FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. — Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, was a fitting venue for B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops, with plenty of thick, healthy smallmouth and largemouth bass swimming in the beautiful lake. There were also several ways to catch them, from forward-facing sonar to chasing the shad spawn, the herring bite, and beating the bank with power techniques. Smith Mountain truly offered something for everyone.
Here’s a deeper look at how the Top 10 caught ’em.
1. Nick Hatfield – 42-12 (12)
Tennessee pro Nick Hatfield scored his first Bass Pro Tour-level win and did it primarily from one spot – a prominent main lake point near the Smith Mountain Lake State Park that ended up producing much better than he expected. Hatfield also his a few similar points nearby and cashed in on the feeding flurry each morning.
“I found those points in practice, did the forward-facing stuff, and caught a few like that – I also I rotated through your typical herring baits but couldn’t catch many of them,” he said. “It developed as the tournament happened, but I realized I didn’t need forward-facing and could drag up shallow and catch them as long as you could keep your bait out of the rocks. They’d come up and fight over your bait if you could wind it fast enough.”…