By Joe Sills
Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit
GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. – Spencer Shuffield is leading the pack at the site of his very first pro tournament, 11 years after his debut in the professional bass fishing ranks. The Arkansas pro turned in a 25-pound, 6-ounce bag to cap Day 1 of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Fuel Me event on Lake Guntersville; and he’s hoping to stay ahead of the pack by riding a volcanically hot honey hole to the finish line.
To do so, Shuffield will have to stay ahead of a wolf pack of pros nipping at his heels with a variety of pick-and-pop patterns at their disposal. From spawning fish, to a shad spawn and of course, fish flooding to the ledges, the field can pick their fancy at B&W Trailer Hitches Stop 4 Presented by A.R.E. With several 20-pound bags crossing the scale, Shuffield leads the charge with a 3-4 lead over offshore guru Michael Neal. Behind them sit a plethora of seasoned pros who are biding their time to strike on the famed fishery.
“It was really good,” said Shuffield of his Day 1 start. “I found four big schools the last afternoon of practice. The first school I found, I pulled up and caught an 8-pounder on it. On that spot there were maybe 100 of them schooling and of them maybe 30 over 6 pounds.”
“It’s the winning spot, no doubt,” Shuffield said. “It’s just a matter of who might be on it the next two or three days.”
Shuffield says his spot contains enough fish for multiple anglers to sustain themselves on for the duration of the event. However, he’s relying on an extremely deep-diving crankbait to target the fish that he hopes will continue to provide him with an edge.
“All of the fish I caught today were on a Hardcore Bullet Crank 7+,” Shuffield said. “We haven’t been anywhere yet that I have been able to throw it. It’s a brand-new bait that gets down to 26 feet on 14-pound fluorocarbon. These fish are at 22 feet. You can throw it so far, and getting that bait down to that depth is the key because they just don’t ever see crankbaits that deep.”
