Story by Todd Goade | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Stop 6 on Logan Martin Lake in Alabama is in the books and was the final NPFL event of the regular season. As always, it was a nail biter with anglers battling for the top spot separated by just a few ounces, and the AOY race came down to a single point! Isn’t that amazing? We compete all year to have that title being separated by a single point. That just goes to show how good the competition is in the NPFL and how diverse the anglers are going to six completely different fisheries throughout the season.
I ended the event in 31st place and qualified for my third consecutive NPFL Championship, finishing 29th in the AOY standings. Considering the handful of costly fish I lost this year I’m thankful to have made it. And I’m grateful to have had the last event on a lake I’ve done well at. It allowed me to fish my strengths with no stress.
Here are some of the things I did during the week that allowed me to have a good finish:
I knew the shallow bite should be good as the lake was still almost full. Usually this time of year the lake is down a foot or so. I was able pretty quickly to establish a buzzbait bite early in the morning and found an area of the lake where I could get several bites doing that. Those bites came from isolated shallow rock grass line edges that had a foot or so of water on the front of them, and isolated single shallow docks. I was throwing a 1/4-ounce buzzbait with a Zoom Z Craw Jr. in White Pearl.
I also figured out a little deeper bite once the sun was higher targeting main channel boat docks that had 20-25 foot of water on the front of them with a Zoom Beatdown Worm in Green Pumpkin Green and a shaky head. Lastly, I was able to locate a few brush piles in 12-15 foot of water that had fish on them and caught fish on a shaky head and Texas rig out of those.
Day 1 started out with a bang as I had my limit on a buzzbait in about 30 minutes, catching a 3 3/4 and a 2 1/2 -pound spotted bass. I 10 pounds fast! I knew I needed to get to that 12 pound mark to be in the mix. I upgraded a couple more times during the day to finish Day 1 with 11-10 in 30th place. The weights were super tight all week and I knew just one 4 pounder would be a big difference maker.
Day 2 started about the same catching the buzzbait fish pretty quickly, but it could have been one of those really special days. I had three giants in the first hour explode on my buzzbait and never touch it. I saw one of them and it was at least a 5 pounder. I’m not sure why they didn’t connect as I watched my bait go through the wake untouched. I kept my head down and basically threw the buzzbait all day running shade lines and ended the day with 11-15 and moved up to 24th place.
Day 3 again started the same, catching a limit quick on the buzzbait, and again I had one giant explode on it and never touch it. I ran shade again until around noon and could tell it wasn’t the deal so I ran new water the last few hours and never really got a good bite all day. I had 9-11 and finished the event in 31st place.
All in all, it was a great week securing a nice check and qualifying for the championship. I fished clean (no lost fish), and felt like I made good decisions the whole event. I really enjoyed standing on the trolling motor throwing the buzzbait. What a fun way to catch bass!
I cannot thank all the fans and sponsor partners enough this year for their support and the support of the NPFL this season. We’ll be ready to go next year! If you see me out and about come say hi!
Tight Lines!
Todd Goade – Angler Profile
