Saturday, June 13, 2015

2015 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga Day 2: Michael Wooley Stays Consistent Sack Lead as Most Fall.

Leaderboard flip flop shakes up Top 20.
by Rob Newell
FLW PRESS RELEASE
The last time the Walmart FLW Tour visited Lake Chickamauga in June 2013, the term “mega-school” was thrown around a lot. At this year’s Chickamauga event, which is presented by Igloo Coolers, you will hardly hear that term at all at the weigh-in.
Another 20 pound plus day put Wooley into the lead.
(Photo: FLW)
Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tenn., knows the difference between mega-schools and the “regular” kind. After sacking 26 pounds, 2 ounces on day one and 23-05 on day two to take the tournament lead with 49-07, Wooley says his fish are certainly not swimming in a mega-school.
“I fish Kentucky Lake and Pickwick a lot, so I know what a mega-school looks like,” Wooley confirms. “This is just a small group of fish using a bar inside a creek to feed. I’d say the group maybe has 30 or 40 fish in it at any given time.
Wooley found the fish on Sunday afternoon during practice. He idled over the bar, which bottoms out in 12 to 13 feet of water, and a handful of fat Tic Tacs – little pill-shaped sonar returns – popped up on his DownScan, indicating bass situated on the structure.
“This is not the kind of spot where you see solid fish for 100 yards on the DownScan. That’s more what a mega-school looks like,” Wooley describes. “This was just a few dots down on the bottom, but they were big.”
Wooley says the bar is made up of shell, and in the mornings the big bass are feeding on gizzard shad there.
Yesterday he had his limit by 8 a.m. Today it took him until 10:30.
“It was a little slower in there this morning,” he says. “I think a lot of that is due to the cloud cover we had this morning versus yesterday’s bright and sunny conditions.”
Despite the fish feeding on gizzard shad, Wooley says he has been unable to make the bass bite shad-imitators like big spoons, hair jigs or swimbaits. Instead, everything has come by slowly dragging jigs and plastics.
“I just hope it holds up for another day or two,” Wooley says. “I have some other fish out on the river, but they’re not as big, and it usually takes current to make them bite, which happens in the afternoon. Those in the creek are less conditioned to that current and are on a morning feeding schedule.”

Top 10 Pros
1. Michael Wooley – Collierville, Tenn. – 49-07 bill
2. Bill McDonald – Greenwood, Ind. – 45-05
3. David Dudley – Lynchburg, Va. – 42-02
4. Michael Neal – Dayton, Tenn. – 41-11
5. Stetson Blaylock – Benton, Ark. – 41-00
6. Cody Meyer – Auburn, Calif. – 40-00
7. John Cox – DeBary, Fla. – 39-06
8. Terry Bolton – Paducah, Ky. – 39-06
9. Charlie Ingram – Centerville, Tenn. – 39-04
10. Clent Davis – Montevallo, Ala. – 39-00
11. Darrell Davis – Dover, Fla. – 38-02
12. Scott Martin – Clewiston, Fla. – 38-00
13. James Biggs – Euless, Texas – 37-15
14. Alex Davis – Albertville, Ala. – 37-10
15. Bryan Schmitt – Deale, Md. – 37-10
16. Richard Peek – Centre, Ala. – 37-10
17. Brad Knight – Lancing, Tenn. – 37-06
18. Tom Redington – Royse City, Texas – 37-06
19. Bryan Thrift – Shelby, N.C. – 37-05

20. Larry Nixon – Bee Branch, Ark. – 37-03

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