Derek Hudnall’s quest to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic is coming from an unlikely source and place. The Louisianan had never before been to Lake St. Clair, and caught his personal best smallmouth—three times—on the morning of his first practice. What is even more remarkable is that Hudnall has apparently graduated with high marks from a crash course in smallmouth fishing that evolved over practice.
“What I learned here so far is if you can find a small area where there are big smallmouth, then you can typically adjust with them,” he said. “That’s what it takes here, and how I’ve been able to put together a legit pattern.”
Here’s the proof. On Sunday, Hudnall caught his biggest smallmouth of the day on a totally different pattern than he did in practice. He vacated that area at 10:30 a.m. in search of new water. He found it. That’s where he is now.
“Yesterday, it seemed like everywhere I stopped that I caught a big one,” he continued. “I’m not getting a whole lot of bites but when I do, it’s a good one.”
Hudnall also knows that under the constantly changing conditions in play with the weather (mostly wind), that it will take starting over each day.
“The water is getting cooler and I think that is pushing my fish shallower,” he said. “It might be the bait is coming shallow and the bass are following them.”