Top 10 Baits from Lake Norman
What to throw for spots and largemouths in the early fall
The Toyota Series Eastern Division event on Lake Normal was a fall grinder. With the lake in fall transition and turnover occurring throughout the lake, some of the popular lure choices included shaky heads, jigs, buzzbaits and jerkbaits. Here is a closer look at the best baits of the top 10 pros.
1. Troy Morrow’s money bait was a shaky head rigged on a 3/16-ounce Gambler Giggy Head with a Zoom Finesse Worm. That one lure produced most of his fish during the week. However, he also caught some bigger spotted bass slow-rolling a 5/8-ounce Southern Hook Southern Spin underspin teamed with a 4-inch Zoom Boot Tail Fluke in albino.
2. The key players for Todd Walters were a 7/16-ounce homemade jig teamed with a Berkley PowerBait Meaty Chunk and a River2Sea Whopper Plopper 90. He also caught a few keepers on a Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait.
3. Bryan Thrift relied on his old faithful Damiki Stinger (watermelon candy pumpkin) pinned to 1/8-ounce shaky head and a ½-ounce Fitzgerald Fishing Bryan Thrift Signature Series Micro Jig for dragging out deep.
4. Martin Villa spent the week casting a shaky head in 3/16-ounce and ¼-ounce sizes. He also caught a few fish on River2Sea Whopper Plopper 90 and ripping a ¼-ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad. On the final day, when things got ultra tough, he resorted to a wacky rigged Yamamoto Senko.
5. Jason Wilson spent the week skipping docks with a 7/16-ounce ER Lures jig in a color called Jason’s magic. He trailed the jig with a Zoom Big Salty Chunk.
6. David Williams’ one-two punch included a ¼-ounce TrueSouth V-Twin Buzz buzzbait paired with a Zoom Horny Toad and ½-ounce Queen Tackle Tungsten Flipping Jig tipped with a Zoom Z Craw. He also caught some morning schoolers on a Duo Realis Pencil Popper.
7. Michael Stephens spent most of his time drop-shotting deep shoals with a 6-inch morning dawn Roboworm Straight Tail Worm and fishing brush with a ½-ounce homemade jigged teamed with a Zoom Creepy Crawler.
8. Cole Huskins made his rounds each day with a ½-ounce Brian’s custom jig teamed with a Zoom Super Chunk as well as a Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait.
9. Chris Baumgardner favored two lures at Norman, a Berkley Choppo 130 and a ¾-ounce Lunker Lure Hawg Caller Triple Blade Spinnerbait.
10. Cody Pike kept it simple for the week with a ¼-ounce buzzbait paired with a Zoom Horny Toad. He followed that up with a 3/16-ounce shaky head.