There’s no doubt, David Fritts of Lexington, North Carolina, is on a red-hot roll right now.
Indeed, the cranking king has dusted off his patented `Fritts Blitz’ style of fishing and banked well over a quarter of a million dollars with it in the last six months.
Fritts’ current momentum combined with the assertion that the FLW Tour event on Table Rock Lake this week is being called a “crankbait” event has led a lot of people to pick him to win at Table Rock as well.
But I would offer a word of caution against making Fritts your number one pick at the Rock.
In fact, I don’t even have Fritts in my top 10 this week, which has some people calling me out as being crazy. A few folks have even asked for an explanation as to why I would not pick David Fritts at Table Rock.
So here goes: For starters, Fritts style of cranking is more suited to eastern fisheries in states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. Ozark impoundments have not been that kind to Fritts over the years, especially in the spring. In more than a decade of fishing Beaver Lake at the Walmart Open, for instance, Fritts highest finish has been 38th.
Also, Fritts is in his element when he is casting to a single object – a stump, a rock, a ledge, etc. – that is located offshore. He makes repeated casts to these isolated targets to get fish to bite.
Last fall, another David, David Curtis of Trinity, Texas, won the Stren Series Championship on Table Rock, by fishing this way with a crankbait and Carolina Rig on a river ledge.
But that was in the fall, and this is early spring and many pros have found the fish to be scattered down shallower banks. Catching these fish with a crankbait requires staying on the move and covering miles and miles of water – not sitting in one spot making repeated casts to the same object.
For me, too many factors are working against Fritts for him to win this event – it’s early spring in the Ozarks and fish are on the move. With that said, leaving him in as a top-10 pick is not a bad idea, though, simply because Fritts is indeed a momentum fisherman. When he gets on a roll, he gets on a sure enough roll that can last a whole season.