Hunting consistency on Seminole

Fishing patterns will vary daily at Stren Series Southeast opener

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. – Dialing in on a consistent pattern on southwest Georgia’s Lake Seminole in January is about like trying to describe the color of a chameleon – it’s always changing.

One day Rat-L-Traps ripped along the edges of main-lake grass beds will produce big bags of bass, and the next day that bite completely dies.

One day the flipping bite is red hot, and the next day it’s stone cold.

Drop-shotting the infamous Spring Creek channel will look like the winning ticket for a couple days, and then that pattern will wilt away.

With a warm day or two, jerkbaits in backwater ponds and canals can be promising, but then it vanishes with the next cold front.

Making something work for four days in a row on Seminole can be perplexing.

Last year’s Stren Series event held here provides a perfect example.

Snickers pro Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala., won that event by flipping matted vegetation.

Pugh committed to that pattern for four days. On day one he weighed in just two bass for 4 pounds, 12 ounces. But on day three he caught a whopping 26 pounds, 10 ounces from the same area.

Meanwhile, runner-up finisher Greg Vinson of Wetumpka, Ala., committed himself to rattling lipless crankbaits in the grass flats for four days.

On day one he weighed in four bass for 17 pounds, 10 ounces, but on day two managed just two keepers for 5 pounds, 5 ounces.

And from the sound of things at the day-one launch of the Stren Series Southeast Division opener Wednesday morning, this year’s event will see more of that fickle inconsistency.

Pugh says he’s been back to his honeyhole from last year and it’s all dried up.

“I never got a bite in there,” he said. “The place looks completely different. There are a lot less hyacinths and a lot more hydrilla. In fact, I’ve looked everywhere and I just can’t find that nice matted stuff like I found last year – a lot of it is gone.”

As a result, Pugh has had to pull out some other rods from under the deck.

“Last year, I left out of Bainbridge every morning with just two flipping sticks rigged up,” he said. “This year I’ve got crankbaits, traps, drop-shots, Texas-rigged worms – you name it. I really have no idea where I’m going to start or what I’m going to do. I’m just going to put all those rods on my deck and go junk fishing until something materializes.”

Pugh noted water temperatures are in upper 40s to low 50s, and the water is higher than what he expected.

“It looks like it’s up about a foot higher than it was last year – you can pretty much get into any of the backwater places you want with no problem.”

The 187-boat field also contained a couple of smaller, aluminum tunnel-hull type boats rigged out for running far up the Flint River into shallow, rocky shoals to catch pugnacious shoal bass.

There were a couple of nice shoal-bass limits weighed in last year, but just like the main lake, that bite was inconsistent as well.

Logistics

Anglers will take off from Bainbridge Earl Mae Boat Basin located at 100 Basin Circle in Bainbridge, Ga., at 7:15 each morning. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins also will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 500 E. Alice St. in Bainbridge beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

The Lake Seminole Stren Series tournament is hosted by the Bainbridge-Decatur County Chamber of Commerce.

Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a $40,000 198VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics if contingency guidelines are met. Ranger will award another $3,000 to the winner if he or she is a participant in the Ranger Cup program. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $1,500 to the highest-finishing participant in the contingency program. Yamaha will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup earnings if “Powered by Yamaha” guidelines are met.

Co-anglers will cast for a top award of $5,000 plus a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.

Competitors will also be vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip to the $1 million Stren Series Championship on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo., Nov. 5-8 for a shot at $140,000 in the Pro Division and $70,000 in the Co-angler Division.

After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series division – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western – the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on Angler of the Year points standings from each division will advance to the championship.

The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2009 Wal-Mart FLW Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Series, bass fishing’s top professional circuits, where they can compete for a share of $19.5 million.

The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where pros will fish for as much as $1 million – the most lucrative award in bass fishing.

Wednesday’s conditions

Sunrise: 7:32 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 50 degrees

Expected high temperature: 57 degrees

Water temperature: 48 to 53 degrees

Wind: NNE at 15 to 20 mph

Day’s outlook: sunny and cold