FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. — Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, was a fitting venue for B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops, with plenty of thick, healthy smallmouth and largemouth bass swimming in the beautiful lake. There were also several ways to catch them, from forward-facing sonar to chasing the shad spawn, the herring bite, and beating the bank with power techniques. Smith Mountain truly offered something for everyone.
Here’s a deeper look at how the Top 10 caught ’em.
1. Nick Hatfield – 42-12 (12)
Tennessee pro Nick Hatfield scored his first Bass Pro Tour-level win and did it primarily from one spot – a prominent main lake point near the Smith Mountain Lake State Park that ended up producing much better than he expected. Hatfield also hit a few similar points nearby and cashed in on the feeding flurry each morning.
“I found those points in practice, did the forward-facing stuff, and caught a few like that – I also rotated through your typical herring baits but couldn’t catch many of them,” he said. “It developed as the tournament happened, but I realized I didn’t need forward-facing and could drag up shallow and catch them as long as you could keep your bait out of the rocks. They’d come up and fight over your bait if you could wind it fast enough.”
One of his primary weapons was a 3.8-inch Geecrack Bellows Gill on a free rig with a 4/0 Hayabusa hook with a 3/8-ounce drop-shot weight. Among his other baits were a 7-inch minnow on a 3/16-ounce Scottsboro Tackle Hellfire Finesse Jighead with a 4/0 hook, a 5/8-ounce SPRO Aruku Shad, and a Scottsboro Tackle Line Through Swimbait. All baits were in various shad patterns.
2. Justin Lucas – 29-0 (8)
Running the blueback herring bite, Alabama pro Justin Lucas rotated through multiple spots each day as he led after his first day of fishing and caught the most weight in the Knockout Round. His approach (and that of others running the same plan) educated the fish and made them more challenging to target by the final day.
“I was just running points, running and gunning and trying to hit as many as possible to find active fish and letting them rest before coming back again,” Lucas said. “A few of the spots had schools, and during the week, I could catch multiple fish on each one, but they got smarter as the week went on. By the end, they’d see one get reeled in, and you couldn’t catch another from the same place.”
Weighing roughly half smallmouth and half largemouth, Lucas stuck to the lower end of the lake and used three main lures: a jighead minnow, soft plastic jerkbait, and a Berkley Magic Swimmer 125 in chrome.
3. Dustin Connell – 22-15 (6)
Alabama pro Dustin Connell had one of the most diverse gameplans of the final 10 anglers, catching them across the lake with various approaches. He sampled the lake’s lower end near the dam and multiple rivers and creeks.
“I mixed it up this week and caught them on a bunch of different baits, a frog, swim jig, and spinnerbait for the shad spawn type stuff,” he said. “I was also fishing green trees and trash mats with the frog and a white swim jig with a white Rapala CrushCity Cleanup Craw on the back. One key all week was trying to find dingier water, because it seemed like they bit better in those areas.”
He also utilized Lowrance ActiveTarget 2 for fry guarders early in the week and then for throwing a jighead minnow for smallmouth on the final day.
“The drop-shot qualified me to fish the final day, and I was using a green Rapala CrushCity Janitor Worm on a 1/0 VMC Neko Hook and ¼-ounce VMC tungsten weight,” Connell said. “That was for fry guarders, but I noticed it was fizzling by the final day. The last day, I caught two nice smallmouth on a gizzard shad CrushCity Freeloader on a ¼-ounce VMC Hybrid Jighead.”
4. Cole Floyd – 19-14 (5)
Ohio pro Cole Floyd did the best of the Roanoke River contingent by power fishing and targeting shady areas near the bank with a frog and swim jig. Fishing pressure took a toll on his areas, and he believes the clearing of the water also hampered the bite. Still, he was able to boat five quality bass on the final day.
“I was using white Strike King Sexy Frog and a 3/8-ounce Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover Swim Jig with a white Strike King Rage Bug on the back,” Floyd said. “Those were my two main weapons, and I was fishing them on main river stuff, bluffs, and channel swings. I was also looking for places where the shad spawn was happening in the mornings.”
5. Edwin Evers – 16-10 (4)
Oklahoma’s Edwin Evers moved around quite a bit throughout the event, catching fish on the lower end of the lake, the middle section, and into the Roanoke River. As the event went on, he dialed in on a spinnerbait pattern for the shad spawn bite in the mornings and targeted shade as the sun rose.
“The first day, I caught some on a Ned rig, but most of them came on a spinnerbait, a ½-ounce Berkley Power Blade in white with silver double willow blades,” he said. “It was all about high percentage areas; some would be shade from overhanging trees, and some were on current related points.”
Evers also utilized his 30-minute ride-around period each morning to scan for the shad spawn.
“I would run around and look for the birds and mark them all,” he said. “Then I’d fish those stretches, mainly on steeper banks or riprap.”
6. Zack Birge – 14-13 (4)
Oklahoma pro Zack Birge employed a vibrating jig and spinnerbait throughout the week in the power-fishing program in the Roanoke. He also utilized a white Toad Thumper popping frog around shallow cover during the week.
“I was just running bluff banks chasing the shad spawn and then targeting shade,” Birge said. “The first couple days, I caught quite a few fish on a 3/8-ounce TrueSouth LiveWire Three-Blade Spinnerbait in the payday color, but the ChatterBait was the predominant bait of the week. It was a 3/8-ounce Z-Man Evergreen Jack Hammer ChatterBait with a minnow trailer in a green shad color.”
7. Matthew Stefan – 11-3 (3)
Wisconsin’s Matthew Stefan had the comeback story of the week, as he started competition in last place with two fish before rallying to make the Knockout Round. He also cashed a $30,000 big bass check for his 5-pound, 15-ounce bass, which helped propel him to the final day.
Those two bass the first day were caught the same way he fished later in the week, but a gamble to throw a glide bait to catch up didn’t pan out. He went back to the Roanoke and was able to keep the event going.
“I was fishing anywhere from the first bridge to as far as you could go, throwing a 3/8-ounce Core Tackle Swim Jig in Goldilocks with a Berkley PowerBait Grass Pig on the back or a ½-ounce white vibrating jig with a white Berkley PowerBait PowerStinger,” said Stefan. “The swim jig was for when I was around bushes because it would come through better, and I used the vibrating jig in more open areas, and the steeper rocks seemed the best.”
8. Drew Gill – 10-10 (3)
Illinois pro Drew Gill scored yet another Top 10 finish and did it with two approaches, one to get him to the final day and one to swing for the fences. Knowing he wasn’t catching many fish over 3 pounds, Gill went all-in on the glide bait the final day.
“We had the split weight minimums, so I had to change it up,” he said. “Early in the event, I targeted deeper bed fish around stumps and shallow brush with a Big Bite Baits Nekorama in green pumpkin on a Neko rig with a 3/32-ounce weight. I picked up the glide bait on the last day and threw it all day.”
He used two glide baits – a Clutch Boss and Baby Boss – in shad patterns.
“I had a few opportunities but didn’t connect with all of them and only caught three,” he said. “I was fishing the glides around bluffs, tight banks, and deep docks and stayed between the bridge and the state park the entire time.”
9. Jeff Sprague – 9-15 (2)
Although he only landed two bass over 3 pounds on the final day, Texas pro Jeff Sprague made one count with his 6-2, allowing him to take home the $100,000 big bass check. He mixed it up all week, fishing a few miles on either side of the Hales Ford Bridge and into the Roanoke River, but stayed shallow with a ½-ounce white swim jig and a 3/8-ounce vibrating jig. He used two trailers, a Lake Fork Trophy Lures Magic Shad and Pro Craw, both in ice pearl white.
“I started the week catching a lot of bass around overhangs, but the vibrating jig is what I caught the big one on,” Sprague said. “That Pro Craw is a twin tail and keeps that bait from spinning and laying on its side, so I could fish that shallow wood without hanging up as much. Then, I went with a little heavier swim jig just to be able to skip it a little better.”
10. Michael Neal – 6-5 (2)
Tennessee pro Michael Neal kicked off the event in style, catching 26 bass for 75-14 to lead after the first day. His approach was fishing the far reaches of the Roanoke with a spinnerbait, and that’s what he employed all week long.
“I was just running bluffs, either the bluff itself or the shade line when the sun was up,” Neal said. “There was a shad spawn going on, and spinnerbait was the best way I could catch them. I tried to make that pattern work in some of the creeks but could only make it happen on the main river.”
His spinnerbait was the 3/8-ounce SPRO Blade in shad and pearl white shades with a Big Bite Baits Kamikaze Swimon Split Tail on the back. The spinnerbaits featured double willow blades, one gold and one silver.