Big Final Day Pushes Ware to Top on Guntersville
SCOTTSBORO, Ala. – Consistency is key in multi-day tournaments, and Kent Ware proved to be the most consistently excellent pro in the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Central Division opener on Lake Guntersville. Weighing in 59 pounds, 15 ounces over three days, the Guntersville local took home the hardware and an $80,000 check thanks to his ability to roll with the punches and the fortitude to stick with his game plan in the face of everchanging weather and water conditions.
Ware, who has called Guntersville, Alabama, his home for the last seven years, is a retired hatchery manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with ample experience and understanding of how bass act in all sorts of conditions. He’s also familiar enough with Guntersville to know the kinds of areas big bass like under certain conditions, too.
“The key is with Guntersville is if you get into a good area, the fish are there. They live there,” he said. “There’s a lot of fish that stay shallow here year-round. It’s just a matter of being patient and working your areas and figuring out a bait to trigger them.
“One of the things that I tried to stress to my co-anglers: When you get an area like we found that’s got fish, I tell them every time that if I ran a shocking boat through here – which I did some with government – it would blow your mind how many fish are here. Just be patient; they’ll bite in little spurts throughout the day.”
And bite they did. Ware compiled limits of 18-15, 18-8 and 22-8, respectively, saving his biggest bag for the final day when it mattered most. The best part for Ware is that he got to catch his fish the way he likes to do it: slowly, methodically and patiently.
“I grew up in Florida,” he said. “I didn’t grow up [running and gunning].”
Once Ware got into an area full of big Guntersville largemouth, he was more than prepared to play the waiting game and cover water all day with a 1/2-ounce Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, which he rigged on a heavy-power rod (a stiffer rod than is typical for a lipless crankbait) to more easily rip his bait through the prolific eelgrass that has taken over the lake.
What helped Ware in his efforts was that the water clarity in his area about 10 miles down river from Scottsboro actually improved throughout the event, despite the massive amounts of rain that inundated the whole area, particularly on Days 2 and 3.
“The key was that the clear water stayed,” he said. “It was protected by an island and for whatever reason I just got lucky; that water stayed in there. It wasn’t real clear. It was actually muddier the first day of the tournament than it was today and yesterday.”
What made the fishing in that area toughest was the dead, floating eelgrass that clumped up with the wind and wreaked havoc on the exposed treble hooks of his Rat-L-Trap, often leading to lost fish. To make matters worse, the local wildlife further hurt him Days 1 and 2.
“There was a big flock of coots in there the first two days, and I had basically a 100-yard stretch with a couple waypoints and I’d go to one waypoint and the flock of coots would move to the other and sit there and pull up weeds and wreck it,” he explained. “I’d go to the other waypoint and they’d go there and wreck it – and this went on for two days, back and forth. Today, the eagles were in there aggravating the coots and so the coots thinned out and that helped with the grass.”
Spoken like a true Fish and Wildlife man.
While Ware has called Guntersville home for the last seven years, his track record in the Toyota Series is most impressive in the Southeast, highlighted by a Southeastern Division Angler of the Year title in 2012. Besting 327 other anglers to earn his first MLF victory on Guntersville makes this win even sweeter for Ware. And now, he can set his sights on another AOY race and a return to Guntersville in the fall for the Toyota Series Championship (which he qualified for with the win).
“That’s exciting,” Ware said upon learning he’d earned a berth to the Championship. “That was the goal: to make the Championship. I’ve had some good years and some bad years, some good championships and some bad ones. But I’ll be looking forward to it here.”
Top 10 Pros
1. Kent Ware – 59 – 15 (15) – $80,000
2. Casey Martin – 57 – 11 (15) – $35,000
3. Derik Hudson – 57 – 05 (13) – $21,000
4. Bo Collins – 56 – 05 (15) – $20,000
5. Nathan Brewer – 53 – 12 (11) – $18,000
6. Ethan Greene – 53 – 06 (15) – $14,500
7. Shawn Penn – 52 – 09 (15) – $13,000
8. Kyle Palmer – 52 – 08 (15) – $10,250
9. Miles Burghoff – 51 – 00 (15) – $9,000
10. Andrew Loberg – 50 – 05 (14) – $7,000