Zack Birge, winner of the Rayovac FLW Series Championship on Wheeler Lake Nov. 1, says the best way for an angler to win the Ray Scott Weekend Bass Series Championship on Wheeler next week is to duplicate what he did – and keep duplicating it.

If he were fishing the Ray Scott tournament, Birge said he would do just exactly what he did in the Rayovac Championship, but that he would probably be looking for fish a little further back in the creeks.

Birge caught all the fish he weighed on two big spinnerbaits – a 3/4-ounce Santone Lures spinnerbait and the other a 1/2-ounce River2Sea Ish Monroe Bling Spinnerbait – that he cast along big log jams on shallow sandbars near deep water channels.

“I was just slow rolling it around log jams and any king of log cover,” he said. “They pulled current in the morning and I was able to get some good bites. On the last day, I was also slow-rolling my spinnerbait on the bottom. You had to really crawl it along. If you thought you were reeling slow enough, you had to slow down.”

Birge caught a three-day total of 15 bass that weighed 47 pounds even, earning the top prize of $50,000, plus a berth in the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup.

“If I were fishing the Ray Scott Championship, I would shoot for 64-66 pounds for the four days,” he said. “I think that should be right there for the guy who wins it.”

When he got to Wheeler for practice before the Rayovac Championship he had never been on the lake before.

“I just started at one end and worked my way to the other, just looking and keying on any little thing. Luckily, I found one wad of fish that stayed with me for all three days.”

During practice he threw a square-bill crankbait and caught a lot of fish on it, but not the quality he felt he needed to win.

“I also threw a big jerkbait in practice and caught a few good fish, but they were too far in between to count on it in the tournament,” he said. “However, that may change with this colder weather. I think there might be a little chance of snow by next week and if it does get colder they might be eating that jerkbait better.”

And, he added, another twist that he did not use in the Rayovac Championship could be a major key for the Ray Scott Weekend Bass Championship.

“I don’t know if they will be allowed to throw the Alabama Rig, but if they do that might be a game changer,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to throw outside the box lures – big spinnerbaits, big lures.”

Birge said he would go into the Ray Scott Championship with the same mindset he had in the Rayovac Championship.

“The fish ought to be biting even better than than they were at the Rayovac,” he said. “And if things did not work out I would still do what I did then, just duplicate it in different areas.”