Lucky Craft’s Gerald
Swindle looked for
the deep bite in
practice but could
never get it going.
Trying various
techniques
throughout practice
to no avail left
Swindle with only
one choice – the
shallow bite.
“Going into day one, I
knew the shallow bite
was what I would have to
stick to if I wanted to
have a chance,” Swindle
said. “My plan was to
fish docks once the sun
came up, and I figured I
could get around six
bites a day skipping a
jig under the shallow
docks. It was really
slow, but I hoped I
could fish for schooling
fish in the mornings and
move to the docks in the
afternoon. That’s where
the car wrecked.”
Swindle obviously also
had to deal with the
rain and clouds that
came through on day one,
which wasn’t good for
the bite he was planning
to run with either.
Swindle wanted to fish
docks badly, but knew it
wasn’t a dock kind of
day, which left him with
a tough choice to make.
“It was a bad start to
the first day,” Swindle
admitted. “I decided to
still fish the docks
most of the day. I
wouldn’t adjust because
I was so keyed in on
fishing those targets. I
wouldn’t pick up a
crankbait and fish
shallow, stained water
like I should have.”
Swindle caught all his
fish on day one at his
first dock stop. The
fish bit during the
first part of the day,
but the bite shut down
soon after and Swindle
wasn’t quite able to
adjust. Weighing in 9
pounds, 12 ounces,
Swindle sat just behind
Reese in 34th after day
one.
Day two wasn’t looking
so good either for the
Alabama resident, who
didn’t have a fish in
the boat by 10:30
Saturday morning.
Conditions were
different however, as
the skies had cleared,
so Swindle told himself
to relax and fish the
moment.
“I went back to the
stained water and creeks
fishing shallow with
crankbaits,” Swindle
explained. “I was using
the
Lucky Craft Flat CB MR
and a homemade wooden
crank, both in crawfish
colors and switching
between the two. Once I
found places with wind,
I found a pattern pretty
quickly. If I had wind
on a main lake point
leading into a pocket, I
could catch them
cranking.”
The key to the crankbait
bite for Swindle was red
clay and wind. Fishing
in 26-mile creek on
points leading into
spawning pockets,
Swindle was able to
catch four keepers on
the
Flat CB MR.
Fishing 10-pound line on
a seven-foot medium
action cranking rod,
Swindle would reel the
bait down two or three
feet hitting the bottom
and then crank slowly
back to the boat.
After six or seven fish
weighing nearly 10
pounds, Swindle knew to
make the cut he had to
switch things up and
move on to another
pattern. He went back to
skipping docks and
caught eight keepers,
gaining confidence as
the day progressed.
After weighing in on day
two, Swindle moved to
21st with his 14-pound,
2 ounce bag, just making
the cut to fish on day
three.
Swindle struggled again
on day three, not able
to get bites in any of
his areas. Trying a new
creek, Swindle was able
to catch two keepers on
some lead-in points off
pockets on his
crankbaits and one more
casting a jig. Swindle
brought in 9 pounds, 1
ounce on day three for a
total of 32 pounds, 15
ounces and a 21st-place
finish.
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