All captions: Craig Lamb
Hank Cherry worked bedding fish with two soft plastic rigs. He used a new 3.5-inch Berkley PowerBait The Champ Craw rigged to a 4/0 Berkley Fusion 19 Heavy Cover Hook and 1/4-ounce weight. He used the same model hook to make a weightless wacky rig using The Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General.
Chad Pipkens rotated between two finesse rigs for bed fishing. He used a 3-inch Damiki Air Craw on a 3/16-ounce jighead. He made a weightless wacky rig with a 2/0 Eagle Claw Trokar TK137 Finesse Hook and 5-inch Lunker Hunt Lunker Stick.
Jamie Hartman rotated through these baits. A 3.25-inch Riot Baits Little Fuzzy rigged on 3/0 Owner Extra Wide Gap Hook with 3/16-ounce Riot Baits T3 Worm Weight was a top choice. So was a Riot Baits Baton Worm rigged weightless on a 2/0 Owner Sniper Finesse Hook; he also rigged it on a 1/8-ounce jighead as a shaky head rig. He also used a 3/16-ounce Riot Baits Minima Jig with 2.4-inch Riot Baits The Tantrum trailer.
Bill Lowen rotated between homemade swim jigs and buzzbaits made with components from Lure Parts Online. The choices were a 1/4-ounce buzzbait and Backstroke Swim Jig, fished with a Strike King Rage Tail Craw. A Hayabusa WRM920 Trailer Hook was added to the buzzbait for better hookup ratios.
Mark Menendez used a 3/8-ounce Strike King Premier Spinnerbait with double Colorado blades for reaction strikes. He also used a 4-inch Strike King KVD Perfect Plastic Game Hawg, rigged on 5/0 Gamakatsu Straight Shank Worm Hook, with 5/16-ounce Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Weight. He added a Strike King Shadalicous and Strike King Finesse Worm on Championship Sunday.
Shane Lehew rotated between two lures, beginning with a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General on a 2/0 Berkley Fusion 19 Drop Shot Hook. A 4-inch Berkley PowerBait Lizard rigged on a 3/0 Berkley Fusion 19 Flipping Hook and 1/4-ounce weight was another choice.
Drew Cook used a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog rigged on 4/0 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Heavy Cover Hook, alternating between 1/4- or 3/8-ounce weights depending on depths of the spawning beds. A wacky rigged 5-inch Big Bite Baits Soft Super Salt Trick Stick on a 2/0 Gamakatsu Drop/Split Shot Hook was another choice.
Michah Frazier used a wacky rigged Yum Dinger rigged on 2/0 drop shot hook. He also used a 3.5-inch Yum Christie Craw on a 2/0 hook and 3/8-ounce Swagger Tungsten Weight.
Stetson Blaylock rotated through these rigs for bed fishing. A 3.5-inch Yum Christie Craw rigged on a 3/0 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Heavy Cover Hook and 7/16-ounce sinker was a top choice. So was a Yum Dinger rigged on No. 1 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Heavy Cover 1 Hook. He fished it wacky-rigged and weightless or with a tungsten nail weight.
Brandon Cobb rotated between a Zoom Fluke Stick and Zoom Trick Worm. He rigged that to a 1/8-ounce Greenfish Tackle Clean Up Shakey Head. He used a 1/0 weed guard-style hook for the weightless Fluke Stick.