4/11/2011 - Texas resident ArmyBassAnglers Pro Jarod Shelton moved to Virginia a month ago to attend the Logistics Combined Captains Career Course at Fort Lee Virginia. But fishing in Virginia has been tough on Missouri native. “I guess I have been spoiled in Texas, these Virginia bass are a little tricky” says Shelton.
After fishing a couple tournaments on Lake Gaston and Buggs Island, he was unable to cash a check, until this weekend at the BFL tournament on Smith Mountain Lake. Finally he put his trolling motor down, picked up a rod, tied on a Jig, and went to work at Smith Mountain Lake.
Laughing, “I had to put the trolling motor down because my motor blew about 20 seconds after takeoff!” Left with no choice, Jarod and his non-boater, Mike Mayhew of Bedford, VA, started fishing. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to figure out a pattern. Luckily, they broke down on a main lake point where Mike caught two fish, a nice smallmouth, and a nice largemouth, on the same point. Jarod boated a keeper working his way into the cove.
Then Jarod saw something he was very familiar with, DOCKS! Flipping docks with brush Jarod caught 3 more keepers, and Mike caught two more. A green pumpkin finesse jig, and a shakey head caught the dock fish. From there it was trolling motor down, and work their way all the way to the boat ramp. Along the way Jarod launched his crankbait across rocky points, making very long casts was able to finish his limit, and start culling to upgrade. With two docks to go before the boat ramp take off, Jarod broke his jig out again. He was able to catch another jig fish, and upgrade his catch to 14.15, good enough for 14th place.
Mike Mayhew caught two more nice fish on a shakey head and finished 6th on the non boater side and was tickled to death considering what happened to us. Luckily they were both able to get a check on a very interesting day. “Sometimes you just have to put the trolling motor down and fish—NO Motor, No problem!