Pickwick Lake FLW Tour

Jay Yelas – Competition Wrapup
Friday, June 6, 2014

> Day 1: 3, 7-02
> Day 2: 2, 5-04
> Total = 5, 12-06 (148th place)

I bombed out here – it was a very disappointing tournament. I couldn't catch a limit either day and it was pretty frustrating. I fished shallow the whole time and I thought I could catch a limit, along with some good ones, but I couldn't put that together.

I'd made 24 Cups or Classics in a row and this breaks that over two-decade streak of consistent finishes (in the points). That's kind of a milestone in my career, but I'll have no chance of making it with one event left. Everything good has to come to an end.

I've been in a funk all year – it's been the slowest year of my career. I need to figure out what's going on and get back in the saddle. I'd at least like to have a strong finish at Kentucky Lake and get the ship righted.

Today I fished around an area that I shared with another guy and he caught 20 pounds while I caught two fish. He caught them on a worm, fishing real slow, and I mainly threw a jig. When you're fishing well that doesn't happen; you figure things out quicker. I've just been missing that fine edge when things have changed during the tournaments. I'm not as sharp as I've been in the past.

Luke Clausen – Competition Wrapup
Friday, June 6, 2014

> Day 1: 5, 13-02
> Day 2: 5, 20-13
> Total = 10, 33-15 (32nd place)

I went to an area today that I found in practice where I thought I could catch a small limit. I pulled in at 9:30 or 10 o'clock just to try to catch some fish and the first one I caught was a 6-pounder, so I ended up hanging around there the rest of the day and caught some more decent ones. I didn't think it was that good – I knew there were a lot of fish, but I didn't think there was any size. I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

I caught my biggest ones on a dropshot with Z-Man Finess WormZ and I caught some others on other plastics. They were anywhere from 14 to 22 feet deep.

Today was a big morale boost over yesterday when I didn't catch anything good. I thought I could catch them shallow up by the dam, but I couldn't do it yesterday morning and it didn't happen this morning, either. I ended up bagging that plan way too late yesterday – I should've scrapped it a lot earlier.

Luke Clausen – Practice Recap
Thursday, June 5, 2014

My practice wasn't anything too spectacular. There's fish shallow and there's fish deep, but the struggle fishing deep is how many boats are going to be out there and how many times you run to places that you might not get on. That's going to happen a lot, but that doesn't mean you're not going to catch them. You almost have to just pull into some places and fish around people.

I'm going to do a little of both and mix it up and see how the cards fall.

Jay Yelas – Practice Recap
Wednesday, June 4, 2014

I think it's kind of tough this time. It's not tough to get bites, but it's hard to get a good bag. There's lots of fish biting, but a lot of them are small. I have caught some decent ones, but they've been rather random. I'll just go fishing and know that there's nothing guaranteed – I'll put my time in and hope I can get five good bites.

I'm just fishing shallow. With the short practice and being unfamiliar with the ledges, I didn't think I could keep up with Randy Haynes and Mark Rose and all those guys out deep. There's lots of fish shallow and I could catch a big bag – a co-angler I fished with in practice caught a 6-pounder from a foot of water.

I need a couple of real high finishes to make the (Forrest Wood) Cup. I've made 24 championships in a row, either Classics or Cups, and I'm going to break that streak if I don't finish super-strong.