The Secret to Winning With Gerald Swindle-Part II

Betting On The Alabama Beds

Editor's Note: Thirty-four-year-old Gerald Swindle of Hayden, Alabama, this year's BASS Angler of the Year, has lived the American dream in the last 12 years. As a $12,000-a-year carpenter, Swindle dreamed of earning a living as a professional bass fisherman. This year, Swindle already has earned more than $1/2 million in his chosen sport. If he stays on track, he may earn $1 million before December 31, 2004.

Although Gerald Swindle didn't have a very good practice before the Lake Eufaula tournament, he'd seen quite a few bass on beds but hadn't developed a technique or found the magic lure to catch those bass. "On the first morning of the tournament, I really didn't have a game plan," Swindle recalls. "But as I went to my boat, I remembered seeing some beds really deep in a particular area of the lake. Although I hadn't spotted any bass on these beds, I felt sure some bass were on these deep beds. The morning was cloudy and overcast. I decided to fish a Z-Nail made by Zoom that fishes like a Senko worm on this 200-yard stretch of bank with its deep beds where I'd never before made a cast or seen a bass. I used 15-pound-test line, cast that slow-falling goofy-looking worm out and worried until the bait hit the bottom. I'm not a patient fisherman, and I really hate to fish like this. However, a small voice inside of me told me that was the tactic I needed to use. I went to the bank and started fishing. In just 20 minutes of fishing, I put 17 pounds of bass in my live well."

At the end of the first day at Eufaula, Swindle had made the tournament's top 20. On the second day, he used the same technique. Although he caught two bass off the same bank he'd fished the day before, he had to try several different areas before he caught a limit fishing this same tactic. Before the tournament ended, he had to rely on his crankbait to catch limits of bass each of the remaining days. Swindle finished the Lake Eufaula tournament in 30th place and fell back to second place in the race for Angler of the Year.

TOMORROW: LAST STOP ON THE BASS CIRCUIT-SANTEE COOPER