In the last year or two former fishing team members Andy Wicker and Brandon Cobb have stormed through local and regional bass series in South Carolina and current team member Ross Burns is leading the South Carolina Division anglers into the Walmart BFL regional on Alabama’s lake Guntersville this week.

Cobb has qualified for two BFL regionals – the Lake Lanier regional through the Savannah River Division and the Lake Hartwell Regional through the Bulldog Division, finishing 4^th in the points in both divisions. Wicker was the points champion in the Bassmaster Weekend Series South Carolina Division and is fishing the regional championship this weekend on Lake Hartwell.

Burns made all top 10s in the South Carolina BFL Division, 2^nd at lake Murray in March, 9^th at Santee Cooper in April, 3^rd at Clarks Hill in May, 4^th at Lake Wylie in June and 9^th at lake Hartwell in September.

Burns is fishing his third regional in the three years he has fished as a boater since moving up from co-angler status. He finished 7^th in points in 2011 and 14^th in 2012 before claiming the title this year, but he was not satisfied with missing out on winning a tournament.

“I had a lot of missed opportunities this year,” he said.

He began fishing BFLs as a co-angler in 2009, but his road through the tournaments began with a home-made Carolina rig when he was 11 years old.

“I was watching people on television catching bass on a Carolina rig. I did not have a Carolina rig, so I put a split shot behind the hook and I caught bass the first time I went fishing with it. I was hooked from that point on.”

Although Burns has fished Guntersville before he does not have any experience fishing the famous lake this time of year.

“I’ve been here in mid-June, July and mid-August and late October, so I really can’t relate to how I caught fish here in the past,” he said. “I’ve found them in a summer pattern and a fall pattern, but this is somewhere in between.”

After dawn-to-dusk practicing since he arrived on the lake Sunday, Burns said he had not discovered a specific pattern or found any spots with a “mother lode” of bass on them.

What he is sure of, however, is that everybody will be fishing the grass, either working a frog over it or punching the mats and flipping in it.

“I’ve covered maybe 20 to 30 miles of grass and that is what I have seen so far. But, I have not found what everybody talks about on Guntersville, where you catch one fish and there is a group of them there. I’ve caught one fish here and one there and I’ve been doing everything under the sun to catch them.”

But you don’t notch five straight top 10s in stiff state competition without having the fishing skills to overcome diversity, so don’t count him out when the boats blast off Thursday.

Wal-Mart BFL Regional

South Carolina, Gator, LBL and Mountain Divisions

Oct 3-5, 2013

Lake Guntersville

Lake Guntersville State Park

www.flwoutdoors.com