Top 5 Patterns From Seminole Day 1
Timber and grass are both productive choices.
Bradley Enfinger took the day-one lead at the Rayovac FLW Series presented by Evinrude on Lake Seminole fishing suspended bass in timber. Others in the top-5 fished both wood and grass on day one.
Enfinger’s full pattern can be found here.
2. Rodger Beaver – Colquitt, Ga. – 21 pounds, 10 ounces
Rodger Beaver of Dawson, Ga., knows his way around Lake Seminole pretty well and he proved it today with a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 10 ounces for second place.
Beaver opted to run a grass pattern on day one, tapping a multitude of sweet spots in the hydrilla for about nine keepers on the day.
“It was far from fast and furious,” Beaver says. “I had to run quite a few places to catch that. I never caught more than one fish off any one of my places. I’ve got about 20 grass places to fish; they’re just one cast places on a little turn or corner in the grass. I wish I could find a place that had a lot of fish on it, but it just has not been that way for me.”
“I still have a few places I have not hit yet and I’d like to save them,” he adds. “Hopefully the ones I fished today will reload and I can save something for Saturday.”
3. Lee Boutwell – Climax, Ga. – 20 pounds, 8 ounces
Lee Boutwell of Climax, Ga., referred to his fishing on Seminole as the “long grind” for a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 8 ounces.
“It took me till 12:30 to catch those fish I weighed in,” he says. “I didn’t catch another one after that.”
Boutwell is mixing timber and grass patterns, but noted the timber was better today.
“I went to the timber early and the grass late,” he says. “I only had one bite in the grass, but it was a 6-pounder and I lost it. There are some big ones in that grass. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow: start in the timber in the morning and then hit the grass for a big one.”
4. Daniel Welch – New Martinsville – 19 pounds, 15 ounces
Daniel Welch of New Martinsville, W.V., went to the grass for his catch – one ounce shy of 20-pounds – for fourth place.
Welch says he is fishing 6- to 10-foot depths on the outsides of the grass with a big worm, and like others, his best bite was early.
“When I found these fish in practice, there was shad being blown into the edge of the grass by the wind,” he says. “I could see shad skipping around everywhere. Today the wind was blowing away from the grass and I didn’t see shad, but the fish were still there.”
5. Buddy Gross – Chattanooga, Tenn. – 18 pounds, 11 ounces
Buddy Gross of Chattanooga, Tenn., rounds out the top five with 18 pounds, 11 ounces for fifth.
“I was boat six this morning, which helped a bunch,” Gross said. “I had my pick of what I wanted to fish. I started on a place in the grass where there was a bunch of shad – they were following my bait in on every cast. I caught about 16 pounds there pretty quick and then it died. After that I went to the timber and culled up a couple of times.”