Cody Huff of Ava, Mo. captured his second Toyota Series win of 2020 on Saturday as he topped the field in the Plains Division event at Table Rock Lake with a three-day total of 46-04. He outdistanced runner-up Jason Lieblong by 3-02.
“Most of the fish I caught this week were in creeks and if you could find one that had a really deep, defined ditch it was perfect,” said Huff, who also won at Toledo Bend in January. “We got that big rain last week and the water came up and I think that water coming in made those shad move to the backs of the creeks. As the water quit running in, it seemed like the shad were making their way back out to the main lake."
Huff’s primary pattern was dropping a chrome blue No. 9 Rapala Jigging Rap on a 6-foot, 8-inch medium-heavy Johnny Morris Signature Series rod with 12-pound fluorocarbon down to fish he saw on his electronics. That was the key to getting bigger bites on the first two days, especially for bigger largemouths sitting in 40 to 70 feet of water over anywhere from 50 to 100 feet from Indian Point down to the dam.
On the final day, Huff weighed all smallmouths and had to completely abandon the Jigging Rap, but still focused on suspended fish.
“The fish weren’t where they were supposed to be and instead of looking for new fish, I wanted to figure out where they went,” said the Bethel University angler. “I never found the largemouths, but when I got farther out I ended up finding some smallmouths suspended really only 10 feet under the surface over 100 feet. The shad were up high, and the smallmouths were singles and I made long casts to them with a little swimbait and they ate that thing. It was a lot of fun once I figured it out.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Cody Huff: 46-04
2. Jason Lieblong: 43-02
3. Spencer Shuffield: 39-12
4. Lawson Hibdon: 39-01
5. Corey Cook: 35-09
6. Cole Breeden: 35-07
7. Aaron Hodge: 35-03
8. Nicky Parsons: 27-09
9. Blake Edwards: 25-14
10. Mike Casada: 22-04
