FLW Tour pro David Williams moved from 3rd place to 1st at the Lewis Smith Lake Bassmaster Central Open with a 15-01 bag that gave him a 30-12 total. He'll start the final day with a 4-ounce edge over day-1 leader Jordan Wiggins, who boxed 13 pounds, and 3rd-place John Cox, who weighed 12-14.
With only two lightweight keepers in the livewell by midday Thursday, Williams made a pivotal 30-mile run to a new portion of the lake. The result was a limit weighing 15-11 that he boated within 30 minutes. He made the area his first stop on day 2, and quickly caught a limit that included back-to-back 4-pound largemouth.
“During practice I launched from ramps at opposite sides of the lake,” Williams said. “By nothing more than fate, the best quality fishing areas were the farthest apart.”
Williams described his best spot as a transitional spawning area between a shallow cove and the deeper water. With nothing else to go on he relied on a “junk-fishing” pattern to catch his fish both days.
Today, the buzz among the anglers was the shad spawn, which is attracting hungry post-spawn largemouth to shallow water. The bass are feeding upon the shad during early morning, when the low light provides ambush concealment from the prey.
“It’s a different lake after the sun comes up,” said Cox. “The bite really turns on early and timing is everything.”
Timing in his case means being at the best fishing spots early as possible. That didn’t work out as well today, when compared to the 17-03 caught by Cox on Thursday.
“I just got out of sync and the rotation was off,” he explained. “I will regroup tonight and try it again tomorrow.”
That means continuing to rely on a junk-fishing pattern, or making as many stops as possible on promising areas and using multiple lures to trigger strikes.
Wiggins agreed that his bite was all about timing and being in the right place when the shad were spawning on the shoreline.
“I ran the same pattern as Thursday, and the timing was just off,” Wiggins said. “I had to change to a worm; otherwise I probably wouldn’t have caught anything.”
Here are the totals for the 12 anglers who advanced to the final day:
1. David Williams: 30-12
2. Jordan Wiggins: 30-08
3. John Cox: 30-01
4. Wes Logan: 28-00
5. Taku Ito: 26-09
6. Griffin Phillips: 26-09
7. Tim Arnold: 26-09
8. Caleb Kuphall: 26-05
9. Brent Crow: 26-02
10. Kenta Kimura: 25-13
11. Wayne Hall: 25-09
12. James Davis Jr.: 25-09
