The last time Region 4’s Shannon Fletcher was profiled in this column, he had just won the Virginia Chapter Teams Tournament on the strength of a tremendous final day catch that vaulted him up from the middle of the pack.

Subsequent to that victory, Fletcher went to the Connecticut River as a boater on the state team. In contrast to his May victory, however, in September he might as well have stayed in bed on the last day of the divisional. As it turned out, he had built up enough of a lead that he didn’t need to catch a single fish to be crowned as Virginia’s representative at the upcoming Federation National.

.....so, as Shannon ventures off to Lake Tuscaloosa in Alabama next month, the question becomes whether advancing to the next level will be a cakewalk, like Connecticut, or a down-to-the-wire slugfest like he experienced last May at Kerr.

Jet Boat Strategy Pays Off in Connecticut
Heading into the Eastern Divisional, Shannon Fletcher’s off-the-water studies told him that he could win the tournament in the non-tidal section of the Connecticut, upriver from the launch. Accordingly, when he went scouting during the summer, he took his jetboat up, and "really got on the smallmouth." Figuring that the "jet boat water wouldn’t get hit as hard," he brought that boat back up with him for the tournament, but was surprised to see "thirteen or fourteen other jets in the tournament, and they were beating the fish up."

The extent to which the other competitors beat up the fish didn’t affect Shannon’s success with respect to the other members of the Virginia team. On the first day, he had 15 keepers, on the second day, he had 11, and on the last day he had 4. They were all smallmouths ("I never caught a largemouth up there, not in practice or the tournament.").

Shannon’s strategy involved both location and choice of lures. He was making a long run, over 45 minutes in the little jetboat, to an area within sight of the Massachusetts state line. Once there, he threw a TD Minnow jerkbait and a spinnerbait in the morning, then, after the sun got up he used a split-shotted finesse worm.

After the first day, Shannon was in second place on the team. He had 7-05, and another team member had 7-09. Shannon posted a similar limit the next day, while the angler he previously trailed came up empty.

His success is owed at least partially to his partners. Even though some of the tournament’s biggest catches were coming far downriver in the tidal stretches, none balked when he said they were going upstream. "Most of them had never been in a jetboat," he said, and were anxious to get upriver into smallmouth territory.

Shannon also stresses the high level of sportsmanship among the Virginia state team. "They were the best bunch of guys I’ve ever been around," he says. "There was no arguing and information was shared freely." Unfortunately, not much of Shannon’s information would be useful to the others. Virtually every day someone would ask him what the tide was doing when he caught his fish, and he would answer: "I don’t know. It just goes out all the time up there."

On the final day, with a five pound lead, Shannon could have stayed in the hotel watching cartoons and still made the National. Instead, he went out with a head of steam. On his second cast, he lost a fish he estimates at five pounds. "I thought I’d lost it then," he remembers. In the end, though, the four he caught were just icing on the cake, and qualified him for the amateurs’ biggest dance, the upcoming Federation National.

Getting Ready for Tuscaloosa
Almost as soon as he returned home from Connecticut Fletcher started gathering information and making contacts that will help him on Lake Tuscaloosa. He particularly appreciates the help of Tom Moody at Triton Boats, who put him in touch with a local expert.

He learned that the tournament is probably going to be pretty tough. "The lake is close to the city limits, and gets lots of pressure. The locals predict it will take 21 pounds for 3 days to win."

In December, prior to the cutoff, Shannon visited Tuscaloosa for 2 days. His primary memory of that time, at least that he is willing to disclose, is that "it was cold." Recognizing that patterns would be totally different in the spring, he spent the two days riding around the lake, graphing likely productive areas, rather than fishing. He says the lake "looks like a mini-Smith Mountain, and it’s gonna fish small."

Since that December trip, he has made two trips to Florida, one to Okeechobee and one to Toho, to keep his skills sharp. On April 4, he will head down to Tuscaloosa for more prefishing. He believes that many fish will be on the beds during this next scouting trip, but that when the tournament starts most will be in postspawn mode. Still, he hopes that some will still be on the beds, since he loves to sightfish. "I’m gonna spend a lot more time just looking," is all he will reveal right now.

One advantage that Shannon may have over his fellow competitors from the northeast is that the lake has spotted bass. Even though he admits that he will likely concentrate on largemouths, he has fished for spots quite a bit, on Keowee in South Carolina (fishing Jerry Rhyne’s circuit), and on Claytor Lake. "They’re a lot like smallmouths," he says, "and I think I can catch some."

He doesn’t know much about his competitors. The one championship qualifier with whom he shared water in Connecticut was the angler from Pennsylvania, and the two ran into each other again in December, but other than that he knows nothing about him or the others.

He may also have an advantage in terms of understanding the locals. "In Connecticut, the people were really different from Southern people...they were really nice, but they kept telling me ‘You talk funny.’ It’s gonna be difficult for the guys from the Northern states in Alabama."

Shannon would like to thank the region directors from the Virginia Federation. He was scheduled to fish the second Chapter Teams tournament this year, which conflicted directly with the National. In a vote of the region directors, they decided that since he was representing our state on a national stage, he should be allowed to fish the first tournament instead.

When we last profiled Shannon, he gave some of the credit for his tournament success to a four leaf clover that his mother had given him. It was with him in Connecticut just as it was at Kerr. After September, he "thought about putting it in the safe," but instead just hid it in his house, with plans to bring it south to Alabama. And, if everything goes right, even if he needs the last day of the tournament to pull it out, he hopes to have the opportunity to take it to this year’s Bassmasters Classic as one of the five Federation representatives. Don’t count him out until the scales stop spinning.