After Day 1, Nitro Pro Larry “Doc” Seger was in the driver’s seat with 14.98 pounds. Doc was catching numbers and had his area all to himself. Both of the Davis brothers were within ounces of the lead and the Elite season point champion, Dave Barker, was knocking on the door as well. The title was there for the taking but multi-day tournaments are won by figuring out the fish each day.

Without much going after practice, Marty Conrad wasn’t too sure about this event. He spoke with Doc Seger prior to the tournament and was clued into a spinnerbait bite. On Day 1 Marty ran up the White River and was able to assemble a Top 10 bag of fish on the blade but was looking up at a significant deficit to make a run at the title. Marty was happy to weigh a limit while beating the bushes near the bank but he picked up a valuable clue at the very end of the day. The only question was would the wind allow him to return to his new honey hole to find out if the better fish were on a near-by piece of structure?

On Day 2, the wind shifted to the north after the remnants of Hurricane Gustav had dumped 3 inches of rain overnight which caused Table Rock Lake to jump several feet during the tournament. Marty braved the wind and returned to his location that had winning potential.

He decided to start off again on the bank with a Luck “E” Strike spinnerbait and his first cast was mauled by a keeper fish but the quality of fish was not what Marty knew he needed to make a comeback charge. Marty had found the secret to success on Day 1 but didn’t exactly know it until he moved out to thoroughly work a small hump near his productive shallow point. The hump was small and the sweet spot was even smaller, a rock pile on top of it just bigger than his Legend boat in 12 to 15 feet of water. That one fateful bite clued Marty into what was lying just offshore.

He began to slowly drag a Tequila Sunrise ring worm through the rock pile and a school of quality largemouths were feeding on the hump the rest of the day. Marty culled out all of his spinnerbait fish with heavy largemouths to amass a fantastic 19.04 pound limit which was anchored by the event’s Big Bass, a 6.52 pound kicker. His stellar bag made up the three pound deficit plus pushed Marty to the lead by over two pounds with a total of 30.36 pounds.

The Heartland Elite Series victory was worth $4000 plus an additional $470 for Big Bass honors. Marty is sponsored by Gamakatsu, Luck “E” Strike USA, Mercury Marine, MotorGuide, Pro Guide Batteries, Lefty’s Pump & Drilling, Five Star, Lowe’s Rods, Maui Jim Sunglasses and Legend Boats.

2nd Place – Larry “Doc” Seger, Reeds Spring, MO
Doc turned in a solid performance over two days but just didn’t have the one big kicker fish to put him over the top. He was in the lead after Day 1 with 14.98 pounds and many thought a consistent bite would give Doc his first Heartland Tournament Trails win. He came up a little short with a two day total of 27.66 pounds.

Doc ran a spring time pattern near the dam thanks to the flooded conditions. A heavy rain prior to the tournament brought the lake level back up to 919 feet and the fish moved into the newly flooded bushes just like it was spring. Doc cashed $1800 by covering a lot of water with his 109 lb thrust MotorGuide trolling motor. He found flat areas to hold fish and it didn’t seem to matter if it was near a point or in the back of pockets, only that he covered as much water as he could each day until his batteries gave out.

A majority of the largemouths caught were in 2 to 3 feet of water while Doc also found smallmouths suspended out just off the bush line. A Bass Pro Shops Lazer Eye 3/8 oz white/chartreuse spinnerbait and a Gary Nesty crawdad crankbait pulled fish out of the buck brush. Doc is sponsored by Bass Pro Shop, Davis-Barr Chevy / Pontiac, Jewel Bait Co., Mercury Marine, Motor Guide, Nitro Boats, Solar Bat Sunglasses and Chompers.

3rd Place – Jackie Davis, Willard, MO
After Day 1, a solid 14.91 pound limit had Jackie in the perfect position to take a shot at the win. Bushes and docks were the productive one-two punch but Day 2 conditions caused his pattern to unravel. Jackie sacked another limit but it was a light one to give him a two day total of 26.70 pounds and 3rd Place. He found his best bite in 5 to 7 feet of water but did catch fish out to 14 feet deep.

Jackie sacked half his fish flipping bushes and the other half off of docks on a Davis Brothers 3/8 oz brown and orange jig with a cinnamon twin-tail trailer. He found the bite to be very difficult because the fish were biting so lightly. This caused Jackie to have a few fish pull off after the hookset. The rising water hid his productive bushes under too much water on Day 2 and dock owners were also adjusting some of Jackie’s productive docks to account for the rising water. Jackie cashed $1300 and is sponsored by Bass Pro Shops and Pro Guide Batteries.

September 14, 2008