Paris, TN — Last week saw the a true legend of the sport bring home the trophy.
After a short turn around, the Elite Series pros were back on the water and it was first-year pro Wesley Strader taking the podium.
The Tennessee native sat in 16th place at the close of the first day, but made incremental improvements as the action pressed on before finally bringing in 20 lbs., 11 oz. on the final day to finalize the paycheck.
All told, Strader weighed in 80 lbs., 4 oz.
The strategy he employed was largely to target docks, but in a very specific way. “Yesterday, I figured out that the fish were positioning under the walkways on the docks,” he said. “Today, that went away; they got out under the floats.”
He also employed a variety of baits to get the job done including a spinnerbait with a white swimbait trailer, a buzzbait, a popping frog, and a Zoom Z-Craw.
In the middle of the day, Strader found himself in a pretty magical one-hour window flipping bushes with a Reaction Innovations Sweat Beaver, and putting three, 4 pound bass in the boat in pretty rapid succession.
“That’s a good problem to have — catching 3-pounders and they can’t help you,” Strader would laugh.
Now he’s got another good problem on his hands: how to spend the $100,000 check, and a hotel to book for the 2019 Classic which will also take place in his home state.