Top 10 Patterns from Lake Seminole
Prespawn and spawning tactics turned in the biggest weights
Buddy Gross dominated the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division event presented by Mud Hole Custom Tackle on Lake Seminole by fishing swimbaits over deep hydrilla in Spring Creek. Strong north winds following a cold front forced a lot of anglers to fish in protected areas. As a result, other patterns that prevailed at Seminole included fishing grass flats and sandbars for staging and bedding bass, sight-fishing and “trapping” deeper grass. Here’s a closer look at the top 10 patterns.
2. Thrift finishes second again
Bryan Thrift of Shelby, N.C., finished second at Lake Seminole with a three-day total of 58-9. As a side note to his patterns, Thrift has now finished runner-up three times in a row in FLW competition.
In typical Thrift fashion, he made a huge push for the win on the final day, checking in one of the tournament’s biggest limits – 24 pounds, 4 ounces.
During the morning hours, Thrift would blind-cast to bedding and staging fish on one of the popular main-lake bedding flats. In the afternoons he pulled up stakes and ran over to the Chattahoochee side of the lake to fish shallow lily pads and reed heads where fish were just pulling in to spawn.
When fishing the flats, Thrift used a Damiki Stinger 5.5 (green pumpkin magic) with a 1/8-ounce weight on 15-pound-test P-Line. When he ran to the Chattahoochee, he switched over to a Damiki Knock Out with a punch skirt and a 3/4-ounce tungsten weight on 20-pound-test P-Line as well as a hollow-bodied frog.
“The timing was critical on that place in the Chattahoochee,” Thrift says. “I intentionally waited until about 1 o’clock to fish that place each day. I think they were bedding in there, and, therefore, the afternoons were a lot better.”
3. Brown sight-fishes to third
Former Costa FLW Series Lake Seminole winner Clint Brown from Bainbridge caught 14 of the 15 fish he weighed in off beds for a three-day total of 56-5.
Despite the harsh winds, Brown committed himself to sight-fishing all over Seminole for three days using primarily one bait: a Bass Addiction Mat Craw with a 3/8-ounce Flat Out Tungsten weight. On the final day he also boated a 7-pound bass on a hand-made vibrating jig trailed with a Bruiser Baits Crazy Craw (Okeechobee craw).
“I’d spend the mornings fishing for staging bass until the sun got up high enough to go looking,” Brown says. “The first two mornings I never caught anything just fishing. On the last morning I finally caught a 7-pounder in a staging spot, which got me off to a great start.”
4. Beaver runs and guns for fourth
Lake Seminole ace Rodger Beaver of Dawson, Ga., ran a lot of water with a lot of lures to finish fourth with a three-day total of 48-13.
Beaver started the event on the Chattahoochee side of the lake catching fry guarders on a 3/8-ounce Buddha Baits swim jig teamed with a Zoom Super Speed Craw.
After wind trashed that area, he resorted to fishing sandbars with a Bitter’s Baits Mega Vibe paddle-tail worm with a 5/16-ounce weight and a Big Bite Baits Trick Stick with a 1/32-ounce weight. He also dragged the same bars with a Carolina-rigged lizard.
On the final day Beaver added a few weigh fish by fishing near the dam with an umbrella rig.
5. Baty cranks and looks for fifth
Local pro Matt Baty of Bainbridge, Ga., put his Lake Seminole knowledge to work to finish fifth on his home lake with a three-day total of 47-1.
Baty ran two programs during the week. One was fishing sandbars while looking for spawners, and the other was fishing shallow hydrilla and pad stems with a bladed jig.
When fishing the bars, Baty used a BOOYAH 3/4-ounce One Knocker (Tennessee shad) tied to 50-pound-test braid until he saw a spawner. Then he sight-fished with a Big Bite Baits Real Deal Craw (watermelon red) with a 3/8-ounce tungsten on 20-pound-test Sunline fluorocarbon.
When fishing the hydrilla and pad stems he used a 3/8-ounce Buddha Baits Swagger Jig teamed with a Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper (real shad).
6. Prough probes flats for sixth
Chad Prough of Chipley, Fla., played the flats game with a variety of lures to finish sixth with a total of 43-11
Prough spent much of his week casting to bedding flats with a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper (junebug) with a 1/4-ounce weight, a Texas-rigged Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver (hematoma) and a Reaction Innovations Pocket Rocket (green pumpkin).
7. Beavers Flukes flats for seventh
Bradford Beavers of Ridgeville, S.C., grabbed the seventh-place spot with a three-day total of 42-14.
Beavers spent most of his week fishing bedding flats in the Spring Creek area of the lake with two lures. The first was a Zoom Super Fluke (shad colors) with a 4/0 hook tied to 14-pound-test line that he fished with a Dobyns 733 rod. The other was a Katch-Her Lures bladed jig (black/blue) teamed with a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper, 16-pound-test fluorocarbon and a Dobyns 734 rod.
“Most of the flats were 2 to 4 feet deep with mixed sand and grass,” Beavers says. “When fishing the Fluke, I’d have to work it painfully slow – lightly twitching it and dead-sticking it.”
8. Wilson goes wacky for eighth
Barry Wilson of Birmingham, Ala., reeled in an eighth-place finish with a three-day total of 39-13.
Wilson spent most of his time in the Flint side of the lake throwing wacky rigs and swim jigs around bedding flats. His wacky rig consisted of a watermelon candy straight-tail worm with an O-ring on a No. 2 octopus hook tied to 15-pound-test P-Line fluorocarbon on a casting rod. His 3/8-ounce swim jig was teamed with a twin-tail YUM Bad Jamma and tied to 40-pound-test P-Line XTCB Braid.
“I found some big flats on the Flint side that had sandbars,” Wilson says. “I couldn’t see fish bedding, but there were a lot of bright, sandy spots that I’m sure were beds. I’d pole down, cast to the lighter spots and twitch the wacky rig to get the bites.”
9. Haynes starts deep, finishes shallow for ninth
Deep-water expert Randy Haynes of Counce, Tenn., caught a big bag (20-3) the first day on outside grass lines but had to resort to shallow water to finish the event in ninth with a three-day total of 39-5.
When fishing out, Haynes targeted grass-lined drains and points on the Flint side out to about 12 feet deep. He probed the drains with a 1/2-ounce Profound Outdoors Azuma Shaker Z lipless rattler tied to 20-pound-test fluorocarbon and a 1/2-ounce football-head jig teamed with a Zoom Z Hog, also on 20-pound test.
When fishing shallow, Haynes switched over to the Chattahoochee side of the lake and fished lily pad stems with the Shaker Z and a new Zoom prototype frog.
“The wind really killed me on those deeper grass lines,” Haynes says. “That first day I could see the little drains, points and clumps of grass out there in 10 to 12 feet of water. But once that wind muddied everything up on the river, I couldn’t see those places. That’s when I was forced to go shallow.”
10. Jeter punches and “peeps” for 10th
Local pro Nic Jeter of Bainbridge, Ga., rounded out the top 10 at Lake Seminole with a three-day total of 37 pounds, 12 ounces.
Jeter punched hyacinths and sight-fished bedders along the Flint River. For his punching work, he favored a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver, 1 1/2-ounce tungsten weight, 80-pound-test braid and an iRod flipping stick. When sight-fishing he went with a Zoom Speed Craw (white and blueberry) on a 3/16-ounce tungsten tied to 20-pound-test fluorocarbon.
“I’d usually punch in the mornings,” Jeter says. “Once the sun got up high at around 11 o’ clock and I could see better, I switched to sight-fishing.”