Shaw Went The Hole Blind Hog At Wheeler

The recent Wheeler FLW could as well have been named the Guntersville FLW. Anglers launched on Wheeler, but had free reign to lock into other lakes – notably Guntersville and Wilson. Nine of the Top 10 fished Guntersville exclusively, and winner Alvin Shaw was no different there.

What made the difference, of course, was his pattern. The tournament took place in hot, calm, clear conditions, and a new wave of spawners made their way to the bank. Conditions were ideal and the

sight-bite was red-hot. A few anglers plied offshore stuff, but the bank battlers had the definite upper hand.

Things changed on day 4 though. A low-pressure system moved in and delivered thunderstorms and strong winds. That hurt the sight-fishermen and weights plummeted. Alvin Shaw's pattern held tough and gave up four fish. He needed one more, and threw a bait his friend had recommended. That bait got him the crucial fifth fish.

His 2-day total nudged him past 2nd-place finisher Michael Bennett by a 4-ounce hair. With it, he clinched his first FLW Tour victory after nearly 10 full seasons of competition.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Shaw started practicing 5 days before competition began. "I figured I needed at least 5 days – having to cover so much water," he said. "Actually, I had three bodies of water in my mind when I got there – Wheeler, Wilson and Guntersville. After I visited Guntersville, I never did make it to Wilson.

"Wheeler was in the back of my mind the whole time. The first day of practice was a textbook situation for the fish to bite practically anywhere. It was windy, with clouds, and they were pulling current. I chose to fish Guntersville and had a big stringer – probably 22 or 23 pounds.

"After that, I decided that since I'd fished Wheeler before, I should give it a good going over. I figured I'd save Guntersville for later in practice."

He went to the shallow bushes on Wheeler and found some fish spawning. "I had 15 or 16 pounds there. So knowing that, and that I had no travel time on Wheeler, it sounded pretty good. I could get 22 pounds on Guntersville, but that was about an all-day thing.

"So after 2 days, I had them – Wheeler and Guntersville – balanced pretty equally. I never did make it to Wilson."

He went to Wheeler again for the third practice day. "I went there trying to prove that I could catch them again. I saw that it was dwindling pretty quick. But I thought, if they're spawning in Wheeler, they might be on Guntersville too.

"So I went back to Guntersville on the fourth day. That's when I started to sight-fish. That was my main pattern going into the tournament."

He had five nice sight-fish located to start day 1 of competition.

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 17-08
> Day 2: 5, 14-11 (10, 32-03, tied for 4th)
> Day 3: 5, 13-03 (4th)
> Day 4: 5, 11-05 (10, 24-08)

Shaw didn't start day 1 on his five sight-fish. Instead, he stopped on a ledge where he caught some good fish.

"Nothing bit on the ledge and I went to my sight-fish. I hadn't seen another competitor there all practice, but Koby Krieger was there – right on that bank where I wanted to fish. I looked around and there was another competitor. They'd found my fish too. For some reason, I decided to stop on that ledge."

He was down. "I'd had one more (practice) bite in that general area, and I knew nobody else was around there. It was a shallow flat with a weedbed. I saw a hole in the grass – a dark hole – and flipped in and caught one.

"I thought, Well, they're bedding out here too, I just can't see them. So I started pitching into all the holes. That's the pattern. I was just blind-fishing – pitching into the weed holes."

He noted the grass was emergent milfoil and depth was key. "Depth really played a factor. The right depth was about 3 1/2 feet right on the nose. I could catch them a little shallower and slightly deeper, but any more than that and I couldn't get bit."

He described the holes like this: "If you can imagine a regular (spawning) bed, these were beds they'd fanned out in the middle of a big old milfoil patch. What it looked like to my eye was just a big, black hole. The grass was almost to the top (of the water), so the hole was shaded. It was just darkness.

"There was really nothing obvious about them, or the area, other than the area had a good, hard bottom and they were using it. I tried the pattern in areas with a softer bottom – I could tell it was softer because my bait came back with scum and green slime. It didn't work."

He also noted how he was "forced" into the pattern. "It was basically that one flat where I caught my fish. It was near the area I wanted to start on, and I was sort of forced into it because of the other boats on my bank.

"And after the sight-fish were gone in that area, the other guys left. They had to go find more fish they could actually see. But I could always go back and catch a few fish. As the tournament went on, I had to expand a little, of course. But that was about it."

Winning Gear

That was about it, except for Shaw's fifth fish on day 4 – a fish that arguably won him the tournament. He travels with Dave Lefebre, who turned him onto a bait.

"Dave Lefebre said I need to be throwing this particular spinnerbait. He loaned it to his (co-angler) and his (co-angler) caught two 5-poudners with it. Dave got the bait back and broke it off on his first cast.

"Tracy Adams has one that's identical and he loaned it to me. I made one cast to a stump with it on day 4 and caught one fish. That was the difference. It was a 1/2-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait with a gold head, gold blades and white-with-gold skirt."

Aside from that one spinnerbait fish, he threw a Zoom Brush Hog the entire tournament. "In practice, on the fish I could see, any kind of small bait worked. On the fish I couldn't see – the ones in the tournament – it took a big bait to get them to react. Once I figured that out, I went with the Brush Hog and stuck with it the whole tournament."

> Brush Hog gear: 7' medium-heavy G.Loomis MBR 844 IMX rod, Daiwa TDX-103 casting reel, 16-pound Gamma fluorocarbon line (in clearer water) and 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon (in dirtier water), 5/16-ounce bullet-shape weight (not pegged), 5/0 Gamakatsu hook (offset shank, lightwire), Zoom Brush Hog (green-pumpkin).

Notable

> Main factor in his success – "Taking something negative and turning it into a positive. When I went back and saw those boats on my bank, I thought, that's just about my reason for not having a good tournament – there's somebody on all my stuff. But I made a positive out of it."

> He said he had to celebrate the win without his friends around. "My (pro) friends stick around for an extra 2 days to work at the Fun Zone. Everybody talks to the camera-boat drivers, or anyone they can get info out of. The info was I didn't have it. Dave Lefebre, David Cook, Tracy Adams, Sam Newby – they all hit the trail. I had to celebrate alone."

> On fan reaction to his win: "I just want to say how I appreciate all the people pulling for me. They all know who they are. I could feel it. They say it's not a fan-participation sport, but I felt like it was that day."

> On local pressure: "To all the Alabama anglers out there, there were local tournaments, but everywhere I went, if one guy was fishing a stretch, he pulled up and got out of my way. They were great. It goes to show what this sport's coming to when you can get that kind of respect."