HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Catching big fish turned out to be the name of the game in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Hamilton. With 7- to 9-pound kickers hitting the scale every day, catching one a day, or even one at all, was the difference between a top finish and gutting it out with the bulk of the field. Despite the calendar nearly flipping over into June, Hamilton put out some seriously big fish, and many of the biggest were guarding fry or putting the finishing touches on the spawn in some form or fashion.
Here’s what worked best at the All-American.
1. Big fry guarders set Turano apart
Winning $120,000 and qualifying for REDCREST, Matteo Turano had a heck of a week in The Natural State. Catching big fry guarders was key, and he was able to put the skills he’s honed on Kentucky Lake to good use.
Turano caught his kicker on Day 1 around midday, then locked in on the pattern from there, catching fry guarders, roamers and fish holding on brush, grass and other irregularities to fill out his bags. Turano used a few minnows on a Buckeye G-Stroll head, with either a 7-foot, 6-inch, medium light Phenix K2 Torzite or a 7-7, medium Phenix Feather spinning stick.
2. Shad spawn gives Hadden a shot
Tanner Hadden stayed in the hunt with Turano, and a big key was a gizzard shad spawn that he exploited in the mornings.
“I started there every day,” he said of his shad spawn point. “There had been like 50 fish out there on that flat in 5- or 6-foot water. There were gizzard shad there, I saw them jumping in the grass that first day. There were fish on that flat chasing them every morning, giants, but they were so hard to get to bite. That’s where I caught most of them the first day.”
After that, Hadden kept the trolling motor down.
“When the sun got up, I kind of just cruised around the grass and stuff, like 4- to 15-foot around the grass and shallow piles and ‘Scoped.”
Hadden used Shimano reels and G. Loomis NRX rods. His best baits included a weightless Zoom Super Fluke and a 5-inch Zoom Winged Fluke on a 3/16-ounce Greenfish Tackle Tutu Jig Head. He used 12-pound Seaguar Tatsu for his mainline for the fluke and leader for the minnow.
3. Anderson adapts to move up
On Day 1, Caz Anderson put 10 pounds on the scale, but he caught bags in the high teens each of the final two days to rocket up the leaderboard from 18th to third.
Early, Anderson tried to make a buzzbait bite work, and he backed it up with fish chasing bait – neither worked as well as targeting individual fish fairly shallow, which is how he caught his 8-4 kicker on Day 2.
“I was keying in on shallow clay points and little stumps and brushpiles and grass – things that big postspawn bass like to get out and just sit on for a little bit,” Anderson said. “Some of them might have been guarding fry, but I think the vast majority of them were just sitting on a piece of cover or cruising around real slow, just recuperating from the spawn.
“Most of my big ones came actually fishing uphill,” he added. “I think that was my biggest key. I caught a big one behind another competitor on Day 3. I went behind him and fished the point uphill, and my boat was actually sitting in like 3 feet of water, and I caught that 7-pounder in about 5 feet with a drop-shot just fishing uphill, ‘Scoping them from deep to shallow.”
For his drop-shot, which was his bread and butter, Anderson used a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Hit Worm Magnum on a 1/8-ounce drop-shot. He used a 7-1, medium Fenwick World Class rod with an Abu Garcia Zenon X and 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon for his leader. For his minnow, Anderson used a 5-inch model and a 3/16-ounce jighead.
4. Minnow and a drop-shot play for Knight
One of four LBL Division anglers in the Top 10, Clint Knight did it big on Days 1 and 2 but faltered on the final day. Still, had he landed the big bite he did get the last day, he would been right there with Turano at the top of the table.
Fishing for fry guarders and other fish, Knight used a variety of minnows on heads ranging from 3/32-ounce to 14 grams, and he also used a 6-inch Roboworm Straight Tail Worm on a drop-shot.
Knight practiced like he was home on the Tennessee River, and it ended up putting him in a good position to do well in the event.
“I was looking on sidescan most of the time in practice,” he said. “I was looking for structure and fish that were relating to structure. I really didn’t make that many casts in practice on fish that were on structure. And then, in the tournament, it showed what they were actually doing. I didn’t realize that the big fish in this lake were guarding fry until Day 1 of the tournament.”
Then, Knight was well-placed to execute – a master with modern tools and schooled on fishing for offshore fish around the spawn on Kentucky Lake, Hamilton was a walk in the park.
“All of us kind of got to fish to our strengths,” Knight said. “Because we’ve definitely experienced the fry guarding deal with the smallmouth over the last couple of years.”
5. Benson shows out again at the All-American
Buddy Benson has now led Day 1 in two of the last three All-Americans and finished fifth or better in each one – truly excellent work. At Hamilton, Benson nabbed a 9-pounder on Day 1 and followed up with solid days from there.
On the week, he used a few baits, including a 6.5-inch Zoom Winged Fluke on a 3/16-ounce head, a 3/16-ounce drop-shot with a redbug Zoom Trick Worm, and a 3/4-ounce Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait JackHammer in clearwater shad and green pumpkin shad with a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader trailer.
Benson caught most of his weight on the minnow but mixed in other baits.
“I would say I caught two to five fish each day on the ChatterBait,” Benson said. “And then I would get in three or four on the drop-shot.”
Small, clay points produced some of Benson’s best fish, including his giant on Day 1.
“Just a little bitty clay point, and it was just up on it in 5- to 10-foot of water,” he said. “In practice, I caught a big one doing that, and we do that on Lanier a lot this time of the year, just fish little bitty red clay points with a worm. That’s how I caught my biggest one in practice, so I knew if I could get a couple bites, they might be big ones. I only got three bites the whole tournament doing it, but I weighed all three of them.”
6. Mixing and matching works for Lawrence
Fishing as though he still needed to deal with the technology restrictions on the Bass Pro Tour, Jake Lawrence put together one of the more diverse tournaments in the field. On Day 1, he caught most of his fish on a buzzbait, and he mixed in offshore fish on brush and ‘Scope as the event wore on.
His buzzbait was a 3/8-ounce Buckeye Buzzerk with a Big Bite Baits Tour Toad. In brush and offshore, Lawrence plied a 3/8-ounce free rig with a Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog and a few minnows. His setup for the buzzbait was a Dobyns Kaden 713, a Bates Fishing Co. Salty Hundo reel and 30-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid. For his free rig, he used a Dobyns Champion XP 733, a Bates Fishing Co. Salty Hundo, and 15-pound Seaguar Red Label.
Lawrence started on what he thought was a great pattern, but had to transition deeper as the water dropped a little.
“Those bluegill were living up under those docks,” he said. “The docks there, they’ve got like a porch platform that comes out over the lake for a few feet, and you’d have the walkway, and then you have the floating portion of the dock. Those bluegill were living up under that porch platform in 6 to 10 inches of water – extremely shallow. It went away, but before the water fell, 14 to 16 pounds is what I felt like I could catch doing that.”
7. Grass plays for Falardeau
The only pro to really make the grass bite work on Hamilton, Dillon Falardeau fished a very steady event.
Winding through the grass, Falardeau used a 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait JackHammer in golden shiner trailered with a 5.5-inch Hog Farmer Spunk Shad in Tennessee magic. He also threw a 3/8-ounce Hog Farmer HogWobbler with a 5-inch Hog Farmer Stroll Shad and a Shimano Zumverno 115SP MR. For everything, he used Dobyns rods, Shimano reels and Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon.
“I was just trying to cover as much water as I possibly could on every cast,” Falardeau said. “I was fishing grass in the middle of drains, and the more in the middle of the drain I could find the grass, the more bass were in it.”
8. Lovin chases schoolers for a base
Putting his ‘Scope to work, Harbor Lovin put together good bags without really relying on individual fish or shallow fish, preferring to stay a little more in the open and key on fish that were eating.
His main bait was a Jenko Don (unreleased) on a Jenko Revolution jighead in 3/16- and 1/8-ounce models. He threw the minnow on a 7-6, medium-light Jenko High Roller with K9 braid and fluoro.
“Going into it, I was really thinking 12 1/2 (pounds) a day was going to be like Top 10 solid,” he said. “I got on a little deal chasing schoolers. Not necessarily on the surface, but they were kind of in packs, almost like white bass, really tightly together. And if you could get it in front of them, they would eat, and the grade seemed to be okay, like 2-pounders. I mixed up fish in drains and fish on the break on the side of the drain – that grade was better for me than the brush fish.”
After establishing a good base, Lovin pointed his ‘Scope shallow, and he caught his three biggest fish of the week shallow, not out chasing bait.
9. Frog bite propels Ross into the Top 10
Likely having the most fun of anyone in the Top 10, Cody Ross caught almost all his fish on a frog.
A Strike King Sexy Frog got the call, and he backed it up with a Lew’s Custom Lite hollow frog rod, an 8.3:1 gear ratio Lew’s HyperMag and 65-pound Strike King Tour Grade Braid. He also caught some fish on a Neko-rigged Strike King Finesse Worm in green pumpkin purple with a 1/16-ounce Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Neko Weight.
Fishing shallow docks with shorter walkways, Ross’s bite was best in the afternoon when the sun really got up.
“The last day of practice was sunny for a little while, since we only got to fish ‘til 12, and I started getting some swim jig bites, and I had two frog bites,” he said. “And one of them, my frog is skipping underneath the dock, and as it’s skipping, one blows up and tries to eat it while it’s still like full-blast skipping. And that was when I realized the frog is the deal.”
10. Worm in brush the ticket for Fogle
Zack Fogle popped a kicker on Day 1 and rode it the rest of the way, fishing brush with the sort of expertise you’d expect from a Cowboy Division angler.
His best bait was a Zoom Ol’ Monster in Junebug on a 5/16-ounce Texas rig. He threw it on a 7-3, heavy Kistler KLX with a Lew’s SuperDuty and 25-pound Seaguar Tatsu. Fogle also mixed in a Megabass Vision 110 a bit.
“I primarily fished brush,” Fogle said. “To be honest with you, I didn’t realize until the last day of the tournament that all of the leaders were on brushpiles that I was fishing later in the day. So, that explains why my fish fell off – they were catching them around the piles that I was catching them on later in the day. My rotation got messed up because I couldn’t run through those piles, so I would kind of mill around in the grass and finish my limits in that same general area where the leaders were.”