Sam Rayburn Reservoir FLW Tour

Jay Yelas – Competition Recap
Saturday, March 29, 2014

> Day 1: 3, 12-12
> Day 2: 4, 8-06
> Total = 7, 21-02 (78th place)

I tried a lot of different stuff – I fished a Carolina rig a lot and went up the river and fished shallow. In the last 15 minutes today I found a spot that was loaded and my co-angler caught a 4 and a 5. I'd love to have another day doing that. It was an outside weedline pattern that I hadn't fished all week.

It was just a poor showing on Big Sam, for sure. The sight-fishing didn't turn out to be anything at all. Guys are catching them various ways, but it turned out to be tough for me and pretty tough overall.

Luke Clausen – Practice Recap
Wednesday, March 26, 2014

I got a lot of bites – one thing you can do here is catch a lot of fish. The problem was the quality, there just weren't a lot of big fish, and those are what you need.

The first 2 days weren't overly spectacular for me, but it was better (Tuesday). Even that day wasn't overly solid and I don't think I'm on any kind of great pattern. I'll have to run around and do some different stuff and see if I can catch a few better fish.

There'll be some caught sight-fishing, but as far as that being how the tournament's going to be won, I don't think so. A lot of fish will be caught off beds, but most of them won't be looked at.

The wind is going to limit the areas that can be fished. If you can get to the weekend, the weather should be better and there'll be fewer (tournament) boats. Right now, you're constantly fishing behind or in front of somebody.

If I could average 18 pounds a day, I'd take my chances on winning.

Jay Yelas – Practice Recap
Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The last day of practice was a lot better for me than the second day, for sure, even though I didn't set the world on fire. I never caught a 20-pound stringer, but I would've ended up in the mid-teens on 2 of the days. The second day was terrible.

The lake's setting up to fish real small. It just doesn't have the grass – maybe a quarter of what it had in the '90s. That really shrinks the playing field because those Florida largemouths love the best grass they can find. It's going to be crowded.

The question is whether to battle it out in the grass with the rest of the field or try to get away from all that. There's enough fish away from it to where you can make money and have a good showing, but I don't think you can win.

The weather that's coming is conducive to a big wave of spawning fish, but the water's so dirty that you can't hardly see anything. You can find fish on the beds, for sure, but I don't know if that's going to be the deal for the tournament. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I think the winner might be somebody who finds a big school somewhere.

Brett Hite could come in here and just wax them on the ChatterBait – the water's dirty and it's warming up and it'll be perfect conditions for that or a spinnerbait. The water's too low for a real good flipping bite so I don't think that'll be a big factor.

A Carolina rig could win, too, if it was used in the right place.

Jay Yelas - Mid-Practice Report
Monday, March 24, 2014

After living on Rayburn from 1991 to '97, I kind of feel like I'm coming home, but it's been several years or maybe even a decade since I've fished a springtime tournament here.

The fishing's okay. Last week I fished the Rayovac at Toledo Bend and finished 13th and I kind of thought I'd be able to catch them the same way here, which is sight-fishing. It looks to me like that's a total no-go, though. The lake's dirtier than I've ever seen it and it doesn't have the grass to filter the water. The grass is really sparse compared to what it used to be, especially on the lower end. There's virtually no grass where there used to be acres and acres of 15-foot hydrilla.

We've had wind and that's getting everything stirred up, so I don't think sight-fishing's going to be a factor just because you can't see anything. It's kind of interesting how Rayburn and Toledo Bend or so different, being so close, but their habitats are totally different. We had 5-foot visibility at Toledo Bend and here it's foot and a half.

The fish bit well (Sunday) when we had clouds and wind, but (Monday) it was slick and the fishing wasn't as good. That's typical for this time of year.

There's still a lot of big fish in the lake and there'll be some eye-popping bags at the top of the standings, but I don't think it's the lake it used to be. I fished the Rayovac here in January and the weights were way off then – it took about 17 1/2 pounds a day to win.

There's lots of different ways to catch fish – the old ways still work and some new baits are working, too. The lake will fish pretty small because there's not nearly as much grass as there used to be. The parts of the lake that have good grass will have a lot of boats.