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Beaver Lake FLW Tour

Competition Recap
Saturday, April 12, 2014

Jay Yelas

> Day 1: 5, 6-02
> Day 2: 5, 13-10
> Total = 10, 19-12 (47th place)

I had a good Beaver Lake bag today, but yesterday I only had the 6 pounds of spotted bass. I fished for largemouths all day on both days, but that's typical Beaver – it's so hard to catch 13 pounds every day. I've done it before, but it didn't work out this week, but it was nice to make a good comeback today and finish in the money.

I was flipping and pitching a Punisher Jay Jig with a Yamamoto Flappin' Hawg and I weighed a couple on a Punisher spinnerbait. I was fishing up the river in dirty water – the same thing I did yesterday. Go figure.

This has been the slowest year I've ever had in my 26 years of doing this. It's not looking too good for making the Forrest Wood Cup, but maybe if I have a real strong finish I can still make it. I've made a Cup or a (Bassmaster) Classic 24 years in a row and I'd hate to break that this year.

Luke Clausen

> Day 1: 5, 9-09
> Day 2: 5, 9-02
> Total = 10, 18-11 (60th place)

To be honest, I'm fishing so bad that most of the time I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing. I got the last $10,000 check here and I was tickled to get that. I'm making bad decisions in the tournaments and in practice and I don't have it going on. I really don't understand what the problem is.

I caught everything I weighed on a Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait or a Z-Man finesse worm on a shaky-head. I was getting a lot of bites, but most weren't the quality I was looking for. I tried cranking, but I couldn't get that going. Nothing came together and I had to scramble just to catch what I did.

I was lucky enough to finish in the money, but it obviously wasn't where I wanted be.


Practice Recap
Wednesday, April 9, 2014

BassFan
Photo: BassFan

Luke Clausen
I caught a limit every day, but not much more. I'd catch one here and there and they were better than average Beaver quality – 2 1/2 to 3 pounds, but I don't know if I can catch five in a day. I wish I knew why there isn't more than one everywhere you catch one.

I'm not sure why I can't seem to find a school of them. I've been mostly fishing around the bank, but it's so steep here, around the bank is kind of relative. I haven't been out in the trees much, but I'm sure someone will catch them out there.

It just seems like there are a lot of fish missing around the banks, that's for sure. I just hope I can catch enough to get out of this funk I'm in. I wish I had found something more conclusive, but tomorrow I'm going to just fish stuff that looks good.

I think it'll be a mix (of species). I don't think there's enough fish shallow for someone to just catch all largemouth. Someone could have a big largemouth or two in their bag, but I don't see it being won solely on largemouth.

BassFan
Photo: BassFan

Jay Yelas
I've gotten off to the slowest start in my 25 years of doing this. I'm in unfamiliar territory and I need to get it turned around. This place is a great place to do that. I've had some success here over the years. Practice was so so for me. I had one good day and couple not so good. I'm just trying to think ahead to what's going to be going on in the future.

This is a different place to practice on because we all know it so well. If you're looking for a certain type of cover to fish, you know where it is because we've been here 20 times. The fishing appears to be about the same as it is every year.

I didn't practice to go catch a bunch of fish. I tried to think ahead to what they might be doing. The river is blown out with mud and it's on the rise and a lot of that stuff was not very good, but it could fish by the weekend. There's a lot of stuff I'm thinking about from a strategy standpoint, but I need to make it to the weekend before I can worry about any of that.

There are some bites that should be going on and will be going on when it warms up, but they're not happening yet. Some patterns that aren't working might open up, but you have to keep an open mind. I think it should be about the same weights we've seen here in the past. It'll be a typical Beaver Lake tournament.


Practice – Day 1 Recap
Monday, April 7, 2014

Jay Yelas
This is the umpteenth time we've to Beaver in the spring and interestingly, it's always a different playing field. This year it's been cold and the river is on the rise. There's a lot of mud coming down the White River. That's different from last year. The dam is still really clear with about 20 feet of visibility. The water looks to be about 4 1/2 feet higher than last year and it's rising.

All of these White River lakes seem like they've been on an uptrend these last couple of years. I didn't see anything today that was great. I caught some fish and a lot of short fish. For me, I'm just trying to read the conditions and maybe find something that might work this year that didn't work in the past.

The weights may be down this year without the umbrella rig. It's a unique event in that we come here every year and it's always different from the rest of them in that everyone has an intimate knowledge of this place. It's hard to run off and win the event in some unusual place like happens at some other lakes we go to. It's usually a pretty tight tournament that's decided by ounces. It's just a fun lake to fish and I enjoy coming here every year. It's intriguing to have the same lake on the schedule every year. It adds a unique twist.

There are some bushes in play up the river, but there's not enough water down lake to bring any shoreline cover into play. The water's really muddy up the river, though. You can't even see a spinnerbait blade in 2 inches of water. The water temperature is in the low to mid 50s depending on where you're at. It seems like it's a little on the cool side for them to be spawning. Everything has been so cold this winter and spring.

Luke Clausen
I can't say I learned a lot. I caught maybe 10 or 11 pounds. I caught fish on five different baits and I don't know if I figured anything out just yet. I think the lake may be a little bit behind at this point compared to years past.

The water is up a little bit. I'm used to seeing more fish and bait up shallow on points. I just didn't see much of that today. When you'd catch one you'd get the feeling that it was just a lone straggler. I wasn't around a tremendous amount of fish.

If anything I think the weights will be down because it seems to be a little behind from where it was last year. The dirtier water is up the river and it's cleaner down the lake, which isn't much different from what we've seen the last couple of years. It's getting old fishing here all the time. Every day you go practice, there isn't really a place you haven't ever been.

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