March 23, 2018
Grand Lake was not easy today, but it’s starting to show signs of stabilizing, as evidenced by the 20-pound, 6-ounce bag that moved Curt Warren up from 15th place to first with a two-day total of 33-5. He’ll lead the pack on Saturday’s final day at the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division event on Grand Lake, which is presented by Ranger and hosted by the City of Grove.
“The fish are just moving. I had to follow them and just go fishing today,” Warren says. “I went back to a spot where I caught one of my fish yesterday and caught my biggest fish [5-11] and kind of adjusted from there.”
Morning temperatures that were about 10 degrees higher than Thursday’s bespoke greater potential than the super-tough day one, while windy conditions suggested a good reaction bite. Those factors did seem to spur things along for some anglers, but the day’s overcast skies countered some of that benefit by allowing fish to roam, rather than hold tight to cover as they would in bright sunshine.
Warren opted to keep his details thin, but he noted that the type of habitat he’s fishing holds the key to his success. When prespawners first move up, they can be very particular about their initial staging areas, and the key spots held the right cover in 10 feet or less.
Warren’s ability to identify what that was enabled him to get his baits in front of a group of new arrivals. He says the deduction process took about an hour and a half.
“They started biting around 9:30 this morning,” Warren says. “It took a little while; we had to run around a little before we got rolling with it. After that, they bit all day long. My co-angler caught his biggest fish 20 minutes before we checked in.”
Warren caught his fish flipping a 1/2-ounce Bass-X jig. He says he had to run all over the lake to catch his weight.
“I kind of got on that pattern in practice, and I added to it a little bit today,” Warren says. “That’s just something you have to do up here when it gets tough.”
PHOTO GALLERIES
Day 2 OTW gallery
Day 2 takeoff gallery
TOP 10 PROS
1. Curt Warren – Rose, Okla. – 33-5 (10)
2. Sheldon Collings – Grove, Okla. – 31-8 (10)
3. Colby Miller – Elmer, La. – 30-0 (8)
4. Christopher Jones – Bokoshe, Okla. – 29-9 (9)
5. Jeff Sprague – Point, Texas – 29-1 (7)
6. Troy O’Rourke – Natchitoches, La. – 28-11 (9)
7. Toby Hartsell – Afton, Okla. – 27-15 (10)
8. Blaine Covington – Fort Worth, Texas – 25-3 (7)
9. Kevin Ledoux – Choctaw, Okla. – 24-14 (8)
10. Jeff Reynolds – Calera, Okla. – 24-13 (7)
CONSISTENT MEADOR TAKES OVER CO-ANGLER LEAD
When you get the green light, you have to step on the gas, and that’s what Steven Meador did en route to taking over the co-angler division lead with a total of 24-15. Meador, who leads his nearest competitor by 7-9, placed second on day one with 12-15 and added another dozen pounds today thanks to his preferred technique delivering the goods.
“I hadn’t been getting a jig bite, but I finally got it,” Meador says. “I grinded on it all day and got six keepers. I feel like I made a lot of casts, but apparently I only made five good ones.”
Meador ended up fishing classic prespawn banks with larger rock transitioning into gravel, all near a deep-water drop-off. He surmises that he caught mostly males, but he had one 4-pound kicker that was almost certainly an egg-laden female.
“I threw a 1/2-ounce jig, and, depending on how much wind was blowing, I’d rotate between Zoom Chunk trailers and Zoom Baby Brush Hogs,” Meador says. “I threaded my Chunk trailers [as opposed to hanging them] on the hook for a compact profile. Painfully slow was the key. I was counting rocks.”
TOP 10 CO-ANGLERS
1. Steven Meador – Bentonville, Ark. – 24-15 (10)
2. Frank Divis Sr. – Farmington, Ark. – 17-6 (5)
3. James Callaghan – De Berry, Texas – 16-5 (5)
4. Alan Bernicky – Joliet, Ill. – 15-15 (5)
5. Rick Blosser – Tulsa, Okla. – 15-11 (6)
6. Ben Wickham – Ponca City, Okla. – 15-2 (3)
7. Kennith George – Edmond, Okla. – 13-12 (3)
8. Jim Opetaia-Williamson – Dunnellon, Fla. – 12-12 (3)
9. Rich Dalbey – Greenville, Texas – 12-0 (4)
10. Jordan Burks – Joplin, Mo. – 11-4 (6)
