
His area was up the Little River and he covered about "15 miles" of bank. "The water was stained – you could see a spinnerbait to about a foot. But that was a drawback. My water was clearing up on me and I kept having to move further back."
And his fish moved, too. "I had one area where I caught my fish the first day. That was the only day I caught them there. So I caught fish in another area on day 2, but that didn't work on day 3. But on day 4, I caught them on my day 3 spot. So I fished mainly the same big area, but caught them on different spots."
> Main factor in his success – "Sticking with what I had going and just having faith in it until they bit."
> Spinnerbait gear: 6'6" medium-heavy Falcon rod, Quantum PT 860 casting reel, 50-pound Power Pro braided line, 1/2-ounce Red River Tackle spinnerbait (white/chartreuse, Gamakatsu trailer hook, No. 5 gold Indiana and No. 2 orange Colorado blades).
> Flipping gear: 7' medium-heavy Quantum flipping stick, same reel, 20-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS Fluorocarbon line, 4/0 Gamakatsu Superline hook, 1/4-ounce weight (not pegged), 4" Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver (big Texan).
David Wharton had a limit spot, then slow-rolled blades somewhere else to upgrade.
4th: David Wharton
> Day 1: 5, 18-10
> Day 2: 5, 7-01
> Day 3: 5, 10-10
> Day 4: 5, 12-08
= Total: 20, 48-13
David Wharton fished two areas. One was his limit area, the other was his upgrade area – and they were both up the Little River.
"I found a really good area that had lots of fish in it," he said. "It was easy to catch a limit. So I had a good starting hole.
"I found it the second day of practice, and honestly, I didn't realize what I'd found. It was a little secondary point near the back of a major point, with a row of hydrilla that ran up to it. The hydrilla was a horseshoe shape around the point.
"That area was my third stop on the first day of the tournament. When I pulled in there I didn't have a fish. Ten minutes later, I had a limit and one of them was almost a 5. They were really on that spot, and it held up for four days."
He used a Carolina rig on that limit spot, then threw a spinnerbait in a different area to upgrade on days 2, 3 and 4.
"For my other spot, I went up the river and got in stained water. I kept my boat in about 5 to 7 feet and slow-rolled a spinnerbait by anything I saw. The area had a lot of little scrub pines that had grown up during low water. And there were lots of laydowns – beautiful spinnerbait stuff."
> Main factor in his success – "I found a really good starting hole. That's the main factor. With a limit, that took the pressure off and I could slow down in the afternoon and fish the way I needed to."
> Carolina rig (limit) gear: 7' heavy All Star Carolina Rig rod, Pflueger President casting reel, 20-pound Trilene XT line (clear), 30" leader of 17-pound Trilene XT (green), No. 7 swivel, two red glass beads, 1-ounce bullet-shape weight, 2/0 Owner Wide Gap hook, 6" Berkley Power Lizard (green pumpkin). "I ran out after 2 days and had to use a Zoom Lizard."
> Spinnerbait (upgrade) gear: 6'8" medium All Star Spinnerbait rod, Pflueger Trion casting reel ("The 5.2:1 gear ratio made me fish slower), 20-pound Trilene XT (green), 1/2-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait in clear water (mouse color, gold and silver willow-lead blades) and 1/2-ounce Rippler spinnerbait in stained water (chartreuse/white, white twin-tail trailer, gold No. 4 1/2 Colorado blade and small silver Colorado blade).
Mike Iaconelli stuck with the crank and worked hydrilla edges.
5th: Mike Iaconelli
> Day 1: 5, 17-01
> Day 2: 5, 12-13
> Day 3: 5, 14-09
> Day 4: 2, 3-01
= Total: 17, 47-08
Mike Iaconelli cranked the entire tournament. "In practice, I found what was pretty much a classic pre-spawn pattern – fishing a staging area on the way back into the pockets. I was keying on the outside edge of hydrilla – specifically, where there was a turn like a creek, or wherever deep water turned in. If you could find that on a secondary point, that was key.
"As far as baits, the water temperature was cold. I had to elicit a reaction strike. I used a crankbait this week – ripping it through the outside edge. When I got buried in the Hydrilla, then ripped it out – that's when I got bit."
> Main factor in his success – "Identifying key pre-spawn areas."
> Cranking gear: "I used a Berkley Frenzy crankbait – chartreuse with a blue back. I fished it on 10-pound fluorocarbon, which helped it get deeper (10 to 12 feet)."
