Making every shot count - Major League Fishing

Making every shot count

Parks leveraged limited opportunities for TBF Championship win from back of boat
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With his boater fishing tight to the bank, co-angler champion Woody Parks had to make the most of every casting opportunity he got. Photo by David A. Brown. Angler: Woody Parks.
March 14, 2009 • David A. Brown • Archives

BRANSON, Mo. – For Woody Parks of Lincolnton, Ga., the chances to make meaningful casts on Bull Shoals Lake were less abundant than he would have liked. However, he took full advantage of those he got and ended up winning the Co-angler Division of the TBF Championship.

“It was tough, but I just didn’t give up,” Parks said. “I knew it was going to be tight, and I knew that most of the co-anglers were in a hard position to fish because most of the boaters were paralleling the bank. These are high, steep banks, and the boaters were getting right up on the banks, cranking or jerking. That leaves very little water for the co-anglers.

“I knew there weren’t going to be many fish caught on the co-angler side, but I just kept chucking and Woody Parks qualified for the final round of Championship fishing by winning the TBF Southern Division.got the two bites I needed.”

Fishing a Rapala DT6 crankbait (crawdad color) and a Lucky craft jerkbait, Parks caught one of his keepers around 8:30 a.m. and the other around 1 p.m. He also caught a half-dozen shorts. The key, he said, was never missing a chance to fire off a cast.

“A lot of times, my boater would turn out a little bit, or if he got hung – I took every crack I had.”

Parks weighed 4 pounds, 3 ounces in the final round. Adding that to his first two scores of 11-6 and 8-4 over the two-day opening round gave him a 23-13 total. The Southern Division champion, Parks won $5,000. He is also qualified for the 2009 Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy and the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol.

Modrak drops one spot to second

Day two leader Mark Modrak managed just two keepers and slipped to second place.A big 13-pound, 14-ounce limit on day one set up China Township, Mich., co-angler Mark Modrak for two days in the top spot. However, the numbers eluded him on day three, and with only two fish weighing a combined 2 pounds, 2 ounces, he slipped to second place with 23-13.

Fishing a threadfin shad-colored Magnum 22 C-Flash crankbait, Modrak caught both of his fish around midmorning. He tried switching to a larger crankbait to see if he could trigger a more aggressive bite, but it wasn’t happening.

Referencing the strong cold snap that dropped the air temperature about 20 degrees a day and a half Jerry Necaise held on to his third place position in the final round.before the event, Modrak said: “I think the fish were just off. I think this week’s weather pattern just had everything shut down. If we would have had a good warm week, the areas that (were heavily fished during the tournament) would have replenished.”

Rest of the best

Jerry Necaise of Long Beach, Miss., placed third with 22-0; Eric Stewart of Anmore, W.Va., was fourth with 20-3; David Martinez of Tucson, Ariz., took fifth with 17-10; and Peter De Moya of Plymouth, Mass., was sixth at 9-2.