Lake Okeechobee FLW Tour

Jay Yelas – Competition Wrapup
Saturday, February 6, 2016

> Day 1: 5, 7-12
> Day 2: 2, 3-12
> Total = 7, 11-09 (151st place)

I've done it again – for the third year in a row I've started the season with a bomb in Florida. I can't believe it. I didn't lose fish, I just didn't get bit. I don't have any excuses.

The oddest thing is never caught a fish in the tournament where I got bit in practice. (On day 1) I went back to the place where I'd caught 20 pounds in practice and it was all blown out by the south wind. That was really a sinking feeling. The water had gotten all muddy and I had to go to plan B, and that didn't amount to much.

Today I didn't want to go back to where I'd caught 7 pounds, so I went to places I hadn't been to all week hoping to get on something else. That didn't work.

I never did go down to South Bay, and that seems to be the hot spot down there. I never even looked at it, and I've had good tournaments down there before.

I'm searching for answers and still groping along trying to figure it out. You go into a new year with a lot of hope, trying to turn things around and get on a roll, and this is another lousy start. It's not what I wanted to do.

In practice I caught some good ones on a Yamamoto Flappin' Hog and a few on a swimjig, but in the tournament I caught nothing but little guys doing that stuff. It's a pretty frustrating deal.

Jay Yelas – Practice Recap
Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Over the last couple days, I had one good day when I caught 20 pounds and one day when I really never busted anything over 2 pounds. It'll be a good tournament, but the weights will be off a little bit from the last time we were here. The water's still rising and it's got the fish scattered and some of them aren't accessible.

It's fishing good, but not great due to the high water. If you're in the right place at the right time you can catch several good ones in a hurry. I've talked to lots of guys and they're all finding the same things I am. The big ones are biding, but it's hard to catch more than one of them.

One day I had three that were in the 5-pound class or bigger, one day I had none and one day I had one. Those are what we're targeting because everybody catches limits of 2-pounders.

It'll probably take 33 or 34 pounds to make the (Top-20) cut, which is still a really good weight, relatively speaking. It'll probably be 26 or 27 to finish in the money.

We're going to get some big wind on Friday and that could put a damper on things – it's supposed to blow 22 to 25 mph out of the north. All the times I've been in Florida, that doesn't help. It messes the water up and there are places you can't fish.

The first day the fishing should be good, then it might tighten up a little Friday.

Jay Yelas – Day 1 Practice
Sunday, January 31, 2016

The lake's higher than I've ever seen it, and I've been here probably 15 times over the years. It's at least a couple feet over where it was last time we were here (during the same week in 2014). The water's still on the cool side – 60 to 65 degrees – so it really hasn't warmed up yet. The forecast is for a gradual warmup through practice and the first day of the tournament, then we'll get the north wind for the last 3 days, so it won't be warming up much then.

It looks pretty much the same as what it did 2 years ago – there's a lot of hydrilla. It was fishing rather slow for me today. I did catch one big one and a few other decent fish, all in one little area, and I got a few other smaller ones from random places here and there.

It was a pretty tough day. When it gets warm here you catch them everywhere, but that hasn't happened yet and they're still grouped up as far as I can tell. It's supposed to be pretty nice over the next few days and for Jan. 31, I really can't think of a place I'd rather be fishing. It's a pleasure being here, for sure.

I heard that 30 pounds won a local team tournament yesterday, so they're out there. It's one of the great places to fish in the whole world and it's always fun to come back.