DAYTON, Tenn. – While the leaders on the first day of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Central Division event on Lake Chickamauga set a high bar, most struggled to back it up. However, Banks Shaw moved from third to first, improving on a 23-pound opening salvo with 26-13 on Day 2, good for a 50-8 total.
Averaging more than 25 pounds a day has him almost 9 pounds ahead of Dillon Falardeau, who tallied 41-4, and more than 10 pounds clear of last year’s champion, Brody Campbell, who is third with 39-14. Though the event has been volatile to say the least, it sure looks like the 20-year-old Shaw has the rest of the field right where he wants them.
On the Strike King co-angler side, Charles Huggins Jr. remains in the lead with 25 pounds, while Jim Pierce and several others are narrowly behind him.
When it comes to Fishing Clash Angler of the Year, it looks like Matt O’Connell will take home the $5,000 top prize. While Austin Swindle and Jeremy Gordon slipped up a little at Chick, O’Connell made the cut in all three of the huge Central Division events to take the title.
Home pond paying out for Shaw
On Day 1, 21-year-old Hayden Marbut took the lead. Today, 20-year-old Shaw supplanted him. A sophomore at the University of North Alabama who calls Chickamauga home, Shaw is in the midst of a geography/fishing major – with an emphasis on the fishing.
“This has been a really weird tournament,” he said. “I haven’t even really been thinking about it, I’ve just been fishing. I’ve been doing my own thing and staying calm. I didn’t even have a limit today at 11 o’clock, but I just knew it was going to happen. I knew I was going to get in the right rotation at some point.”
While a bevy of patterns have been working on Chickamauga, most of the really big bags have come offshore, and Shaw has now accounted for two of them.
“I’ve just been bouncing a bunch of different places, little groups of fish that are relating to the bottom,” he said. “I’m just rolling a swimbait over them. I’ll make a few casts, either they’ll bite or they’re not going to bite, and I’ll move on. I’m just hitting as many places as I can.
“It’s almost like a herring pattern, running a ton of cane piles or something like that,” he added. “I’ve just been running a ton of groups I found in practice. They’re relating to the shell, really, hard bottom. And bait, whenever I’m catching them best is when there’s bait in the area at the moment.”
Cranking the motor a lot is nothing new on offshore fisheries, but it’s a little bit out of the ordinary on ledge fisheries, where sometimes anglers will sit on a school of hundreds of bass. Shaw has some schools with 30 fish or more in them, but mostly he’s counting on running into small clumps of biters.
“I have some wads, but most of them are smaller groups,” he said. “There’s fish showing up. Today, I caught all my fish on places I didn’t fish yesterday.
“It seems like I’ll have a flurry throughout the day, but I don’t know when it’s going to be,” he added. “It’ll be pretty slow, then all of a sudden, I’ll catch five or six good ones in a row off different places. It’s hard to tell when it’s going to happen.”
Tomorrow, Shaw will go after his first win with MLF, and he’s in a great position to do it. If things come together, it could hasten his rise in the cast for cash game.
“I would not be in college if it wasn’t for fishing,” he said. “The tournaments are so big, and the competition is so good, that’s the main reason I went. If I win, I might do online school and fish the (Tackle Warehouse) Invitationals or something. If I got that opportunity, and I could still stay in college and do it online, I’m to the point where I’d like to fish at the highest level I can at this time.”
“Seat of the pants” pattern working for Falardeau
A full-time guide and lodge owner on the lake, Falardeau is looking to make it in bass fishing, after 10 years in the army. He’s now in the midst of his second Toyota Series Top 10, so the prospects are looking good.
As a guide on Chick, he’s been starting every day fishing his best places down the lake near Chester Frost.
“I go out every day with a good gameplan, as a full-time guide on the lake, I know where the big ones live,” he said. “They just are not cooperating. So, honestly, a lot of the big fish that I have caught the last two days, eight of the 10, are in places I’ve never fished a day in my life.”
In the last two afternoons, he’s sacked up big bags junk fishing shallow cover up around Dayton.
“As I’m driving back to weigh-in, I keep my eyes open. I see a single dock, catch a 5-pounder. See a tree, catch a 4-pounder. Just stupid stuff.”
On the final day, with the lower end of the lake likely crowded with friends and former clients, he’s planning on swinging taking a crack at the bass around Dayton.
“I have noticed that the further up I go, my quality gets better,” he said. “On Day 1, I had 9 pounds at 12:52, which was when I arrived back up to Dayton. I was due in at 2:30 – in an hour and a half I caught a 22-pound bag. Today, basically everything I weighed-in, other than one, came from up here. I think I’m going to turn left tomorrow and go look around.”
Top 10 pros
1. Banks Shaw – 50 – 8 (10)
2. Dillon Falardeau – 41 – 4 (10)
3. Brody Campbell – 39 – 14 (10)
4. Brian Hatfield – 38 – 1 (10)
5. Hayden Marbut – 38 – 0 (10)
6. Fisher Anaya – 36 – 10 (10)
7. Ethan Greene – 35 – 15 (10)
8. Chad Mrazek – 35 – 13 (10)
9. Derik Hudson – 34 – 6 (10)
10. Ethan King – 34 – 5 (10)
Fishing Clash AOY
The Toyota Series Plains Division pros are competing this week for the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year award and its $5,000 payday. Fishing Clash – an interactive 3D fishing simulation game that’s been downloaded by more than 80 million people worldwide – will reward the pro AOYs in all divisions of the Toyota Series, and is the official AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League.
Download Fishing Clash for free in the App Store and on Google Play or log on to www.fishingclash.game for more information.