Lake Havasu Elite Series

Brent Chapman

> Day 1: 5, 12-14
> Day 2: 5, 12-00
> Total = 10, 24-24 (71st place)

The weights were a lot higher than I thought they were going to be and I suffered the consequences of that. I didn't have that great of a practice – I was catching one or two nice ones a day – and that's what I did in the tournament. I'm still floored that guys are catching them as good as they are. I'm definitely anxious to watch this one on TV to find out how they're doing it.

I caught the majority of my fish on a jerkbait and some dropshotting a wacky worm. Most of them were 10 to 15 feet deep.

I probably did too much homework for this one and writing the river off was my biggest mistake. Having only 2 days of practice (due to the event the previous week in Sacramento) probably hurt me. My strength would have been to go up the river and flip, but instead I stayed down (on the main body) and it wasn't solid enough for what I needed to do.

Chris Zaldain

> Day 1: 5, 8-14
> Day 2: 5, 14-09
> Total = 9, 23-07 (80th place)

I stubbed my to real hard the first day when I lost two big ones and I just couldn't recover. Normally I'm good about getting back on track when that happens, but I'd also done it on day 4 on the Delta and then to do it again here, I couldn't shake it. It was a huge weight on my shoulders that I was carrying around.

I caught all my weight (on day 2) on a Megabass Deep-Six crankbait. Yesterday I looked in my livewell and there were a bunch of brown and orange crawdads, so I used a color called shad craw and my first two fish were nice ones – over 3 pounds each. It's just so hard to make up ground at a place like this where the weights are so close, but at least I salvaged a few (Angler of the Year) points.

It definitely got tougher and tougher each day. The first day of practice everybody was catching 16 or 17 pounds, but the pressure and the unstable weather started to get to the fish. It's disappointing for me, but that's the way it goes.

Recap
It's a neat lake and I wish I'd had more time to explore more of it. I'm catching a fair number of fish, but it's been real scattered and random with no real pattern to it. I really can't get a gauge for what it'll take to do well. It took 14 pounds a day (to get a check) last week and I wouldn't think it would take that much at this one. At least, I hope not.

The fish are definitely in their post-spawn funk – they're not bunched up yet and there's a few still spawning. I've caught them from a foot of water out to 20 feet.

I'm going to stay on the main lake. The homework I did indicated that's where the better stringers traditionally come from and it's what I concentrated on in practice. I feel pretty good about it, but it's fishing, so you never know. I'd like to have what I've caught the last 2 days and take my chances.

It's always fun to come somewhere new, but having 3 days of practice sure would've been nice. It's kind of the for a lot of us and I think the people who have experience here are going to have an advantage, for sure.

Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito

Recap
First of all, Havasu isn't very big, and the first think I noticed is that it's fishing very small. When you get done on a hump or a point or just a spot, there's a guy right behind you coming in to fish it. I've been to Havasu a dozen times or so and luckily I know which areas hold fish at this time of year. I've stayed off most of that stuff and fished new water.

Both the largemouth and the smallmouth are biting really well. There's lots of numbers and the majority are post-spawn fish. Three out of every four you catch will be long and skinny.

They've been biting moving-type baits and the wind really helps with clear water. It's supposed to blow pretty good (on day 1).

The first day I could've caught 18 or 19 pounds – I had a 5-pounder and two 4s – and there's a lot of 3-pounders biting right now. The 4s and 5s are going to be the difference-makers this week. There's still some spawning and somebody might find a couple of 5-pounders on beds, but with the wind we're going to have on the first day, they're going to be tough to see even in the clear water."