Auten Hopes Neely Henry Is As Hospitable For Paa Tournament As It Has Been In The Past
Todd Auten, the Professional Anglers Association 2011 Angler of the Year, plans to leave for Alabama Sunday to practice for the third PAA tournament of 2012 and he is hoping Lake Neely Henry is as hospitable to him this time as it has been in the past.
“Neely Henry has certainly been good to me,” said Auten who needs a high finish next week to move into contention for another AOY title. He is currently ranked 19th after finishing 18th in the first tournament of the year in January on Lake Toho and 13th in the second tournament in May on Lake Hickory.
In two previous trips to Neely Henry, the pro from Lake Wylie, S.C., won the storm-shortened qualifier in the spring of 2010 and last year in mid-August his 3rd place finish was all he needed to hold on to the points lead and claim the Angler of the Year title.
“Both times the fishing was kind of different,” Auten said. “The first time I fished Neely Henry I caught my fish mostly around the shore grass. The last time I caught some around docks and laydowns, stuff like that.”
But, he added, there is always something a little different every time you return to a lake. His plan is to get away from whatever most of the other anglers are doing and try to find a little niche that can produce a good catch.
“It my be your style of fishing, but you may have to find a little different kind of structure or maybe a different area,” he said. “I will try to get away from the crowd. If a lot of people are fishing close I will go a long way. Sometimes everybody goes a long way to fish and if they do I will try to find something close and a long way off. I will see what everybody else is doing and try to do something different.”
Auten said he hopes to get three full days of practice starting Monday and he plans to try both deep and shallow.
“The last time there was not a real good topwater bite, but this time there may be. So I’ll maybe do some of that and also fishing shallow crankbaits and jigs. For the deep bite I’ll fish big crankbaits and I guess the Alabama Rig. That might come into play but I have not looked to see if we can use a 5-rig or 3-rig.”
Neely Henry is actually a lake with a lot of options, Auten said.
“You can kind of do your own style of fishing there, which seems to work for me. Whatever I want to do seems to work, whether fishing shallow or fishing deep.”
Since anglers can drop one tournament, a solid finish on Neely Henry would boost his chances of moving towards the points title, Auten said.
“I am hoping the next two I can do real good. If I can get a second or third on Neely Henry and then another one like that on the Arkansas River in September I’ll be in the same position I was last year, but everything has to fall into place. I can’t have one bad day.”
And Neely Henry must continue to be very hospitable to Auten next week.
Professional Anglers Association (PAA ) Tournament
Jul 23-28, 2012
Neely Henry Lake
Coosa Landing
http://fishpaa.com/2012-neely-henry-lake-tournament-info/
