Top 5 Patterns from Smith Lake – Day 3
MARCH 13, 2021 • SEAN OSTRUSZKA • TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT
CULLMAN, Ala. – Lewis Smith Lake decided to make it hard on the pros today.
Many pros had said the bite had been tough all week during the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit presented by Bad Boy Mowers, but at least they were still consistently catching fish, albeit short ones. Today? Not so much.
John Cox continues to lead, but looked exhausted after trying to just catch a limit, and many top pros from yesterday didn’t catch hardly anything as the fish keep moving. Even the ones who maintained their top slots saw challenges, which should make for an interesting final day.
2. Tai Au – Glendale, Ariz. – 40-6 (15)
Tai Au has decided to live or die by throwing a River2Sea S-Waver. Today, he about died with it.
Starting in a new area near the dam, his morning was nothing but frustration.
“I had plenty of short strikes in the morning,” Au said. “I was getting pretty frustrated. My first bite was a 5-pound spot that blasted it twice and I never got a hook in her.”
He managed to catch a pair on the glide bait later in the morning, but it wasn’t until the early afternoon he was able to put two more in the boat. Au caught one schooling on a Duo Realis topwater and one more after seeing it behind the boat on Lowrance ActiveTarget. The glide bait did finally get the key fifth keeper to bite little while later, which prompted quite the reaction.
“I was just so happy to get her,” Au said of the limit fish. “I figured I would be fishing tomorrow, and that was the goal for me. And I’m probably going to be keeping that glide bait in my hand all day.”
3. Kyle Cortiana – Coweta, Okla. – 39-13 (15)
Few pros can say today was their best day, but Kyle Cortiana is one of those few.
“Today went better than any other day,” said the Oklahoma pro, who has been fishing Rock Creek looking for herring around trees, rocks and docks. “Day 1, I didn’t have a keeper until noon. Day 2, not until 10 a.m. Today, I had a limit before 10 a.m. So a totally different day for me.”
As great as that was, it’s a little deal he may have figured out at the end of the day that has him truly excited for tomorrow.
“I went to one spot where I figured if I caught one it would be a good one,” Cortiana said. “So I catch a 5-pounder, and as I’m fighting her next to the boat, a twin 5-pounder is swimming with it and grabs the bait out of the other one’s mouth. So they’re lip to lip. And I’m like, ‘Did I get them both?’ Unfortunately, it was a single-hooked bait and she spit it out, but I almost caught two 5s. But I caught one almost 3 pounds right after. So I’m just getting that dialed in on stuff I found.”
4. Cody Meyer – Star, Idaho – 39-9 (14)
Not filling a limit every day in a tough tournament is usually the kiss of death. Cody Meyer managed to survive it thanks to some late heroics.
Yesterday, he only had two fish before catching three right before heading to weigh-in. Today, it was almost the same story.
“I caught a nice one around 8:30 and then a second one around 10 a.m.,” Meyer says. “So I was thrilled because they’d been biting better for me in the afternoon. Well, come early afternoon, I really didn’t know how to even get a bite. I was trying everything. So I decided to make a change, go fish some different water and managed to catch a 4 and a 3 late in the day that saved me.”
As for tomorrow, Meyer figures it will be more of the same.
“I’ve fished just about everything there is to fish,” Meyer says. “I’ve fished docks, pockets, bridges, over 100 feet of water, the face of the dam, laydowns – everything. So I think I’ll just keep changing it up and trying different areas of the lake.”
5. Zack Birge – Blanchard, Okla. – 39-6 (15)
Cox wants redemption on Lewis Smith. Zack Birge may want it even more.
Back in 2015, the then-rookie had a 5-pound lead going into the final day on Lewis Smith only to stub his toe. He hasn’t forgotten.
“It ticks me off just to think about it,” Birge admitted. “If I want redemption on any place, it’s here.”
He has a shot thanks to doing a lot of what he did back in 2015: keying up shallow, fishing for spotted bass. Though today, he did start to make a change to with the fish acting “funky.”
“Today was pretty tough in terms of getting fish in the boat,” Birge said. “Not getting them hooked and losing them, but they were just biting funny. I don’t think they wanted to eat it. I feel like there’s a lot more fish up shallow I can visibly see, but they didn’t want to bite today.”
He still got plenty of bites on a wacky worm, but he also pulled out a buzzbait and caught his first two largemouth of the derby, which may be something he does more for the final day.
“I really feel like should’ve thrown a buzzbait more,” Birge said. “Somewhere there has got to be some big ones up there that are going to bite. It’s just hard for me to leave the areas I know there’s good spotted bass to go throw it and fish for largemouth.”