Cliff Pirch, who emerged the victor at the Chickamauga FLW Tour Major, focused heavily on the spawn. He mixed sight-fishing with blind bed-fishing and also pitched a jig to staging and spawning cover. As the tournament wore on and the water rose back up, bed-fishing faded and Pirch went to pitching the jig exclusively.
Here's how the rest of the Top-5 finishers caught their fish.
2nd: Shinichi Fukae
> Day 1: 5, 23-11
> Day 2: 5, 19-13
> Day 3: 5, 16-01
> Day 4: 5, 10-15
> Total = 20, 70-08
Shin Fukae stood toe-to-toe with Pirch the first 3 days – the two traded leads and weighed about the same sack every day. But Shin ultimately faded on day 4.
He fished shallow – boat docks, brushpiles and breakwalls with several different presentations. He focused on depths from 1 to 10 feet but changed often: Water that was 1 foot deep on day 1 had 4 feet of water on it by day 4.
> Crankbait gear: 6'10" medium-heavy Megabass Tomahawk F3-610GT3 rod, Shimano Metanium Mg DC casting reel, 16-pound Yoz-Ami D-ARM fluorocarbon, Lucky Craft RC2.
> Texas-rig gear: 7'2" Megabass Orochi X4 F6-72X4 rod, Shimano Metanium Mg DC7 casting reel, 16- and 20-pound Yoz-Ami D-ARM fluorocarbon, 4/0 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover Worm hook, 3/8-ounce weight, Gary Yamamoto Flappin' Hog and other similar creature baits.
3rd: Tom Monsoor
> Day 1: 5, 22-02
> Day 2: 5, 14-13
> Day 3: 5, 17-04
> Day 4: 5, 15-02
> Total = 20, 69-05
If there's a swimjig bite, you can bet Wisconsin pro Tom Monsoor will be right on top of it.
He claims the Mississippi River as his home water, and he felt right at home in the ever-changing conditions at Chickamauga.
He swam a jig through bullrushes, and also pitched the same jig into the holes.
"The bullrushes were still brown – the green shoots were just starting to come up," he said. "I was swimming the outside edges and flipping the inside edges and holes."
He noted his banks were adjacent to the main lake and the fish were in there "to spawn and to eat."
> Jig gear: 7' medium-heavy St. Croix Legend Elite rod, Team Daiwa TD103 casting reel, 16-pound Gary Yamamoto Sugoi fluorocarbon.
> His jigs were homemade in black/chartreuse and black/brown/purple.
> His setup for swimming was a 1/4-ounce jig tipped with a junebug Gary Yamamoto grub. His flipping setup was a 3/8-ounce with a sapphire blue Uncle Josh pork frog.
Scott Canterbury went with a heavier weight the final day to penetrate the densest cover he could find.
4th: Scott Canterbury
> Day 1: 5, 18-11
> Day 2: 5, 14-13
> Day 3: 5, 14-07
> Day 4: 5, 19-09
> Total = 20, 67-08
Scott Canterbury flipped and caught the heaviest sack on day 4.
He had stuff all over the lake and said he started in a different spot each day. Day 1 was a day of scattered success. On day 2, he caught a limit fishing "the outside edges of spawning pockets back up in creeks."
He played it conservative on day 3 in order to make the cut, then on day 4 flipped the thickest, gnarliest cover he could find, and also landed a key ChatterBait fish.
"I think why you saw a lot of guys struggle the last day or two is they probably banked on one area," he noted. "I totally changed areas and patterns every day.
"I was flipping a Jackall Sasuteki craw in the thickest, heaviest cover I could find in areas where the fish started coming back up," he said of the final day. "They were moving in, I guess for security. Earlier in the week they were spawning and I was flipping a lighter weight for a slower fall, but after the water started coming up I went to 3/8- and 3/4-ounce to bury it in the thick cover."
> Flipping gear: 7'6" Tigerodz flipping stick, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 20- and 25-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 4/0 Paychex straight-shank hook (tied with snell knot), various worm weights (see note above), Jackall Sasuteki craw (junebug was best, but he also used green-pumpkin/candy).
> He said when he switched to the heavier weights the final 2 days, he also mixed in a Netbait Paca craw and a Berkley Chigger craw.
> ChatterBait gear: 7' medium-heavy Canoe Creek rod, same reel, 17-pound Berkley Trilene Maxx mono, 1/2-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait (sexy shad), Zoom Speed Craw trailer (pearl white).
Brett Hite swam a jig all 4 days.
5th: Brett Hite
> Day 1: 5, 16-01
> Day 2: 5, 17-03
> Day 3: 5, 14-08
> Day 4: 5, 14-13
> Total = 20, 62-09
A few years ago, Brett Hite won back-to-back events at Toho and the California Delta with a Phoenix ChatterBait-style swimjig. He did the same thing at Chickamauga and although he didn't weigh any eye-popping bags, he was consistent enough over the 4 days to land a Top 5.
He ran all over the lake rather than focus on a single area.
"I caught them all on my new signature Power Series Phoenix Vib Jig," he noted, and added that it's patent-compliant with the original Z-Man ChatterBait, with several improvements to the hook, materials and such. "A lot of the fish were spawning on the shoreline grass in a couple of the real good areas I had. When the water went down, they went to the docks and little stumps. They got real spooky and you had to make really long casts.
"I was just winding that Vibrator jig next to the little stumps and stuff. It was so shallow you'd never think a fish was there, but all of a sudden one would just clobber it."
When the water came back up, he went back to fishing the shoreline grass.
> Swimjig gear: 7'4" medium-heavy Evergreen glass rod (prototype), Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel, 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon, 1/4- and 3/8-ounce Phoenix Vibrator jigs.
> He tipped a GP-color Vibrator jig with a 4" pearl-white Yamamoto Swimming Senko, and a B Hite Delite-color Vib jig with the same Swimming Senko, but he dipped the tail chartreuse.
> He swam the 1/4-ounce jigs when the water was lower.