Shuffield Threw A-Rig And Looked, Others Cranked

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

The allure of Table Rock Lake is there are myriad ways to catch fish at virtually any point of the year. It’s one of the few places anglers can chase 6-pound class largemouths, smallmouths and spotted bass. That was the challenge facing the 159 pros who competed at the FLW Tour Major last week -- sorting through what can catch a limit to find what’s going to turn on the big fish, especially during the early spring transition period leading up to the spawn.

While tournament champion Brent Long spent the whole event flipping shallow wood in dirty water on the lower end of the lake, the other top finishers mostly went the crankbait route save for runner-up Spencer Shuffield. Following is some of the lowdown on how those whose pursuit of Long fell short compiled their bags.

2nd: Spencer Shuffield

> Day 1: 5, 18-14
> Day 2: 5, 21-06
> Day 3: 5, 15-05
> Day 4: 5, 22-13
> Total = 20, 78-06

It took Spencer Shuffield a while to come around on the umbrella rig. At first, he was reluctant to use it, but when he watched other anglers who’d rarely or never had success in tournaments start cashing checks on a regular basis, he knew he had to warm up to it and make it part of his repertoire.

“When they started making checks, I said, ‘Okay, I better start throwing it or I’m going to get beat by people who’ve never done well before,’” he said.

He was the lone finisher in the Top 5 who caught the majority of his weight in the tournament on the umbrella rig. He used a three-wire variation that also featured three willow blades called the Swim N’ Frenzy. He also weighed in six fish -- all largemouths -- caught off beds.

“In practice, I got on a good deep bite in 20 to 30 feet on a swimbait and was catching lots of 4- to 5-pounders in all three species,” he said. “I don’t know where the big smallmouths or big spots went. I never once caught a big spot during the tournament.”

He spent the majority of the tournament fishing around the Interstate 13 bridge near Kimberling City, but fished within sight of takeoff on day 4 when he stuck a 22-13 sack to put himself in contention for the win.

His game plan was to find pockets that held staging fish. He’d work into the backs of the pockets with the umbrella rig, then sight-fish in shallow when he saw one that would help him.

> Umbrella rig gear: 8' heavy-action Abu Garcia Villain casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 65-pound Spiderwire UltraCast FluoroBraid line, 1/4-ounce Swim N’ Frenzy three-wire umbrella rig, 1/4-ounce Buckeye Lures JWill swimbait jig, unnamed 1/8-ounce roundhead jig, 4” and 4 1/2” Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbaits (Tennessee Shad, Sexy Shad) or 4” NetBait BK swimbait (silver shad).

> He thinks his line choice was crucial because it kept the umbrella rig in the strike zone longer. “It sinks like fluorocarbon, but it has no stretch like braid,” he said. “It let me keep it in the strike zone longer, but I was able to reel it faster, which helped me get more reaction bites as well.”

> He rigged the two 1/4-ounce jigs with 4 1/2” swimbaits on the outer arms and the 1/8-ounce jig with a 4” swimbait in the middle or top.

> Sight-fishing gear: 7' heavy-action Fenwick Elite Tech Pitchin' Stik rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 65-pound Spiderwire UltraCast braid (low-vis green), 3/8-ounce Strike King tungsten flipping weight, 4/0 Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover Flipping Hook, Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver (white trash).

> Main factor in his success – “Just having confidence in what I was doing. The first 2 days I didn’t do it a whole lot and I got what I wanted pretty quickly and I went and looked for new water.”

> Performance edge – “My HydroWave made a big difference for me. I used it all week. And my Lowrance HDS electronics for idling on those staging stretches and finding pole timber that I was catching my big females on. Finding those deeper banks leading into the spawning coves was important.”

3rd: Troy Morrow

> Day 1: 5, 10-08
> Day 2: 5, 21-06
> Day 3: 5, 16-15
> Day 4: 5, 21-13
> Total = 20, 70-13

Troy Morrow had three patterns figured out in practice -- the Alabama Rig near bait wads, a Wiggle Wart cranking program in clear water and a square-bill cranking gameplan for dirty water.

While he weighed fish using all three programs, he caught his second 21-pound sack of the tournament on day 4 by throwing Wiggle Warts in clear water near the Interstate 86 bridge. He had caught his day-3 fish out of dingy water in Long Creek, but he felt things tapered off in the afternoon and he was concerned about running out of fish on the final day.

“That just gave me a big clue as to what I should do on day 4,” he said. “It all fell in place.”

He started the first 2 days of competition in clear water throwing the Alabama Rig and finished each day in dirty water with a square-bill, but he noticed the dirty water was producing the better quality so he focused more on those areas on day 3, when it kicked out 16-13 to move him into the Top 10.

Sharing water in Long Creek with several other top finishers, he keyed on rocky bottom, but nothing too specific.

> Square-bill cranking gear: 7’3” medium-heavy Duckett Micro Magic casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 14-poun Sunline Reaction FC fluorocarbon line, unnamed crankbait (green/white).

> Wiggle Wart cranking gear: 7’6” medium-heavy Duckett Micro Magic cranking rod, same reel, 10-pound Sunline Reaction FC fluorocarbon line, vintage Wiggle Wart crankbait (custom green pumpkin crayfish).

> He had five Wiggle Warts that dated back prior to Storm being purchased by Rapala in 1998. He sanded them down and had them custom painted by Xtreme Lure Creations, located in Suwanee, Ga. He also replaced the old hooks with Gamakatsu No. 4 round bend treble hooks.

> Main factor in his success – “Versatility. It ended up being what I liked to do. I went through everything else before I got to that point. I think my versatility is one of my strong suits. Clear water, muddy water, deep, shallow, I can do what I need to do.”

> Performance edge – “Just my determination.”

4th: Clint Brownlee

> Day 1: 5, 20-01
> Day 2: 5, 13-13
> Day 3: 5, 15-00
> Day 4: 5, 18-08
> Total = 20, 67-06

Georgia pro Clint Brownlee is used to fishing stained and dirty water, so when he found some during practice, he knew where he was going to spend his tournament days. He quickly got on a crankbait pattern in areas where chunk rock mixed with gravel and clay.

He popped 20-01 on day 1, pulling his fish out of 2 to 5 feet of water.

“I didn’t catch anything good in practice, but I knew the potential was probably there in the stained part of the lake,” he said. “In practice, I’d catch a couple keepers in the stained water and then get out so I didn’t really know what was there. I figured I could catch a decent bag, but not 20 pounds. I was a little surprised by that and excited, too.”

The water level began to fall on day 2 and so did his weight, but he rebounded nicely to catch 33-08 on the weekend.

“That’s when I had to start making adjustments because of the water dropping,” he added. “I didn’t make the adjustments quick enough. I came up with a gameplan on day 3 and did a little better.”

The adjustment was to move to deeper pockets and target steeper banks as the fish moved out. The wind was also a factor for his cranking program, especially on day 4, when he struggled in the morning. A breeze arrived around lunch and fired up his fish as he had a 30-minute flurry that accounted for most of the 18-08 he weighed in.

> Cranking gear: 7' and 7’6” medium Kistler Z-Bone cranking rods, Shimano Core MG casting reel (7:1 ratio), 10-pound Seaguar Invis-X fluorocarbon line, Lucky Craft 1.5 DDRT crankbait (TO craw) or Strike King 3XD crankbait (Chili craw).

> He preferred the medium-diving baits because, “you can work them in 2 or 3 feet of water down to 12 feet. The key was just bumping the bottom.”

> Main factor in his success – “The confidence I had in fishing the stained water. Most of the boats got away from it, but eight of the Top 10 were fishing it. It was the key area and the bigger fish were biting better in the stained water. I could catch 10 to 12 pounds all day long in the clear stuff, but getting a couple of key bites in the stained stuff was the difference.”

> Performance edge – “This is my first year running a Phoenix/Mercury, but my Power-Poles and Humminbird electronics, the whole setup. It helped me cover a lot of water.”

5th: Stacey King

> Day 1: 5, 19-03
> Day 2: 5, 22-13
> Day 3: 5, 13-15
> Day 4: 4, 7-14
> Total = 19, 63-13

Stacey King struggled through practice as he tried to cover as much water as possible and decide which game plan to put in place. He had hopes of throwing the Alabama Rig as he had through the winter months, but couldn’t get a consistent bite going on that or much of anything else.

Instead, he went to a cranking pattern focused on staging areas around main-lake points. He got it dialed in on days 1 and 2 of the event when he weighed a combined 42-01 to move into 2nd place. His fish started to move on day 3 and by day 4, he was forced to go shallow in hopes he could pull some off beds

“I got in on the tail end of this pattern,” he said. “They had been pulling a lot water and there had been a lot of current on the main-lake points where I was fishing. These fish were staging and getting ready to move to the banks, but as the weather got hotter every day, the water became warmer and they quit pulling current the final 2 days of the event and my fish just evaporated.

“I tried moving in and fishing a couple other patterns, but when I’d not get any bites for a while, I’d start to think I better move back out because I might get one more big bite. It had been a pretty good pattern for 3 days and I probably should’ve just thrown it out the window, but that’s a tough call to make.”

In the end, the veteran of 12 Bassmaster Classics and three Forrest Wood Cups had another Top-5 showing on his home lake.

“I’m extremely pleased with my finish because going into the tournament I was not expecting to do anywhere near as well as I did,” he said. “I had a poor practice and was wondering if I was going to be able to make a check or not. I was fortunate enough to get on some deals that I didn’t pursue much in practice and got it going the first day.”

> Cranking gear: 7’ medium-heavy Bass Pro Shops Crankin’ Stick casting rod, Bass Pro Shops David Fritts casting reel (5.2:1), 10-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS Signature Series fluorocarbon line, Rapala DT-10 crankbait (dark brown crawdad and red crawdad).

> He replaced the stock hooks on the DT-10s with a size 4 Gamakatsu EWG treble hooks on the back and a size 4 Gamakatsu Round Bend treble (red) on the front.

> He liked the lower ratio on the old Fritts reel because it gave him the option of really slowing the bait down if needed.

> He did catch some small keepers early on day 1 using a homemade umbrella rig.

> Main factor in his success – “Persistence, more than anything. Once I realized that there were still a few staging fish out on those main-lake places, I just stuck with it and ground it out cast after cast after cast. Pretty soon, I’d get one.”

> Performance edge – “My whole boat setup in general. It just fishes so easy. It has so much floor space. I can be up and down even if I have a co-angler with me that brings a ton of tackle. I still have plenty of room to move around in the boat. My Lowrance electronics helping in being able to see the depth and follow the contours where I was fishing on those points was pretty critical.”

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