Hunter hammers 27-09
29.May.2014 by Curtis Niedermier
It’s a chess match on Kentucky Lake this week for stop No. 2 of the Rayovac FLW Series Central Division, and Benton, Ky., pro Brandon Hunter has all his pieces in the right place. Hunter opened the tournament with a 27-pound, 9-ounce limit and a lead of nearly 2 pounds. He heads up a field of ledge-fishing experts that brought in stringers of more than 20 pounds through 29th place.Weights that high suggest that catching quality stringers is easy right now, but that’s not entirely true. Finding schools and getting bites has been a breeze, but finding the kind of bass that can win and protecting those schools is a challenge.
It’s a chess match on Kentucky Lake this week for stop No. 2 of the Rayovac FLW Series Central Division, and Benton, Ky., pro Brandon Hunter has all his pieces in the right place. Hunter opened the tournament with a 27-pound, 9-ounce limit and a lead of nearly 2 pounds. He heads up a field of ledge-fishing experts that brought in stringers of more than 20 pounds through 29th place.Weights that high suggest that catching quality stringers is easy right now, but that’s not entirely true. Finding schools and getting bites has been a breeze, but finding the kind of bass that can win and protecting those schools is a challenge.
Anglers are facing constant pressure from each other as they jockey for position on prime ledges, and pressure from competitors practicing for a major 300-boat tournament that begins tomorrow and launches out of Paris, Tenn., has made it nearly impossible to keep a good ledge spot secret.
The challenge now for Hunter is executing a perfect game plan to stay on the bite for three straight days. Though for now, he’s simply happy celebrating what turned out to be a surprisingly good day on the water.
“I had no idea I could catch that kind of weight,” Hunter admits, “but I thought I could catch a pretty good bag from my first spot. I actually lost two 5-pounders, so I could have been knocking on 30 [pounds].”
