Local tournament angler Gene Webster has won three tournaments on Lake Wylie in the last 2 months: the Carolina Angler’s Team Trail Fall Final, the CS Motorsports Tournament and the Parks Jones Benefit Tournament. Here are his keys to fishing Lake Wylie this fall and winter:

“Well the fall transition and the lack of big bites have made Lake Wylie tough to figure out for a lot of tournament guys. The fish have been grouped up under big balls of shad in the creek channels and are notoriously here today and gone tomorrow with the shad movement. Numbers of fish have not been an issue with most of the guys catching 60, 70 or even 100 bass a day. Problem is that most of these fish are in the two pound range and put you in that dreaded 11 to 12 pound range in tournaments.

The key to winning this fall has been finding the better quality kicker fish to go along with the smaller limits. Four and five pound fish have been very scarce this fall but they go a long way in moving you up in the standings. A lot of my strategy this fall is to catch a limit of the smaller fish as quickly as possible then spend the rest of the day hunting a kicker fish or two on big fish baits such as deep diving crank baits, jigs and big spinner baits.

The buzz on Wylie has been the Alabama rig and it has been amazing to watch the phenomenon that has happened with the fisherman. Every boat in each tournament has one tied on. It literally has been viewed as the magic bullet but for me the jury is still out. Don’t get me wrong it will catch the fool out of them but my experience has been it catches a ton of smaller fish. I have watched fisherman literally stop fishing anything but this rig this fall and it has shown in the standings. My experience in the fall has taught me that the bigger fish do not want to compete with the massive schools of two pounders to feed. The bigger fish for me have come from isolated pieces of cover off shore. The bigger “rouge” fish can use this isolated cover as an ambush point and not compete with the masses to feed. DD22’s and a big jig are perfect for catching these rouge fish that seem to be opportunistic feeders when the current pulls by an easy meal.

This strategy has worked in each of the wins this fall but it isn’t easy. If it where; it would be the Alabama rig. You really have to spend time on the water and use you’re electronic to find these hidden treasure pieces of cover. These isolated pieces of cover, be it a stump, rock or channel turn will only hold a fish or two at most but they are the tournament winning fish in most cases. I can think of one or two key fish in each tournament win this fall that was the game changer from finishing in that 11 to 12 pound range and winning the tournament.

Winter time fishing has begun to start materializing with the cooler water temperatures as well. Wylie was in the mid to low 50’s surface temperature the last couple of weeks and the grub and jerk bait bite are starting to show up. The bite has been sporadic with these techniques and seems to revolve around water movement and wind. On the windier days a jerk bait out on points is a hard pattern to beat this time of year.”