Weekend Wrap-Up – Aug. 10, 2015
Two BFL events highlight a light pre-Cup slate
The dog days of August are pretty well upon us now. Last weekend the BFL Illini and Northeast divisions were both in action, but that was it. Of course, there is still plenty to pay attention to as the Forrest Wood Cup gets closer by the minute.
Here’s the scoop on last weekend and what to watch in the coming days.
Shoraga Goes for Limits on the Cumberland River
The BFL Illini Division event out of Golconda, Ill., on the Ohio River was of special interest this year. The Golconda event is typically won out of either the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers below Kentucky and Barkley lakes, respectively, and the Rayovac FLW Series Championship out of Paducah, Ky., on the Ohio River will have a lot of eyes turned to those two tailwater areas come October. Thus, winner Dan Shoraga’s call to fish the Cumberland represents more than just a winning move on Saturday. It foreshadows what we might see this fall as the Rayovac’s best contend for slots in the 2016 Forrest Wood Cup.
“I’ve always done better on the Cumberland,” says Shoraga. “I think you’ve got a lot better chance of getting a big limit of smallmouths on the Tennessee, but you can get a lot more bites on the Cumberland.”
In all, Shoraga tallied seven keeper largemouths and one key lunker that gave him 12 pounds, 11 ounces and the win. He targeted a few key stretches of riprap and pulled his fish out of 6 to 10 feet of water.
The next time our eyes turn toward the Ohio and its neighbors will be this fall for three days of Rayovac competition.
Mixed Bag Carries Casey on Champlain
The competitors in the Northeast Division BFL event on Lake Champlain caught a lot of fish, but only Ed Casey cracked the 19-pound mark.
Casey put together a mixed bag worth 19-3 from a few rocky spots up north for the win.
“I had three key spots that were holding fish,” says Casey, who earned his first career win in FLW competition. “They were humps right along the weedlines that had chunk rock, mussels and scattered weeds.”
Casey’s humps topped out about 3 feet deep, but he kept his boat out deeper and cast up to the tops to avoid spooking his fish.
“It was fantastic weather,” adds Casey, who also fished the recent Rayovac FLW Series event on Champlain, where he finished 74th. “For a while I thought it was going to be too calm. I didn’t perform well in the Rayovac, but I learned to key on areas with chunk rock and weeds, and it paid off.”
Keeping an Eye on Ouachita
With the Forrest Wood Cup on deck next week, the most interesting thing going is the condition of Lake Ouachita. The water has dropped about 9 inches since we published our pre-practice report last week, and the heat shows no signs of abating. Though highs in the lower 90s are forecast for later this week, the temperature seems primed to jump right back up into the upper 90s and even triple digits for the tournament. Thank goodness the weigh-ins will be inside.
ICYMI links
Top 10 patterns from Lake Champlain