The third event of the 2005 National Boat Mart TVA Tournament Series was held on Lake Shafer, and most of the tournament field found the day to be tough to say the least.
But, Monticello’s Adam Wright came in with the only 5 bass limit of the tournament, and his 11.08 pounds worth of bass was good enough to cinch his first NBM-TVA Series victory. Wright also had the tournaments big bass that tipped the scales to the 3.03 pound mark. Somebody always dials them in and today it was Adam Wright.
“I caught my fish cranking with the exception of my fifth fish which was caught on a tube. I knew from the weekend before that there were a lot of fish to be caught on the main lake fishing rock so basically tried to copy that pattern one week later” said Wright. “I threw a shad rap early mainly because that is what I was catching fish on the week before, but I ended up catching three keepers on a bandit crankbait.
Rock, rock, and more rock was what eneded up holding the fish I caught. Fished a tube on docks with rock nearby but needless to say I wasn’t fishing a tube very good at all. Kind of ironic in the fact that it was probably the worst tube day I have ever had but yet I caught my fifth fish on it. Couldn’t seem to put a tube fish in the boat all day, and had plenty of opportunities” explained Wright at weigh-in.
“Although I was catching fish I was kind of worried that the Monon would turn on during the day or already had in which case someone would bring in a better sack of green fish. It’s nice to catch fish which I did, but what makes it feel even better is that I had a plan coming in and my plan paid off. As many times that the fish have beat me it kind of felt like I had their number for a change” said Wright.
In second place was former NB<-TVA Championship winner Schereville, Indiana’s John Cullum who had four bass weighing 9.37 pounds. Cullum had some of those Monon fish Wright talked about.
” I caught my first keeper on a tube covered in MegaStrike under a dock and the other 3 on crankbaits around boat lifts in the sun. The fish I was catching before 9am were all like that. I had 4 in the box by 9 and I thought I’d have a limit in no-time. They were crushing the crankbait. But after 9 the boat lift pattern just died. So I started to throw a spinnerbait around the rip-rap around 9:45 and started to get bit again. I played the percentage game and lost. I figured if I stayed in the Monon and caugh 4-5 more fish one was bound to be a keep. I was wrong I boated 10-12 more not a single one was a keeper” said Cullum disappointingly. John Cullum is sponsored by: Grandt Rods, T-N-T Marina, MegaStrike Scent, Cavitron Buzzbaits, Chicago Home Theater Inc., and Newman,Boyer & Statum Ltd.
Rounding out the Top-5 were Winamac, Indiana’s Rick Owen third, with three bass weighing 5.47 pounds. Brendan Fitzgerald with two bass weighing 4.16 pounds, and Frankfort, Indiana’s Shawn Burton with one bass that weighed 2.78.
Any anglersin the field that could scrape up and weigh-in one bass was able to get some good points due to the tough fishing conditions.
The next NBM-TVA Tournament Series event will be held on Saturday May 21, out of Morse Lake Marina.
The NBM-TVA Bass Series is proudly sponsored by: National Boat Mart, FishingWorld. Bcomass Maxx Charging Systems, Hendrickson Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, Wrede & Son’s Excavating, Wild Bill’s Outpost, Kroger, Land-O-Champs Trophy, Lafayette Glass Company and Monticello Shell.By: TVA Staff
