Canadians Richardson 83rd & Sim 109th
by Justin Onslow
FLW PRESS RELEASE
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| Spawning bass and wacky rig Senkos key to leaders! (Photo: FLW) |
Matt Greenblatt was one of the few pros
fishing the FLW Tour’s Lake Chickamauga event this week who didn’t let off the
accelerator on day two. With weights down across the board, the Port St. Lucie,
Fla., pro brought 19 pounds, 13 ounces across the weigh-in stage and jumped
day-one leader John Cox to take the lead with 43-2 overall.
The tournament, presented by Evinrude, hasn’t
quite lived up to expectations to this point, due mainly to the odd
transitional period into which it falls. Some fish are still moving up to bed,
but the big ones don’t seem to be all the out to the ledges yet – a summertime
staple for Tennessee River fisheries – and they haven’t been all that easy to
catch up shallow, either.
Greenblatt seems to have found the magic
formula, or at least the magic spot, where some big ones have been hanging out.
He isn’t catching giants, but he’s been hauling in enough quality fish to put
together a bag that only needs one kicker to do some damage.
The six-year Tour pro didn’t change anything
up from day one, which produced 23-5 of quality Chickamauga largemouths. He
simply found a great spot that’s been holding a ton of fish and went to town.
“[It was the] same thing as yesterday,” he
explains. “Same spot. Same everything. That slope, I milked her for everything
she was worth. Yesterday, I was hoping I was going to get decent weather [on
day two]. We were expecting rain and nasty stuff.”
With rain in the forecast for day one (rain
that never ended up coming), Greenblatt hammered on that spot pretty hard, but
his fish seemed to replenish overnight, and even with some extra fishing
pressure on it Friday, it produced nearly as well.
“Of course, you get a little bit of company,
too,” he adds. “I had two other boats in there with me: Lendell [Martin Jr.]
and John Hunter. John got a 3-pound average out of there. We’re hitting it
pretty hard, all three of us.
“We’ve got hopefully two more days in here,
and I don’t know what she’s got left.”
Should Greenblatt’s spot dry up or the weather
muddy up the water enough to turn off the bite, he has a backup plan in mind.
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