Brewer Bags 50 Pounds of Brown, Widens G-Ville Lead
FEBRUARY 23, 2022 • JUSTIN ONSLOW • TOYOTA SERIES
SCOTTSBORO, Ala. – After two days of the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Central Division opener on Lake Guntersville, few things have been as captivating as what Nathan Brewer has managed to do so far. Making the run to Guntersville Dam and beyond, Brewer has amassed 51 pounds, 13 ounces of smallmouth to assume a commanding 6-pound, 6-ounce lead over Derik Hudson heading into Championship Thursday.
The venue has shown out this week – even on a fog delay-shortened Day 2 – and even though we’ve seen some giant largemouth plucked from the grassy haven that is Guntersville, Brewer and his forays into the Guntersville tailrace on Wheeler Lake have been the stars of the show. There, with current ripping thanks to recent rains and subsequently increased water flow below the dam, Brewer has put on a clinic.
Still, bags of 28-5 and 23-8, respectively, can be deceiving. He’s had to work hard for his fish, first making the 30-plus-mile run south and then locking down to Wheeler both days, even on Day 2 with a couple fewer hours to fish. Then there’s the increasingly high water below the dam, which isn’t helping position Brewer’s fish the way he needs them to set up.
“The thing that’ll mess me up more than anything is if that water comes up any more (tomorrow),” he said. “Then I won’t have a big bag of fish. It was borderline too high today. I had to work for them today.”
Brewer has an area not far from the dam that’s got all the ingredients he needs for another big bag. It’s a one-spot, one-cast kind of deal, and he had to make a lot more casts on Day 2 to get the job done. He’s also had to mix up his presentations a bit, alternating between a swimbait on a few different sizes of heads in addition to a jig and another unnamed bait.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was pulling roughly 79,000 cubic feet of water per second through the gates of the dam several hundred yards from Brewer’s spot on Day 2. That’s a lot of water piling up over top of his fish, and it’s only going to increase on Day 3 with TVA projections that point to potentially pulling up to 130,000 cubic feet per second on Thursday.
You won’t find Brewer worrying about it, though.
“If I didn’t catch a fish today, I was still good,” he said. “I try to not sweat the stuff you can’t control.”
That may sound a little cavalier and perhaps even untrue, but Brewer means it. He’s just a guy who loves to catch fish, and especially smallmouth, and especially in moving water – and he’s not too worried about anything but that.
Case in point: When asked about his plans for Day 3 if there’s too much churning water to fish his spot in the tailrace effectively, Brewer said he’s sticking to his guns, come hell or high water.
“I don’t like this grassy place up here,” he joked.
While Brewer could easily call an audible, stay in Guntersville proper and catch a good enough limit to win the tournament and the $80,000 top prize tomorrow, he’d rather fish the way he likes to fish and have fun doing it – even knowing that a win in this event means a return trip to Guntersville in the fall for the Toyota Series Championship.
“Again, I don’t sweat the stuff I can’t control,” he said of the possibility of a championship berth with a win tomorrow. “If I go (to the championship), fine. If I don’t, that’s fine, too.”
Top 10 Pros
1. Nathan Brewer – 51 – 13 (10)
2. Derik Hudson – 45 – 07 (10)
3. Bo Collins – 40 – 02 (10)
4. Kyle Palmer – 39 – 06 (10)
5. Bob Blackerby – 38 – 12 (10)
6. Nick Tate – 38 – 00 (10)
7. Shawn Penn – 37 – 09 (10)
8. Kent Ware – 37 – 07 (10)
9. Casey Martin – 36 – 15 (10)
10. Miles Burghoff – 36 – 15 (10)
Simpson Sacks 20-15 for Slim Strike King Co-Angler Lead
Securing the largest Strike King Co-Angler bag of the tournament by 1 ounce, Donny Simpson shot ahead of Day 1 leader Jason Hinger and finished Day 2 with a 2-ounce lead over Darren Kelly.
Simpson got off to a decent start on Tuesday with 10-4, but it was a 20-15 stringer on Wednesday that has him fired up for Championship Thursday on his home pond. The Arab, Alabama co-angler fishes Guntersville almost every week, and he’s still hunting for his first tournament win on the fishery.
On Day 1, Simpson spent a lot of his day in Mud Creek – an area that doesn’t have a whole lot of grass compared to what the main lake has to offer. Paired with pro Will Robinson on Day 2, Simpson was able to fish to his strengths, ripping lipless crankbaits and swimming ChatterBaits around grass in 6 to 8 feet of water on the main lake. The results speak for themselves.
“I want to be fishing grass and I want to be fishing ChatterBaits,” he said of his preferred strategy for fishing Guntersville, especially on Championship Thursday.
The ChatterBait is what really did most of Simpson’s damage on Wednesday. With about 4 pounds in the livewell around noon (mostly on a lipless crankbait), he made the switch to a craw-colored ChatterBait. Just as the weather was starting to heat up, the fish followed suit.
“We managed to pick up a couple fish each fishing a [main-lake] bar and then we went on up past Goose Pond fishing another grass flat,” he said. “The ChatterBait bite just came on. It was really good. Even my boater switched over to one.
“I think the sun energized (the fish) a lot. At one point I threw my ChatterBait overboard and forgot about it for a second. I went to pick it up and there was a 5-pounder on it.”
Sometimes, when things are good, they’re really good. Simpson just needs them to be good for one more day.
Top 10 Strike King Co-Anglers
1. Donny Simpson – 31 – 03 (10)
2. Darren Kelly – 31 – 01 (10)
3. Greg Surratt – 30 – 09 (9)
4. Garick Robinson – 30 – 08 (8)
5. Alex Moore – 26 – 00 (10)
6. Victor Cuevas – 25 – 12 (7)
7. Jason Hinger – 24 – 07 (6)
8. Chris Quaintance – 24 – 00 (8)
9. Charlie Crouch – 23 – 13 (8)
10. Joe Rush – 23 – 00 (7)