Here is my summary of the 2008 Bassmasters Classic from Lake Hartwell.  As you may have noticed many patterns figured into the top finishers, but only one could win!  The following is a break down of info that I gathered from other websites as well as what I saw by watching & rewatching the Classic coverage.

From the sounds of the reports, it didn’t take Alton Jones long to find the fish he exploited to win the 2008 Bassmaster Classic. It did take him awhile, though, to figure out how to catch them after his morning bite died.

Practice
On the first of the 3 official practice days the week prior to the tournament, Jones discovered quality fish holding in creek channels along the inside edges of flooded timber. He could catch some, but only early in the morning and only on a Cotton Cordell CC Spoon.  Once that initial activity period was over, his fish would shut down. They didn’t go anywhere, but he couldn’t make them bite.

It wasn’t until the last practice day (2 days before the event) that he discovered their affinity for jigs. They’d occasionally take a prototype Booyah Pigskin football jig or an AJ’s Go2 model.  “I didn’t have a plan B,” he said. “I had one type of location and two types of baits, and I knew it was going to be a grind.

Competition
> Day 1: 5, 17-05
> Day 2: 5, 18-11
> Day 3: 5, 13-07
> Total = 15, 49-07

Cold & Rainy Day 1 unfolded just about perfectly for Jones, with the notable exception of a kicker bite. He caught 15 keepers on the day, but none reached the 4-pound mark.  He’d pinpointed 10 areas from practice, but visited only three on the first day. He caught a quick limit with the spoon, and then methodically worked the jigs after that action died out.

He was in 10th place after the initial weigh-in – a little more than 3 1/2 pounds behind leader Charlie Hartley – and he was confident he could back up that bag with another good one on day 2. The sun emerged a few hours into the second day.  He had to alter his plan a bit when he found ‘Peter T’ on his spooning spot first thing in the morning (both had discovered it in practice, and luck of the boat draw determined who got to it first on the tournament days).  This turned out to be a good thing, as it forced him to his jig fish earlier which were better quality fish.  He left his primary area at about 10:30 and didn’t know whether it had enough fish left for him to close out the win on the final day. The channel was so steep and narrow that he couldn’t see the fish on his graph.

Photo: ESPN Outdoors Jones didn’t catch his fifth keeper on day 3 until mid-afternoon.

Day 3, which brought clouds and temperatures in the high 50s, got off to a slow start for him. Probably making Alton wonder if he should have stopped at his spoon spot?? He went fishless at his first two stops, and then finally caught a 3 1/2-pounder at about 9:30. He hit a couple more places that paid no dividends, but caught two on back-to-back casts at his next stop.

He picked up a 3-pounder off a ditch near Portman Shoals Marina early in the afternoon, and then went awhile before finishing off his limit with a small keeper. He didn’t get another bite the rest of the day.

His confidence wasn’t soaring as he headed back to the launch. With only 13lbs most of the top 5 would have beat him with just a 15-18lb bag.  His 13 1/2-pound bag, however, was bigger than any of the rest of the Top 6 from day 2 could manage, and his victory margin was greater than the weight of his best fish.

Pattern Notes
Jones focused primarily on creek-channel trees in 28 to 35 feet of water.  “I wanted to be fishing as shallow as I could, but still be fishing in the deep timber,” he said. “From zero to 35 feet was a moonscape, and then there’d be a big, flooded forest. That’s where I spent most of my time.

“I had little drains that were full of timber and I’d move to the shallowest edge, and then go even a little bit shallower and maybe find one or two extra trees, and there’d usually be fish there.  “I had to be fishing in the bottom of the ditches and I had to bring the bait right down the middle of the channel,” he continued. “When I’d feel it come across a piece of wood, I’d get ready, because that’s when the strikes occurred.”

He said that stealth was important, and part of that was making casts that were as long as possible.  He ended up culling the vast majority of the spoon-caught fish in favor of jig-eaters.

Photo: Booyah Jones’ primary Classic-winning baits: the 3/4-ounce Booyah Pigskin jig (top) and the 1/2-ounce Booyah AJ’s Go2 jig with black/blue flake Yum Chunk trailer.

Winning Gear Notes
> Jig gear: 7′ medium-heavy Kistler Magnesium TS rod, Ardent XS1000 casting reel, 14-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce Booyah Pigskin or 1/2-ounce Booyah AJ’s Go2 jig (various colors, but primarily Ozark Craw, which features a mix of brown and purple strands), 3 1/2 Yum Chunk trailer(black/blue flake).
 

> Spoon gear: 6’6″ medium-heavy Kistler Magnesium TS rod, same reel, 17-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon, 3/4-ounce CC spoon

> He felt that jig color was unimportant for the most part, but the black/blue flake chunk trailer made a difference.

The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – “Outside of the equipment and baits, it was just sticking to my game plan and understanding how the fish were positioned. Figuring out that they were at the very bottom of the ditches was really the key.”

The other anglers who finished in 2nd through 5th place at the 2008 Bassmaster Classic at South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell possess a wide range of pedigrees.  Dominant super stars to relative unknown qualifiers for the Elites Series & Bassmaster Opens. 

2nd: Cliff Pace
> Day 1: 5, 18-10
> Day 2: 5, 14-11
> Day 3: 5, 11-00
> Total = 15, 44-05

Mississippi’s Cliff Pace, who was in his second Classic, worked out a pattern that was very similar to the one Jones used. He fished the bottoms of ditches that featured standing timber. He came out of practice with a fair amount of confidence, but, like Jones, he didn’t know if he had enough fish to get him through 3 days.

“It’s hard for me to rate a practice when I was fishing so deep,” he said. “I knew I had a good pattern, but I just didn’t know how many bites it would produce. “I could make one drop and catch one, and then make another drop and catch another one, but if I’d stayed there, who knows if I could’ve ended up catching 100 or three? The quantity was actually better than I’d anticipated.”

He had fish in depths that ranged from 30 to nearly 50 feet, but his best spots were between 40 and 47 feet. For some reason, most of the fish moved to much shallower depths on day 1, but he made the necessary adjustments and weighed his best bag of the tournament. They were back where he’d originally found them on days 2 and 3.

He caught weigh-in fish on both jigs and dropshot rigs.
> Jig gear: 7’3″ medium-heavy Castaway XP3 Grass Master Braid rod, Shimano Curado D casting reel, 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce V&M Cliff Pace signature football jig (moneymaker), unnamed twin-tail grub (green-pumpkin).  The jig color is basically a natural green with strands of several different colors mixed in.

> Dropshot gear: 7’10” medium-heavy Castaway Jeff Kriet signature spinning rod, Shimano Symetre spinning reel, 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon, 3/8oz tungsten dropshot weight, 1/0 Gamakatsu Round Bend hook, 4 1/2″ V&M finesse worm (green-pumpkin or green-pumpkin/blue) or 6″ V&M Pork Pin (green-pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “When you’re fishing that deep, it’s concentration. I didn’t even feel a lot of the bites unless they were small fish, and a 5-pounder just felt mushy.”

> Performance edge – “I’d have to give it to my jig. When you’ve had the luxury of designing and building something and everything’s just the way you want it, it gives you a lot of confidence.”

Photo: BassFan Kevin VanDam threw two Strike King crankbaits – a Series 5 (top) and a Flat Shad.

3rd: Kevin Van Dam
> Day 1: 5, 20-03
> Day 2: 5, 11-14
> Day 3: 5, 11-07
> Total = 15, 43-08

Two-time Classic winner Kevin VanDam had never fished Hartwell prior to the official practice days in the week preceding the tournament, so he approached it like a couple of other lakes in the region that he had some experience on.

“I’d fished Russell and Clarks Hill, and I knew Hartwell would be at least somewhat similar,” he said. “I went out looking for patterns that fit my strengths.”

It wasn’t long before he got into some good crankbait action, just as he had a Clarks Hill a few years back. He had action in the backs of creeks on the upper end of the lake, and on points and humps on the lower end near the dam.  

He caught a 20-pound bag from the lower end on day 1, but couldn’t connect with those fish again and had to settle for bags that weighed a little more than half that the rest of the way.

“I guess those (lower-end) fish just pulled out and suspended,” he said. “Stubbornness probably hurt me more than anything – after as good a practice as I had and that first day, I was thinking I could go down there and get well in a hurry.   KVD admitted that he spent way too much time near the dam trying to make those bigger fish bite.  Still, he ended up with his fifth straight Top-5 finish in the Classic.

> Cranking gear: 7′ medium Quantum Energy PT glass-graphite composite cranking rod, Quantum PT Energy casting reel (5:1 ratio), 12-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon line, Strike King Flat Shad (Tennessee shad) or Series 5 (Modified Sexyshad) crankbait.

> Bait customizations were key for KVD:  He customized the paint job on the Series 5 a little bit in an attempt to better imitate Hartwell’s blueback herring. Also, he used a 1/8oz clip-on weight to suspend the Flat Shad at his desired depths.  KVD also changed out the stock hooks on both baits for Mustad Ultrapoint 1X strong.

> Main factor in his success – “I tried to have a game plan that would hold up to whatever the weather conditions might bring. I came close.”

Photo: BassFan Bobby Lane caught three consecutive solid sacks in his first Classic.

4th: Bobby Lane
> Day 1: 5, 15-00
> Day 2: 5, 14-13
> Day 3: 5, 12-10
> Total = 15, 42-07

Bobby Lane, know primarily for his shallow water prowess, would not have been made many of most pundit’s short lists of favorites, but he made the most of his first Classic appearance.

“My practice was horrible the first day, then the next day it was real good,” he said. “Then the day after that I picked up the crankbait and figured something out with that.  “I figured I could catch about 15-16 pounds a day.”

He adjusted nicely with the changing conditions – he caught all of his weigh-in fish on a spoon on day 1, on a dropshot rig on day 2 and on a crankbait on day 3.

> Spoon gear: 7′ medium action Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia Revo SX casting reel, 14-pound Berkley Trilene Maxx (main line) and 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon 1 1/2-foot leader, 1/2-ounce spoon.

> Dropshot gear: 7′ medium-heavy Fenwick Techna AV spinning rod, Abu Garcia Cardinal 802 spinning reel, 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon (green tint), unnamed 5/16-ounce tungsten dropshot weight, 2/0 Owner dropshot hook, various 4- and 5-inch finesse worms. “Not much seemed to matter with the worms or colors,” he said. “I’d find a bag of them and pull one out, and it would work.”

> Crankbait gear: 7′ medium action Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia Revo SX casting reel, 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon, Berkley Frenzy 7cm Flicker Shad (crawfish). Of the Flicker Shad, he said: “It’s a good bait for this time of year. It has a skinny wobble.”  Lane also used a Shad Rap to catch a few fish as well.

> Main factor in his success – “Fishing the deepest pockets off the main lake I could find that had dirty water. I ran 40 or 50 of them in 3 days, and I only needed 10 to 20 minutes to hit each one.”

> Performance edge – “The Flicker Shad. It’s a good bait for this time of year because it has a nice, skinny wobble.”

Photo: BassFan Greg Hackney used Strike King Flat Shad crankbaits to catch fish that were feeding on blueback herring.

5th: Greg Hackney
> Day 1: 5, 16-02
> Day 2: 5, 14-09
> Day 3: 5, 10-12

This was Greg Hackney’s best performance by far in six career Classics. He was 19th in 2006, but 30th or worse in the other four.

“I was cranking channels where the (blueback) herring were balled up,” he said. “There was no one depth or type of structure – I fished anywhere I graphed bait balls, whether it was 5 to 6 feet of water or 15 to 20.

“I didn’t make any mistakes and I wouldn’t have changed anything that I did. I fished a good tournament and I’m happy with the results.”

His most productive spots were located in the Seneca River at the upper end of the lake.

> Cranking gear: Quantum Energy PT casting reel (6.1:1 ratio), 12-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, Strike King Flat Shad (sexy shad) or Series 3 (splatterback) crankbait.

> Main factor in his success – “Probably just moving and fishing any of those places (with herring) that had wind. Without the wind, I couldn’t get the bites because the fish weren’t on cover and I didn’t have anything to deflect the bait off of.”

As you can see, Crankbaits made up for some good finishes but the top two anglers predominantly fished jigs & finesse tactics in the end!!  Note that others that had good tournaments like Ike, who had a football jig btie like Alton & Scott Rook was in the mix with a cranking pattern (shad rap) similar to that of Hack & Bobbly Lane.  I think the biggest key to Alton’s win was managing his fish and sticking with his game plan even when he was only getting 5-8 bites on days 2 & 3.  I also want to mention Charlie Hartley, as he really did have a great Classic, he fell off on day 3.  I think that was largely that he took some gambles to win the classic on day 3 and that cost him to fall out of the top finishers, you have to respect that.  Hartley had some really good fish located, but ulitmately, I believe those fish ran dry as they seem to be on a few key docks.  I think he needed more spots or an alternate pattern to carry him the distance.

Well, now its time for the anglers to head to Florida and for us to get our Fantasy lineups ready for the rest of the Elite Series, should be another great season to follow.  Let’s see who carries momentun from the Classic….

Rich
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