Bassmaster Classic Win
Photo Credit: Garrick Dixon
Story by Jason Sealock from Wired to Fish.
https://www.wired2fish.com/news/ashley-wins-2015-bassmaster-classic/
“Casey Ashley of Donalds, S.C. weighed 20 pounds, 3 ounces on the final day to give him 50 pounds, 1 ounce for 3 days and the title of 2015 Basssmaster Classic Champion on Lake Hartwell near Anderson, S.C.
“This is a dream come true; it really is,” Ashley said. “I’ve wanted to be a bass fisherman since I can remember. To do it here, it’s hard to put into words. I caught my fish this week on baits my dad made for me and told me that I was going to win the Classic on.
“I’m a dock fisherman. I love to catch fish with jigs on docks. That wasn’t working this week. I spent too much time the first two days trying to catch fish on jigs on docks. I stayed deep all day today on the spots I had been starting on I was surprised to see how many fish were there today. I was catching them on a Blade Runner underspin. I love to start with that lure. I got there today and graphed over them and I saw the fish were suspended and moved up to the flat away from the timber and I could really get to them with the Blade Runner. They were deep in the timber in practice and they finally moved up where I could reach them.
“The bait my father rigged for me is nothing special. It’s a lure we fish all the time. It’s a pony head do-it mold with a Sampo Swivel. It’s got a 4/0 Mustad hook in it and then a small 3 1/2 willow nickel-finish blade. The key is the good high-quality swivel. I paired it with a Zoom Fluke Jr.
“A lot of guys fish those baits different than I do. I make long casts with it. And let it go down and fish it painfully slow. When the ice was in our rods the first day, I had to dip my rod in the water twice on each cast because it took me so long to retrieve it on a long retrieve.”
Today the fish really bit for a lot of anglers and came up schooling in a lot of areas of the lake. There were some good limits caught quickly on Sunday morning that accounted for a lot of the shakeup on the leaderboard today. Several anglers were able to catch them fast and furious for the first couple of hours with the warmer temperatures and overcast skies. Ashley caught them fast and furious on both of his key deep spots.”
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