BAINBRIDGE, Ga. – Heading into the final day of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southern Division event on Lake Seminole, Matt Baty had a pretty solid lead and a strong game plan. One of the best locals on the lake, Baty has won there before and certainly looked like the man to beat. Of course, the tournament is three days, not just two, and 13 pounds on Day 3 dropped Baty out of the conversation.
Hammering out an even 22 pounds, Ridge Faircloth surged from fourth to the win, edging perennial bridesmaid Wyatt Frankens by 3 ounces with 59-15. Fishing for Troy University and growing up on Lake Seminole, Faircloth perfectly adapted to the changing weather to bring in his biggest bag of the event when it counted most. For the win, Faircloth pockets $34,446, and also qualified for the Toyota Series Championship this fall.
Clinching the 7 Brew Angler of the Year title in the Southern Division, Brody Campbell finished ninth – his sixth Top 10 of the year with MLF.
Modern tools, local savvy put Faircloth on top
You might expect a college student who wins a Toyota Series event to clean up with forward-facing sonar (and that is often the case). This time, though, Faircloth bucked the trend, as many of his key bites and probably his best decision of the week had little to do with LiveScope.
Fishing a Hideup Coike Fullcast for the most part, Faircloth did his damage on a couple of schools of fish and in the grass – until the final day.
“When I was in the Chattahoochee, I saw the water was moving – we had rain all morning,” he said. “The wind was going too; it was perfect conditions. I always catch them on a ChatterBait here when it’s nasty. I was like, ‘Let’s go have some fun.’ I didn’t have much else that wasn’t burnt, so I went to some old stuff I found senior year of high school. I went to it this morning, culled out what I had in the livewell, and caught a big one and then a 4 (pounder).”
Then, moving on from his current area, Faircloth got revenge on a fish that eluded him on Day 2.
“I lost one yesterday and I marked exactly where he was – in my LiveScope period, that’s where I headed,” he said. “I went straight to him and he was still there – as soon as it hit the water he came up there and hit it.”
For his ChatterBait, Faircloth used a 3/8-ounce Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait JackHammer in bluegill, with a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader in green shad for a trailer. He used a scuppernong-colored Fullcast, with a 2/0 BKK treble and a 1/4-ounce worm weight inserted in the wire hole. Fishing the Fullcast a variety of ways was a big part of his success.
“The first day, all my fish came out deep,” he said. “I had 10 pounds, went to a school, I didn’t think there was nothin’ to it, and in five casts I culled out everything I had in the box. I threw a minnow, I threw everything, and I just grabbed a Coike and threw it over there and caught them five casts in a row.”
He also caught big ones on it without ‘Scope.
“The second day, I knew I had to do something,” he said. “I started blind-casting the Coike, just random, and caught a 5 1/2. I was throwing the Coike around like a jerkbait, just fishing it blind. You don’t have to have LiveScope to catch ‘em on that thing. They eat it so good, it’s stupid how good they eat it here. They won’t react to anything else, and then all of a sudden, you throw a Coike over top of them and it fires them right up.”
Faircloth didn’t see it coming
Heading out on Day 3, Faircloth didn’t expect to win. But, he and his college teammate Max Hondorp were both in the cut, and he was fishing home water.
“This is my home lake; I’ve fished here my entire life, and it finally went good,” he said. “I was thinking I’d have to have like 25, I thought I had to have a sack of ‘em to win it. I thought it was going to take a lot more than what I had.”
It turned out, he had just enough, and he got to experience the rush of a lifetime.
“I’ve never had this feeling before; this is the biggest tournament I’ve ever won by a longshot,” Faircloth said. “This is my home lake, I put a lot of time in out here, I’ve been fishing this whole week, daylight to dark. I’m stoked, there ain’t no word that can describe it. It’s a great feeling.”
Top 10 pros
1. Ridge Faircloth – 59 – 15 (15) – $34,446
2. Wyatt Frankens – 59 – 12 (15) – $13,348
3. Max Hondorp – 56 – 15 (15) – $10,334
4. Mason Boylan – 56 – 14 (15) – $9,612 (includes $1,000 Phoenix Bonus)
5. Dylan Quilatan – 55 – 10 (15) – $7,750
6. Levi Thibodaux – 55 – 5 (15) – $6,889
7. Matt Baty – 54 – 1 (15) – $6,028
8. Eric Panzironi – 53 – 15 (15) – $5,167
9. Brody Campbell – 53 – 11 (15) – $4,306
10. Caz Anderson – 51 – 14 (15) – $3,445