The Trail of Dreams Tournament Series heads to Stonewall Jackson this Saturday for the 2nd Stop of the Pro-Am Series! After previously fishing there last year, I decided to catch up with a few anglers who will be out there competing and gave my thoughts on how I think this summer derby will play out.

Nick Pahoundis

DockTalk: After a solid 3rd place finish back in April at Sutton, you got a chance at making a run for AOY. Although you’ll be gone Thursday, Friday and possibly Saturday for another tournament on the Potomac River. Fill us in on our how your weekend could shape out?

Nick: It sure is going to be a crazy busy couple days, but I love fishing competitively. The plan is to catch enough fish Thursday and Friday at the Potomac MLF so I can skip Saturday and head back to the Stonewall Trail of Dreams Pro-Am and fish.

DockTalk: You’ll be coming with no practice and probably little sleep, will shallow or deep fishing be the main factor or maybe both?

Nick: Stonewall is one of my favorite places to fish, it will be a fun tourney, there you just never know when you could catch your personal best. Everyone says the fishing is tough this time of year there, but I’ll probably just hit my normal banks as fast as I can up shallow and whatever banks produce keepers I may go work them a little deeper. If it’s tough I’ll down size to some of my small finesse go to baits to hopefully get some fish in the boat and fill my limit for the day and hopefully get me enough points to be in contention to win overall points for the last tourney!

Derek Stanley

DockTalk: Coming right off a win back at Sutton how do you feel going into Stonewall? Is Stonewall a place you like or just one you’re hoping to get through?

Derek: Getting that first win was definitely a confidence booster for me going into this next one, however I’ve never fished Stonewall before so I’m hoping I can do just enough to get a few lucky bites to keep me up in the points.

DockTalk: What is the one goal you have for the rest of the season?

Derek: To win the whole thing my first year of fishing the Pro-Ams would definitely be awesome but I’m mainly looking forward to just being able to compete in each event and learning all I can from the other anglers.

DockTalk: Give me a winning prediction on weight for the Co-Angler side and how you think it can be won?

Derek: My guess would be around 7 pounds and I can’t give much of a prediction on how to win it since I’ve never been on the lake, I’m just going to rely on the few baits that I have the most confidence in and hope for the best.

Rob Ciarapica

DockTalk: After a 6th place finish in the first Pro-Am you’re still well in contention to make a run at the Angler of The Year title. What’s your goal for Saturday?

Rob:  To not take myself out of contention. Seriously though, I need to catch a limit. I need to start catching limits if I’m ever going to be in contention for anything. I have very little experience on these lakes that we go to. In fact, I only got to see them for the first time ever during last season’s Pro-ams. Anyone who follows me knows what I do and where I go every weekend, and I’ve had to adjust to these different venues. But I feel like I’m making progress. I did catch two keepers at Sutton. The others were short fish. I had what could’ve been that third keeper bite my dropshot late in the day at Sutton, but for whatever reason, it didn’t hook up. So the goal for Saturday is to catch a limit, and everything else will take care of itself.

DockTalk: If you had to guess what do you think it will take to win over on the Co-Angler  side?

Rob: That’s kind of a tricky question, I think. We all know this lake has big ones in it. I believe if someone can catch a 6 or 7 pound kicker, plus two keepers, they could blow it wide open. But if that doesn’t happen, and someone can bring in three decent fish, then I’m guessing that about 9 pounds can be enough.

DockTalk: We’re going to see a lot of different techniques this time of year, what do you expect will be the winning way over on the Co-Angler side?

Rob: I think a lot of it will depend on the weather, and how much other activity is on the water Saturday. I haven’t seen a forecast yet, but I’m hoping for stable weather, not like that severe front I had to deal with at the Ohio River at Moundsville last Saturday. Also, I think that whatever area and technique the boater is fishing factors a lot into how the co-angler has to fish. That being said, most everyone knows how I like to fish, and I’m hoping for a power fishing event. But if I had to say what the winning technique on the co-angler side will be, I’m gonna say soft plastics, either a wacky rig, or some kind of Texas rigged plastics. Or possibly a jig.

As for myself, I won’t be participating in this weekends event. I feel like the tournament can be won two ways, I think we’re going to see the traditional shallow bite play of course. The shallow bite I think will consists of some type of topwater, some smaller plastics and it’s hard to beat the jig.

On the flip side I seriously think if someone can locate them, this one can be blown away out deep. Electronics will be crucial for that deep bite to play. If we have a couple guys dialed in with their electronics this weekend and they find them I would not be a bit surprised if it was won deep. Out deep I expect to see things such as big crank baits, texas rigs and shaky heads play a factor in the deep bite.

I’m going to make my guess on a pound range. I think we are now a lot further along this year than we was last year and for me I still think between 15 to 16 pounds takes the title on the boater side. Then 7 to 8 on the co-angler. I’ll guess we’ll have to wait and see Saturday!