PREVIEW: Casey Ashley Levels on the ‘Local’ Label
COLUMBIA, South Carolina – For day three of the Elimination Round for the MLF Challenge Select in Columbia, S.C., anglers will again launch out of Larry Koon Landing on Shull Island, but this time the zone will be shifted to the west to encompass the Dreher Island State Park area, including all of Camping Creek. It’s a portion of Murray that many of the Challenge Select anglers had hoped to land in due to its tinted water, shallower flats, prolific bank grass and proximity to the main rivers.
South Carolina native Casey Ashley is more familiar with Murray than any of his competitors for day three. He has fished the lake for many years and has an Elite Series trophy from Murray on his mantle at home in Donalds, S.C. But he knows all too well what being the “local” can mean in MLF competition.
“When you section off a lake and force guys to fish in specific zones, it eliminates local advantage pretty quickly.” Ashley pointed out.
As an example of what Ashley is talking about, consider the MLF Summit Select at Lake Ouachita where Scott Suggs caught just two fish and finished dead last in the Elimination Round on his home lake. Suggs was put in a zone on Ouachita that was far from his wheelhouse down the lake and he was knocked out of the competition early.
“It can happen that fast on your home lake in MLF,” Ashley cautioned. “In order for an angler to have a true home field advantage on his home lake, he needs free run of the whole lake. If you stick him in just one corner of it, he’s going to feel like his hands are tied, giving him no advantage at all.”
“That’s why I was pretty relieved when I saw the zone map this morning,” he continued. “It’s a good section of the lake; if I’m going to be randomly thrown into a zone, I’m not going to complain about being in this one; it could be worse.”
“Also, it’s a big zone when compared to some of the other zones we’ve had in other events,” he added. “Again, that’s a good thing for me. If I pick up on something early, I’ll have plenty of water to run it.”
After receiving his zone map, MLF Select Pro Michael Neal of Tennessee was trying to figure out exactly where the zone ended based on his prior experience on the lake.
“I fished a Forrest Wood Cup here in 2014,” Neal said. “So I’m trying to remember where I fished on this map – I’m not really sure where we’re at here.”
“Oh well, it really doesn’t matter anyway because I caught one bass each day of that Cup, so it’s not like I have anything worth fishing anyway,” he added. “As far as Murray goes, I’ve got no where to go but up. I’ve never fished a herring lake this time of year, so I don’t know what to expect.”
“We’ve got a little rain this morning, which is good for fishing shallow and we’ve got a big zone to work with so maybe I can get something going early and run with it for a couple of periods.”
One pro who was less than thrilled about his prospects on Lake Murray was Todd Faircloth.
“I’m not exactly the biggest fan of blueback herring lakes, especially in the summer,” Faircloth revealed. “Blueback lakes are just so unpredictable – they’re hard to pattern when it’s filled with a baitfish that roams open water like they’re in an ocean. Fishing for bass in these lakes is more like fishing for stripers – they just roam around out there in the middle of nowhere. If you happen to pull up to the right point at the right time, you can look like a genius. Or you might fish 50 points and never run into them.”
“At least we got a little rain this morning,” he added. “That might help develop a shallow bite and keep it around for a while longer. I think a lot of us in this group are banking on that today.”