Americana Outdoors E-Magazine - September 2018

As was mentioned earlier, Lake Dardanelle boasts a wide variety of cover. At various points in the year, any one of these three types of structure can have the potential to produce tournament winning bags. Flooded vegetation and lilly pads will be one area these college anglers take a look at in early October. Bass will push up into this shallow cover to feed on bream and other small baitfish. These fish can be targeted with a SPRO Bronzeye Frog , or a variety of Big Bite Baits soft plastics . This type of pattern will surrender some quality bites, but can it produce five solid fish for each of the two tournament days? The next predominant cover out on Lake Darda- nells is wood cover. Flooded brush and standing timber serve as ambush points for feeding bass to track down an easy meal. Fishing these areas with different soft plastics and moving baits would be a good place to start in practice. The SPRO Little John in Citrus Shad could also be a player. These Lake Dardanelle bass will be focusing on shad as the water begins to cool off. Look for flooded timber to be a factor in determining who wins this event. Lastly, another main piece of cover present on this Arkansas River impoundment is rip-rap. Numer- ous roadways cross the lake creating vast stretch- es of rock bank for anglers to fish. A majority of these roadways cross the many small creeks and bayous throughout Lake Dardanelle. With the shad beginning their migration to the backs of the creeks for the fall, fishing these areas with SPRO crankbaits may prove to be the winning pattern. Past years have seen this event won on a variety baits. Anglers are provided many options, in many different areas, allowing teams to space out and find what works for them. This year will also mark one of the first times in recent history that the ACA hosts an event in the fall. With a new tournament date also comes a change to the format of the event. The AFTCO Collegiate Bass Open will be a standard 5 bass limit tournament. After the con-

The Bronzeye Frog 65 is the perfect size and style it’s de- signed to cast long distances to be fished in heavy cover or in open water.

The Big Bite Baits 4” Tour Flipper Tube is super soft and a great bait to punch heavy cover with.

-clusion of day two, the boat with the highest two day total cumulative weight will be crowned win- ners. Significant SOY points will be on the line as this event promises to be a premier fall fishing slugfest. For more information on this event, click HERE .

GEAR UP FOR THIS EVENT! (Click either logo to go to it’s site)