As reported by FLW Rob Newell:
Trevor Fitzgerald of Belleview, Fla., treated the EverStart crowd to a special show at the final weigh-in, wowing them with an eye-popping 25-pound, 10 ounce limit of Big O bass. Fitzgerald's massive bag of bass allowed him to challenge Todd for the win, rocketing him from 7th to within a breath of victory. But in the end he had to accept the runner-up spot after Todd won by a tie-breaker, pocketing $15,000.
Fitzgerald spent most of his week running the south end of the lake pitching main lake reed clumps with a big jig in search of a wave of females that had just moved in to spawn.
"I had a spot I'd stop on first everyday just to get a limit," Fitzgerald said. "It was a rattle trap spot where I could catch 15 or 20 keepers pretty quick, get a limit in the box and then go hunting. I felt like if I stayed on the move and kept sampling different reed clumps, I'd eventually run into a little wad of big ones and that's exactly what happened today. I stopped on a place where there had just been two-pounders all week and I caught four big females there that, in my opinion, had literally just moved in with the new moon last night."
Fitzgerald's heavy artillery was a 1-ounce Gambler Jigzilla trailed with a Gambler MegaDaddy and tied to 80-pound Sunline FX braid. His flipping stick was his namesake 7-foot, 10-inch Fitzgerald Rods custom Big Jig/Mat Flipping stick.
"One key, I think, was speed," Fitzgerald detailed. "I wasn't fishing slowly. I was making as many pitches and drops with the jig as possible, covering water. I'd drop it in once, shake it and then it was onto the next target. I was really in search mode. Once I got a big bite, then I would slow down."
Congratulations to Trevor Fitzgerald. The American Tackle Company is a proud component partner of Fitzgerald Rods. ATC supplies Fitzgerald Rods with premium products including line guides and many other fine products represented on their rods.
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