Top 5 Patterns From Seminole Day 2
Grass is key on the second day
A shake-up occurred on day two of the Rayovac FLW Series presented by Evinrude on Lake Seminole. Day one was all about slow, summertime fishing in the lake’s deep timber. Overnight a frontal passage dropped water and air temperatures and left a north wind howling down the lake. As a result, the timber bite cooled off and those fishing shallower waters climbed up the leaderboard. Also, grass became the primary player on day two. Leader Tim Reneau is flipping grass, while others in the top-10 fished grass in other ways to make the top-10 cut. You can read all about Reneau’s pattern here.
2. Clint Brown – Bainbridge, Ga. – 34-8
Clint Brown rose four spots to second place with a 16-1 limit and – here’s the shocker – he caught some of them sight-fishing.
That’s correct, sight-fishing, as in bass still on beds on Lake Seminole on May 22nd in 80-degree water.
In fact, Brown caught most of his weight sight-fishing on day one, and three of his weigh fish today came off beds as well. The other two came on topwaters in grass.
“The main thing I’m doing is trying to dodge the pressure,” Brown says. “Yesterday I spent about an hour running the lake looking for banks and areas that had no boats on them. Those are the places I targeted today. Avoiding fishing pressure is the plan I’m running now, even if it’s some place I haven’t fished.”
3. Ken Ellis – Bowman, S.C. – 33-1
Light-line specialist Ken Ellis worked his magic with his thin strings today to the tune of 17-1 to jumped 10 spots into third place.
Ellis worked shallow grass, holes and bream beds with a wacky-rigged Senko on 10-pound test on spinning tackle for his catch.
“Some of the ones I’m catching are spitting up bream,” Ellis says. “So I’m sure that’s what these bass are doing –hanging around waiting for the bream to spawn so they can chow down. With the rising water, there is plenty of water up on the bank creating holes and gaps and edges in the grass and I’m targeting places like that with the wacky rig.”
4. Clayton Batts – Macon, Ga. – 32-9
Clayton Batts is another pro who moved up the leaderboard on a grass bite today, catching 14-10 to move up four spots.
Batts says he is targeting offshore grass patches on humps between the bank and the river channels for his fish.
“Most of the grass is between 6 and 8 feet deep,” Batts says. “Yesterday they were more on top of the grass, today they were down the sides of the isolated patches. I had to fish a spinnerbait or worm right long the outside edges of the clumps to get bit.”
Batts likes his grass program because he has very little company when compared to other places on the lake.
“I went in Spring Creek yesterday for a while, there are just way too many boats in that place for me,” Batts adds. “I only had one bite in there and left it to fish the grass in the river – there is a lot more room to run the clumps out there with much less pressure.”
5. Sven Hilland – Sanford, Fla. – 32-2
Sven Hilland also utilized grass to move up to fifth place from 24th with a 17-7 catch today.
Hilland is alternating between fishing the deep timber and catching bream eaters on the bank.
“I have about five spots up shallow in the grass where the bigger bass are picking on bream,” Hilland says. “When I see these big bass resting and cruising up shallow, I go after them with light line – 8-pound test. I caught a big one that way today.”
After checking his shallow areas, Hilland will then retreat to the deep timber for while before returning to check the shallows for cruisers again.
“My deep timber and the shallow spots are all located in the same area,” he adds. “That way I don’t have to run around in all that timber. I just go back and forth, fishing shallow and fishing deep.”