Top 5 Patterns from Norris Lake Day 1
How the best of the rest caught 'em to start off
At nearly 22 feet below full pool, Norris Lake is being pulled down towards winter level, but you couldn’t tell it from the recent air temperatures which have pushed into the 80’s the last few days. The result is warm water near winter pool, which has made the patterns working at the Walmart FLW Tour Invitational presented by Quaker State vast and varied.
Tournament leader David Williams is catching his bass suspended over extremely deep water – some as deep as 95 feet. Meanwhile, others in the top five are fishing quite a bit shallower. Here is a look at how the rest of the top five is getting it done at Norris.
2. James Watson – Nixa, Mo. – 13-10 (5)
James Watson seems to really shine during the fall of the year and today he showed off some of his fall fishing savvy with a limit of largemouth weighing 13 pounds, 10 ounces.
Watson prefers topwaters in the fall and that’s how he did most of his damage today, using a surface lure to catch seven keepers quickly off of two small stretches that were just 20 to 30 yards in length.
“I caught more fish this morning than I’ve caught in 2-1/2 days of practice,” Watson says. “From practice I sort of knew what to look for but didn’t really have an area dialed in. So this morning I just started covering new water that looked right and ran across those two spots that got me out of the gates with a good start. After the topwater bite fizzled, I started running docks pitching a jig and culled up twice.”
3. Jason Lambert – Pickwick Dam, Tenn. – 12-14 (5)
Though Norris is not exactly formed by the Tennessee River, ledge-fishing ace Jason Lambert felt right at home today fishing an offshore school of bass he found with his electronics.
“On the second day of practice I was side-scanning with my Garmin units and found a big rock pile on a high spot on a creek channel that had a nice school of fish on it,” Lambert recalls. “I made three casts and caught three fish and left. I headed straight there this morning and caught a limit in 10 minutes. After that, I decided to leave it and save it for tomorrow. I have no idea how many fish are there. The original school looked like about 15 fish or so, but the school could be bigger or I might have caught the only five out there – we’ll know more tomorrow.”
After securing an early limit, Lambert started running banks, junking it up with a buzzbait to cull up three times.
“After 10 o’ clock I never caught another fish that would help me,” he adds.
4. Derrick Blake – Rockwood, Tenn. – 12-4 (5)
Derrick Blake played the numbers game today, hitting nearly 80 spots to amass a limit weighing 12 pounds, 4 ounces.
“I had 84 waypoints in my unit and I think I had four left at the end of the day that I didn’t get to,” Blake says. “Most of them are shallow targets – stumps, laydowns, docks, rocks – I can hit them with one or two casts or flips with a jig and then I’m gone.”
“With fishing this tough, I figure the more single places I can hit, the better my chances of getting bit,” he adds.
5. Wesley Strader – Spring City, Tenn. – 10-11 (5)
Home state favorite Wesley Strader didn’t disappoint today, getting off to a good start with a 10 pounds, 11 ounces.
Strader says his formula for the day was simple: cover as much water as possible with a Stan Sloan’s Zorro Head Knocker buzzbait teamed with a Zoom Horny Toad and pitching a Zoom Z-Hog Jr. to any visible targets.
Tournament details
Format: All pros will compete for the first two days. The top 20 pros based on cumulative weight after two days of competition will advance to the third and final round, with the winner determined by the heaviest cumulative three-day weight.
Takeoff Time: 7:30 a.m. ET
Takeoff Location: Anderson County Park, 2191 Park Lane, Andersonville, Tenn. 37705
Weigh-In Time: 3 p.m. ET
Weigh-In Location: Anderson County Park