Jay Yelas – Day 2
Saturday, August 4, 2007
> Day 1: 2, 3-07
> Day 2: 0, 0-00
> Total = 2, 3-07 (76th)
I did terribly here. I didn't catch a fish today. It was the worst tournament I've had since the Pittsburgh Classic when I finished last.
But I had such a nice year. I had a great year. I won Angler of the Year. And you have to look at the big picture.
I just fished too shallow here. I didn't spend enough time out deep in practice. I stayed shallow the whole time. You could catch a few up shallow, but you couldn't really contend that well up shallow. At least I couldn't. That's what I attribute it to.
It's a pretty tough deal. You hate not to catch them in the championship. But sometimes that's the way it goes. Everywhere I went this year I caught fish. When I came here, it's like I hit a brick wall.
The first morning of practice, 20 minutes in, I caught a 4-pounder on my swimbait. That kind of led my down the wrong path. I started throwing it too much, and that was not the deal whatsoever. As a result, I hardly spent any time out deep.
I wish I'd fished some of that deep timber. That's where they caught them real good.
Jay Yelas – Day 1
Thursday, August 2, 2007
> Day 1: 2, 3-07
It was real slow. I didn't have a keeper until about noon, and the morning bite – which had been my best action – was just non-existent. It was a bluebird sky, and slick calm this morning. I was fishing shallow topwater and swimbaits, and couldn't get anything going. They'd chase my bait, and I could see them a foot or two away from my swimbait or topwater, but they never would commit. I finally caught a couple on topwater this afternoon.
Tomorrow I'll pretty much do the same stuff in the morning, then probably change my timing around on some of my stuff. You have to fish in the right type of water for the weather conditions you have. Today was a lousy day to fish shallow on the main lake. I might go up the river or something tomorrow.
Jay Yelas – Practice
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell
I've just been struggling this week. It's probably the toughest fishing I've seen since the Classic in Pittsburgh. Of course, things went pretty well for me in the regular season, but I hit a wall as soon as I started practice on Ouachita. It's a big reality check.
It's a really tough bite – my best day has been 10 pounds. But unless I'm totally missing the boat, I think 10 pounds a day would make the cut. That's what I'm focused on at this point in the game.
There are a lot of different ways to catch them here – on top, on bottom, and in-between. You can throw a swimbait, crankbait, jerkbait, topwater, worms. All that stuff's working.
The biggest problem I have is I haven't found any big concentrations of fish. It's one here, one there. I have a little bit of a pattern going, but it's not much. And I'm not really catching any big fish. So I'm hoping 10 pounds a day will make the cut. If not, I'll have to stumble on something the next couple of days.
The best spot I've got is a place where the fish are schooling early in the morning. They're good 2- to 3 1/2-pound fish schooling on threadfins. But they quit schooling at 7:15 on sunny days, and we take off at 7:00. On a cloudy day, that bite may last a little longer. If those fish would stay up for 15 minutes longer, I could get a decent 12 pounds out of them. But by 7:00, the sun's already been up for an hour, so I don't know if I can count on that. They're the best fish I found though.
I've checked for them several times throughout the day, and they're just gone. That's sort of how Beaver fished this year – you could catch schooling fish for the first few hours, then they'd be gone. They're sort of like ghost fish.
I also found some swimbait fish, some flipping fish, and some dropshot fish, but nothing that's really that good. It's just a real grind. I haven't struggled like this for a couple of years. I mostly attribute it to the conditions. The water's 88 to 90 degrees, and the water clarity's anywhere from 4 to 10 feet. So those are really tough conditions. In summer, I'd much rather be on tidal water or dingy water.
With these conditions, I think this thing plays right into the hands of Mark Davis. He couldn't have any better setup for winning a major title. This thing's being served on a platter to him. The only question about Mark, in my mind, is whether he'll have 75 spectator boats each day. That could destroy his fish. It happened to Fritts every time he fished the Classic at High Rock. But Mark's catching them good, and I've really got my work cut out to beat him in this tournament, that's for sure.
