Kittanning's Deron Eck is a skilled and successful tournament angler who has fared well on Pymatuning Lake. Last May he won a Pennsylvania BASS Federation District 6 tournament held there.

During his tournament win in late May Eck used both a spinnerbait and a Chatterbait to trigger bass that were relating to patches of shallow weeds. The Chatterbait is a new lure that is a combination of a jig, spinner and crankbait. The Chatterbait works well in sparse weed growth, as the blade of the lure tends to push weeds off to the side.

During his late May tournament win, Pymatuning's level was down a bit, which eliminated much of the shallow water wood cover where bass are commonly found. When Eck returned to Pymatuning a month later, the lake was full and shallow water laydowns seemed to be holding most of the bass.

"The fish were really burrowed in the wood," he said. "They were in the thickest part of the trees."

Eck moved from tree to tree, pitching either a tube jig or a creature bait in the thick woody cover. Most trees produced a bite or two.

For pitching thick, shallow wood, Eck prefers a tube bait such as the ISG tube in Blue Crawdad. He uses a wide gap 5/0 hook, and weights the bait with either a screw-on bullet sinker or a worm weight pegged in place with a device such as the Tru-Tungsten's Smart Peg system. In addition to the tube bait, Eck has also had good success with the Zoom Super Hog, a compact creature style of bait. He likes the Super Hog in a blue/black pattern such as Blue Sapphire.

Eck pitches these baits with a seven-foot G. Loomis heavy action pitching rod. His Shimano Chronarch bait casting reel is loaded with 20-pound test P-Line. Eck backs off the centrifugal brake of the reel, and relies on the magnetic brake to provide the proper tension to enable him to pitch lures backlash-free. He also spools his pitching reel to about 50 yards less than capacity, feeling the resulting smaller reel spool diameter gives him better control.