Seminole Top 5 Patterns Day 2
All stages of spawn being exploited by best pros
After six limits cracked the 20-pound mark in the Costa FLW Series Southeastern event on day one, 20-pound bags were nonexistent on day two.
Typical for Seminole, the big bags were caught on day one and day two was all about hanging on. Between the cold front and the fishing pressure, the replenishing of bass many had hoped for didn’t materialize.
Buddy Gross took the lead on day two by fishing out deep for staging fish in Spring Creek, but behind him is a cast of pros doing a little bit of every thing from sight-fishing to flipping.
Here’s a look at what the rest of the top five have been mining over the last two days.
Top five patterns from day one
2. Clint Brown – Bainbridge, Ga. – 37-14 (10)
Hats off to Clint Brown for being able to sight-fish his way into the runner-up spot during two days high north winds. His catches of 19 pounds, 11 ounces and 18-3 have mostly been plucked from beds despite the bluster.
“The ones I caught yesterday I had marked from practice,” Brown says. “But today I had to go find new ones on the fly. The wind dying down a little certainly helped because it opened up some water where I couldn’t look yesterday. I caught one today I had marked earlier, but the rest of them I found today. I wish it would really slick off tomorrow so I could get out in the middle of some of these places and really look around.”
Brown won the Costa FLW Series event the last time it visited Seminole. Now he is in a position to possibly double up tomorrow and bring home another Seminole Costa trophy.
3. Chad Prough – Chipley, Fla. – 35-10 (10)
Chad Prough knows Seminole well and he’s proving it this week by fishing different areas and techniques with the conditions.
Over the last two days he has caught a few spawners, a few guarding fry in pads, a few dragging a stick bait on sand flats and a few on lipless crankbaits in grass 6- to 8-feet deep.
“Over the last two days, I’ve had to move out a little deeper,” Prough says. “Yesterday, most of those fish were shallow – up guarding fry or spawning. But today I moved out into grass in that 5- to 8-foot zone and caught some on a Rat-L-Trap. That deeper stuff is a little more stable when we have crazy weather like this.”
4. Matt Baty – Bainbridge, Ga. – 34-12 (10)
Local pro Matt Baty has proven consistency over the last two days with limits of 17-8 and 17-4 to put himself in fourth place.
Baty is using some typical Seminole tactics, but he is fishing them in some places that are new to him.
“Due to the warm winter and all this grass growth that didn’t die back this year some of us local guys have had to relearn this lake,” Baty explains. “I’m not able to fish in some of the typical places I fish in March because the vegetation is still so thick. Some of the places I normally throw a Rat-L-Trap are almost like mats because none of the grass died back.”
To catch his fish, Baty has mixed in a little sight-fishing, a little ChatterBaiting, some lipless crankbaiting on the flats and a lizard on the sandbars.
5. Randy Haynes – Counce, Tenn. – 34-10 (10)
Randy Haynes weighed in 20-3 on day one from a hotspot on deeper offshore grass, but he had to scramble today to catch 14-7 to stay in the top five.
“I think I’ve caught them all,” Haynes says of his primary spot that yielded the big bag yesterday. “I fished it for a long time today and only caught three little ones; I had to run to some shallow stuff to finish my limit.”
Haynes offered a shout out to his friend Troy Gibson who waved him into a shallow place where Haynes caught his biggest bass of the day.
“A big thanks to Troy for that, otherwise I’d be on my way home right now,” Haynes adds.