Top 10 Baits from Lake Amistad
Drop-shots, crankbaits, swimbaits and jerkbaits were the big four in this wintertime bass derby
Highs might have been in the mid-60s during the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division tournament presented by Ranger Boats at Lake Amistad during the first week of January, but wintertime tactics were still dominant throughout the top of the ranks. Ray Hanselman won the tournament with a crankbait, jerkbait and drop-shot, which are three of the four categories of baits that most of the top 10 pros used. The fourth was a swimbait, including multi-swimbait umbrella rigs.
Here’s the scoop on the baits they used.
1. Tournament winner Ray Hanselman caught his fish on a Strike King 5XD, a suspending jerkbait and a drop-shot rigged with the Strike King KVD Dream Shot in the KVD magic color.
2. Tyson Patrick kept an umbrella rig fitted with Keitech Swim Impact FAT swimbaits in his hands all day and finished second.
3. A Cabela’s McClelland Competition Series Swimmer swimbait and a drop-shot rigged with a Big Bite Baits Jeff Kriet Shaking Squirrel worm were the tools of choice for third-place finisher Jeff Kriet.
4. Fourth-place finisher William Blaine enjoyed a highly productive second day by throwing an umbrella rig with Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers, a drop-shot with a green pumpkin Zoom Trick Worm (he ran out, and the bait shown was his backup: a Zoom Z-Drop) and a 6th Sense swimbait.
5. In fifth place, Tim Flowers caught his fish on a Wing Ding tail-spinner and a Megabass Deep-Six crankbait.
6. Todd Castledine took sixth by fishing a Strike King 5XD and a Strike King KVD 4.0 Magnum square-Bill.
7. Seventh-place pro T.R. Andreas fished an umbrella rig fitted with white Strike King 3.75 Rage Swimmers and a Zoom Finesse Worm in watermelon red magic on a drop-shot rig.
8. Kyle Cortiana earned an eighth-place finish with a green pumpkin Gene Larew TattleTail Worm on a shaky head, a jerkbait, a Gene Larew Ned Rig Inch Worm in Minnesota flash on a Ned head and a chrome/olive back Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap.
9. Drop-shotting a watermelon red magic Zoom Salty Super Fluke Jr. yielded a ninth-place finish for Clyde Glenn.
10. Jerkbaiting with long pauses proved most productive for 10th-place pro Lance Crawford, who used a Megabass Vision 110+1 and a Smithwick Perfect 10 Rogue.