Dennis Landrum expects the fishing in the Fish the Fall Team Trail tournament on Lake Russell Saturday, Dec. 8, to be a lot better than it was in the third tournament of the season last month on Lake Greenwood.

“It was awful. Everybody was shocked. We had 27 boats and 17 were zeros at the weigh-in,” he said. “It was one of the toughest tournametns we have ever had. Our fishermen are some of the best but that front came in on Friday before the tournament and just killed the fishing. We had some 5-, 6- and 7-pound fish on Thursday, but on Friday it was like turning the light switch off.”

Landrum, who owns Portronics, a fishing bait and tackle store, in Greenville, S.C., also runs the Fish the Fall Tournament Trail on lakes in upstate South Carolina. Entry fee for each tournament is $200 and teams must pay a $200 one-time membership. There is also a $20 big fish pot at each tournament. First place in the regular tournaments pays $3,000, Stone said.

The spotted bass in lake Russell started pulling up in the creeks several weeks ago and the largemouth bass are moving in now, Landrum said.

“They are on the bait, so it’s going to be a drop-shot, jigging spoon and Bladerunner tournament.”

After tournametns in September of Lake Keowee, October on Lake Hartwell, and November on Lake Greenwood, Terry Kelly and Haskell Durham are still leading the points, Landrum said.

“But, it is a tight race now, so anglers need to weigh their fish in, even if they only have one. If they don’t it could cost them 100 points.

Kelly and Durham finished second in the first tournament of the trail on Lake Keowee, then won the second tournament on Lake Hartwell. They only weighed a little over 5 pounds in last month’s tournament on Lake Greenwood, but it was enough to hold them in the points lead, Landrum said.

The series continues after Dec. 8 on Lake Russell with tournaments Feb. 2 on Clarks Hill, March 2 on Lake Russell, March 29-30 on Lake Murray and April 27 on Lake Hartwell. Teams must fish all eight regular tournaments to qualify to fish the end-of-year championship which will be held May 17-18 on a lake to be determined in a drawing.

“The lakes we fished the championship on this year – Keowee and Hartwell – will not be in the hat for the draw for next year’s championship,” Landrum said. “We will draw from Lakes Russell, Greenwood, Murray and Clarks Hill.”

 

Fish The Fall Team Trail

Sat, Dec 8, 2012

Lake Russell

Call Dennis Landrum at 864-979-1567

www.fishthefall.com