Tough Fishing Means Time To Bear Down For Aoy Auten In Paa Tournament On Old Hickory

Finding fish has been tough in practice on Old Hickory Lake for PAA Angler of the Year Todd Auten, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Auten, who won the third ever PAA AOY title last August on Alabama’s Neely Henry Lake, is noted for poor practices followed by good tournaments, as evidenced by his 16th place finish in the FLW Tour Open tournament on Lake Okeechobee in February.

“I had a tough practice, so I had to change up and then I caught some good fish that helped me through the tournament,” he said following practice for the first regular PAA tournament of the year this week on Old Hickory Lake near Nashville, Tenn. After Old Hickory the PAA will move on to Neely Henry Lake in Gadsden, Ala., July 23-28, and will wrap up Sept. 13-15 on the Arkansas River in Muskogee, Okla.

“I’m hoping that is going to happen here because Old Hickory has been fishing pretty tough this week,” said the Lake Wylie, S.C., pro angler. “Sometimes when you start bearing down on the fish during the tournament the outcome will surprise you.”

That said, he admitted that finding quality fish during practice this week has not been easy.

“They were biting a little bit, but now everything is getting kind of beat up before the tournament. You can catch fish about anyway you want to fish, but it is just hard getting keepers,” Auten said. “I’ve caught two quality fish since I’ve been practicing and they were doing two totally different things.”

Auten said he has located some schools of fish, but they were all small fish.

“I think the fish are mostly still in transition. It’s like you can catch fish shallow here and there, but it is spotty. And it is the same for the deep fish,” he said. “There are some deep fish out there, but it is real hard to find a school of them,. You might pull up on a place and catch one but it is hard to find schools with quality fish.”

Auten said the Angler of the Year title has not translated into a sponsorship boon for him.

“Right now sponsors are hard to come by in this economy. You think the economy might be picking up a little bit but a lot of people are still not spending money. It seems like now that you have to look outside the fishing industry for a good sponsorship and if you do that you just about have to know somebody to have a way in with them.”

Auten and his close friend Marcos Malucelli of Fort Mill, S.C., finished 18th in the PAA Tour Team Challenge Jan. 23-28 on Florida’s Lake Toho. He is currently ranked 35th in Angler of the Year points.

In FLW competition he is ranked 16th in the FLW Tour Open Division and 40th in the FLW Tour Majors.

“I had a couple of pretty good tournaments and then the last one at Beaver Lake I finished 92nd, my worst finish in a long time. I need to get that turned around and start making some cuts,” he said.

It’s time to bear down and fish hard at Old Hickory.

 

Bass Pro Shops PAA Tournament Series

May 7-12, 2012

Old Hickory Lake

Sanders Ferry Park

http://fishpaa.com/2012-old-hickory-lake-tournament-info