Zach Dunham - Tournament Angler

This is the official website of Zach Dunham, tournament bass angler. Zach will be competing as a coangler in the 2016 BFL Northeast Division.

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Final fish of our big bag at Candlewood Lake!

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Can’t believe I started the 2017 season breaking my personal best! 7.62 lbs of awesome. Subscribe to my channel if you enjoy this video!

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Awesome new video of me catching largemouth my favorite way: heavy stuff!

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Awesome gallery from a trip to Lake Champlain for a few days! A great video will be coming in a few weeks as well. PIG smallmouth!

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Check out the latest random highlights video!

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Video from our tournament on Promised Land on July 9th! No good ones but tons of dinks!

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Video of the first muskie I ever caught!

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2016 footage that I haven't used yet, compiled into one video! I love this edit. Enjoy!

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It's Toad Tuesday time! Share you toad pictures!

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Awesome day of fishing for spawners at Beltzville State Park. Would have had a lot more footage if it didn’t pour for most of the day and ruin any camera shots I may have had!

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Candlewood Lake Tournament

I fished a local tournament with my friend Mike this weekend at Candlewood Lake in Connecticut. It was brutally tough for that lake, and going for largemouth instead of smallmouth was probably our mistake. We ended up with 1 largemouth for 2.57 lbs, which was good enough for 10th place out of 23 boats. Results can be found here: http://northeastbassmasters.com/id96.html

I did catch one good one during practice the day beforehand:

I must say, Northeast Bassmasters runs a tight ship. We will definitely be back to fish at least a few more of their tournaments on Lake Hopatcong and Greenwood Lake this season.

Can’t wait to be back out fishing again soon!

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Oh yeah!

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Bull Shoals/Norfork Fantasy Picks

I had another reasonable showing in the last event. It wasn’t as good as I liked, but it sure wasn’t bad enough to cost me in the long haul. I ended up with 1004 points in the 2nd event. With 1275 in the first event, I am sitting in 460th place overall with 2279 points after 2 events. I am ready for a big event!

For the third event, I am planning on taking the anglers that are currently hot, and simply the best overall anglers available. The two-lake format is going to make the cream rise to the top. I’m throwing out all of the extra analysis and just trying to get a solid showing. I’ve changed this lineup at least 5 times in the last 2 weeks.

BUCKET A: Edwin Evers. Simple. Two wins last year, Classic win, and on a streak like no other. He can fish any type of water in any condition and make the final day. There are so many good options in this bucket that there is almost no way to be wrong.

BUCKET B: Aaron Martens. Also simple. Two wins last year and the most dominant AOY performance of all time. He’s the most versatile angler on the tour and probably the best in the world right now. He is also due for a good tournament this year. I am hoping this will be the one that is the break through! BUCKET C: Jason Christie. He’s experienced on the Ozark lakes and is also one of the most versatile anglers on tour. He has the capability of cashing or winning on any body of water. Just following what I said I was going to do from the beginning! BUCKET D: Ott DeFoe. Ott is in need of a break through and has had great results on Ozark lakes in the past. I think he is the best all-around angler in the bucket and I think he will make the final day this time around. 

BUCKET E: Fred Roumbanis. He has done well on Bull Shoals in the past and I needed to go against the field in at least one bucket. Experience is key here again. I’m not going with any wildcard-type guys in this event. 

1300 points is my hope for this one! Good luck to all anglers and fantasy players. Hopefully it is a safe and awesome tournament!

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Fun after work yesterday! Caught on a Kistler Rods KLX. 

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Winyah Bay Fantasy Picks

I had a fairly good first fantasy team for the St. Johns River. I scored a 1275. If I can repeat that for the rest of the season I hope to be in contention for the top prize! Winyah Bay should prove to be an interesting event. New water always makes it tough for picking fantasy fishing. For this one I am just going to go with great all-around anglers who I think have a chance at doing well in the river system.  BUCKET A: Evers and Hackney are generating most of the picks, and both are tempting. I am going to go with Justin Lucas here. He is a great angler and can thrive in many conditions. He also won on the California Delta last season and has shown he can compete in tidal river systems.

BUCKET B: I almost went with Brent Ehrler here as the dark horse, but I am going to go with the crowd pick and take Todd Faircloth. You can never go wrong having Faircloth on your team. He is one of the most consistent anglers on tour and does especially well in difficult tournaments.

BUCKET C: Again I will take the obvious pick here: Aaron Martens. He finished 2nd at the California Delta and won the Chesapeake Bay last season (two tidal systems). He is the best all-around angler on the planet and also thrives in difficult tournaments. I think Aaron Martens might take home the trophy in this one.

BUCKET D: There are three main picks so far in this bucket: Chris Lane, Casey Ashley, and Jacob Powroznik. I’m taking Powroznik in this one. He is a stud on the James River and is a good river fisherman. I’m feeling a top 10 finish for J-Pow at Winyah Bay!

BUCKET E: The fan picks in this bucket are all over the map. No one has a large percentage. I am going to take Chad Morgenthaler. A veteran angler with experience all over the country is always a good pick in a new venue. Chad can pull off a top 12 in this tournament. Good luck and safe tournament to all anglers! Hopefully I will have another successful fantasy round.

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First Tournament of 2016

The first tournament of my 2016 season is in the books! I fished a local tournament with a friend of mine at my favorite home lake: Lake Wallenpaupack. It was raining most of the morning and in the low 40s. If you live in the north you just learn to deal with this weather.

We finished with a 5-fish limit for 9.82 lbs (all smallmouth). I didn’t see the exact place we finished in, but there were 26 boats and quite a few small bags. Based on what I saw, I’m going to say 8th or 9th place. Just over 14 lbs won the tournament. Not a bad start to the season! We caught at least 20 fish on the day and just didn’t get a single bite from anything of size (except for one huge pickerel). We fished well and got a decent result.

Every single bass we caught was caught on a jerkbait. I was throwing my jerkbait on a Kistler Helium 3 7′0″ M X-Fast rod lined with 12 lb test fluorocarbon. This is one of the most versatile rods I own. I also use it for top-water, senkos, and a few other things.

The weather decided to take a nasty turn the day after the tournament, and the tournaments we have lined up for next weekend are going to be fairly brutal. The mornings will see temperatures in the low 20s. Cannot wait to be fishing in shorts and flip-flops again!

Next post will probably be my picks for the Elite Series even on Winyah Bay. Tight lines!

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April is not very welcoming.