Price Will Be ‘fishing Blind’ At Bfl Regional On Lanier, Just Like On His Home Lakes This Year
Bo Price has never fished Lake Lanier before so he is going to approach the Walmart BFL Regional Championship on the lake next weekend the same as he has had to do on all the lakes he is intimately familiar with in the Savannah River Division.
“I had a good year in the Savannah River Division but it was a weird year because of all the rain we had. All the lakes have been really high and there essentially has been no thermocline. All the lakes were pretty much 100 percent rainwater this year.”
All that freshwater brought on by more than two months of rain every day had the fish and the fishermen mixed up, Price said.
“Usually the fish will be deep or shallow, but all that rain scattered them from 40 feet deep all the way to the bank. All the advantage I have had in years past went away because I could not rely on those places I had depended on when the water was not as high,” he said.
“I just had to fish those Savannah River lakes like they were brand new lakes – like I will be going to Lake Lanier.”
It won’t be easy, he noted, because he will be going up against a bunch of anglers with a definite local advantage.
“A lot of the guys who fished the Savannah River Division this year were from the Lake Lanier area and they fished the division so they could qualify for the regional on Lanier,” said the Westminster, S.C. angler. “Some of them have 200 brushpiles on Lake Lanier so it would be naive for me to go down there and try to beat them at their own game.”
Price said his strong point in bass fishing is finding and catching fish in deep water, so he plans to pursue that at Lake Lanier.
“I’m terrible at fishing shallow, so I am going to look deep and fish deep. I’ll try to find some standing timber with fish chasing bluebacks in it,” said Price who is a reactor operator at the Oconee Nuclear Station when he is not bass fishing. “I fish a deep diving crankbait a lot, a football jig a lot and a jigging spoon at times.”
Tropical Storm Karen, which was bearing down on the Gulf Coast this week was projected to turn northeast and the resulting heavy rains could change things drastically at Lake Lanier, Price said.
“All the lakes are on the verge of fall turnover and if we get a deluge of cold rain, with 55 to 60 degree water, that might be what it takes to turn the lakes over and change fishing completely.”
Although he did not win a tournament in the Savannah River Division this year (he has three wins and 15 top 10s in BFL competition), Price finished 8th in the points. He has been ranked as high as second three times in the division – 2009, 2011 and 2012.
He and the rest of the Savannah River Division will be competing with the top 40 anglers from the Choo Choo, Music City and North Carolina divisions on Lake Lanier, The top six anglers at Lake Lanier will qualify to fish the Walmart BFL All American next year.
Price also ventured into the Volunteer Division in Tennessee this year, too, for the same reason the Lake Lanier anglers fished the Savannah River Division – to qualify for the regional championship on Lake Hartwell.
“I’m just praying I am good enough for a top six spot in one of the regionals so I can go to the All American,” he said.
Wal-Mart BFL Regional
North Carolina, Savannah River, Choo Choo and Music City Divisions
Oct 10-12, 2013
Lake Lanier
Laurel Park
