Lane ignites school and gains 20lb lead over Jordan Lee
MASON PRINCE
BASS PRO TOUR
The attention (and a majority of the praise) from the first day of competition in the B&W Trailer Hitches Stage Four Presented by ATG x Wrangler belongs to Russ Lane. The Alabama pro sits on top of SCORETRACKER® looking down at the rest of his Group A counterparts after catching 23 bass for 70 pounds, 12 ounces Friday, and building a more than 21-pound lead on Lake Chickamauga.
Lane Locates a Shell Bar Shad Spawn
The B&W Trailer Hitches pro got off to a scorching hot start on a beautiful morning in East Tennessee to build a sizable lead. Lane began his morning by catching 13 bass for 37-4 in Period 1 thanks to a productive area he found during his final day of practice.
“I found a shad spawn yesterday afternoon during practice, so I knew that probably would be a good place to start today,” Lane said. “It was lights out this morning and worked out well for me. It feels awesome to have a cushion over second place like I do right now. I’m going to try to stay fluid, stay open-minded and move with the fish.”
Lane did his damage with a 3/4-ounce vibrating jig during the morning shad spawn. He added 21-15 in Period 2 targeting the same area, which he had a hard time leaving thanks to its productivity. According to Lane, at this time of the year on the Tennessee River, the area he found is about as good as you can get.
“There’s a little shell bar out there that made a hole in the grass,” Lane described. “I know that the fish in this area get on places like that this time of the year early in the morning to feed. Pair a shad spawn with that location, and it’s a feeding frenzy. This is one of my favorite times of the year up here.”
The water temperature stayed in the upper 70s on Lake Chickamauga throughout the day thanks to a bright and warm afternoon sun. Lane says that when the weather gets warmer and fish begin to school up, anglers sometimes think they have to move out to the deepest parts of the lake. Lane suggests focusing a little more towards the shallow end.
“You can do really well on the Tennessee River targeting schools of fish in about 6 to 12 feet of water, and I really think that stuff gets overlooked,” Lane said. “A lot of people want to focus on the fish out deep in about 25 feet of water, and that’s fine, but there’s a lot of schools that haven’t moved out that deep yet in the first week of June.”
Top Marks and Notes from Group A
Russ Lane caught the most scorable bass (23) for the most weight (70-12) in Group A and will take a 21-6 lead over Jordan Lee into Sunday’s Qualifying Round.
The Berkley Big Bass of the day belongs to Tommy Biffle, who caught an 8-7 in Period 1. Jordan Lee also caught an 8-pounder on Friday, an 8-2.
As a whole, Group A caught 16 5-pounders, two 6-pounders, three 7-pounders and two 8-pounders.
Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit angler Matt Becker ended his day in sixth place with eight bass for 31-11.
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