All-American Top 5 Patterns Day 2
How Barkley’s best made it to the weekend
While Jeremy Lawyer is getting closer to the prize that eluded him in 2015, other contenders in the top 10 of the 2016 FLW Bass Fishing League All-American on Lake Barkley are jockeying for better placement, with at least a couple of them with a reasonable chance of overtaking the Missouri angler.
Here’s how the top five anglers got into Saturday’s championship round:
2. Drew Boggs – Lebanon, Tenn. – 28-13 (10)
The Tennessee fisherman has lived up to his billing as one of the pre-tournament favorites and reached Saturday’s championship round on the strength of his prowess with a flipping stick. Like a couple of others in the top 10, Boggs spent the morning flipping shallow cover in Little River before heading out to the main lake. He’s flipping a tube craw and hopping it up and down in place before moving to the next target.
“I struggled just to get five that would weigh,” he says of Friday’s performance. “I left Little River about 1 o’clock with three keepers and caught two more out in the main lake. I broke off one quality fish that would have really helped me, but that’s fishing. I think I’m going to stay out in the lake Saturday.”
3. Kyle Weisenburger – Ottawa, Ohio – 28-09 (10)
The Ohio schoolteacher moved up three places from Friday after making what he called a big change in his approach. Switching from a shallow presentation, he abandoned the southern part of the lake after catching three keepers, returned to the mid-lake area and proceeded to catch two more.
“It was time to make a move. I cut off my baits and tied on new ones,” he admits. “I fished a new area where the water is about 8 to 12 feet deep. I’m dragging a 3/4-ounce football jig now. I’m a shallow fisherman, but I’ll do what I have to do. And I think there’s going to be new fish in that place tomorrow.”
4. Clabion Johns – Covington, Ga. – 27-10 (10)
The Little River has been good to Johns, another shallow-water angler who’s not planning to fix what isn’t broken. He didn’t have a surplus of keepers Friday, but lost one 3-pound-class fish that he thinks he can catch Saturday. Johns started out mixing up his lure selection a bit, but finally settled on his year-round favorite: a SPRO popping frog in red.
“I ran all new water today [Friday], and I plan to run more new water Saturday,” confesses Johns. “I’ve caught fish in the mornings – mostly non-keepers – but I’ve caught my better fish later in the day.”
5. Todd Walters – Kernersville, N.C. – 27-09 (10)
Walters moved up from seventh place after weighing a 12-pound, 8-ounce limit. He’s been skipping jigs under docks in the Little River area of the lake for the past two days and boated a dozen keepers on day two. He culled five times, but the problem for him – and everyone else for that matter – is that he was culling up an ounce or two at a time.
“I can’t believe there aren’t any bigger fish under those docks,” he says. “I haven’t been able to get them to bite yet, that’s for sure. Maybe it will be better tomorrow, but I guess everybody is saying that to themselves.”
Actually, only 10 of them – and their co-anglers.