Forrest Wood Cup

Jay Yelas - Day 4
Sunday, August 17, 2008

I feel good. I'm glad it's over, and I’m glad I don't have to fish Lake Murray another day. It's frustrating to finish like this. You look forward to it all year long and you make the cut with a chance to win the big one, but you don't want to end up 10th.

The wheels just came off today. I couldn't catch them the way I'd been catching them, which was flipping up the Saluda River. I guess I just caught most of the fish in that area.

The first day we had 18 keepers between my partner and I. Day 2 we only had 13 keeper bites. On day 3 that number fell to nine and today I only had three keeper bites.

Dave Lefebre and Dion Hibdon were up there fishing some of the same stuff. We're all just working the same spots and I think they got picked over.

I was targeting little sections of shoreline that had a mix of willow trees and shallow alligator grass. There were a few docks in there, too. I was just looking for the banks that had the best cover on them.

I've still had a great week, though. I think a big key to being successful in this sport is not letting your emotions get to you - either good or bad. When you've done this as long as I have you realize that you're going to have highs and lows. There's no sense in letting it get to you one way or another.

I think fishing is like golf in that a level, even-keeled personality really helps over the long haul. So I always try to stay positive and be encouraging to all the other guys.

The main thing is to be gracious in defeat. This was Michael's tournament from the start, and I feel good for him.

Jay Yelas – Day 3
Saturday, August 16, 2008

> Day 3: 4, 5-09 (9th)

I was bummed. I had two really nice days, and today I just struck out. I fished a lot of the same water I had been, but I spent probably half of the day on new water.

I just wasn't dialed in today. I'd been flipping all tournament, but it was so dark and cloudy, I knew it wasn't a flipping kind of day today. And yet I'd pick up a worm and throw it out and just catch little ones. Then I'd pick up a jig and catch a bunch of little ones. So I tried to stay doing what I needed to do.

I just didn't get them. It's very disappointing. I'm in 9th place. I had 2 really good days – 10 an 12 1/2 pounds – and to follow that up with 5 pounds is disappointing. That pretty much sums it up.

I did everything I could do to catch them today. I was just out of sync with the weather. It's amazing how you can lose it overnight.

Jay Yelas – Day 2
Friday, August 15, 2008

> Day 1: 5, 10-03
> Day 2: 5, 12-09
> Total = 10, 22-12 (8th)

Today went about like yesterday. I happened to get a few good bites today – my partner and I had 18 keeper bites yesterday, and 13 today – so it's about what I expected on day 2.

Today I pulled up to a few new spots, and on one of them, I caught a 3 1/2 and a 4 on back-to-back flips to the same tree. That made my whole day right there. Hopefully I can find something like that out there tomorrow. I'll just keep trying to find new spots, because a lot of guys were fishing up there.

I had a great big one hooked today that I lost, so it kind of makes me feel good that there's some big fish around there. It was a 6-pounder or so. I stuck him pretty good, so I don't think he'll bite again.

I do think there's a good chance the tournament could be won up the river. It's the most consistent bite on the lake right now. My partners and I had 31 keeper bites in 2 days. I guarantee there's not too many guys on the lake who could say that. The size just isn't there for me.

Here's the way the bite's set up in the river. A lot of guys were fishing up the river, but it's such a tough bite, you can fish the right type of stuff for a couple of hours and not get a bite. I learned by spending several days up there that it takes hours and hours to get enough bites to put things together. I haven't been saving water, but there are a lot of places I haven't fished yet. So I'm looking forward to trying to expand on things.

A lot of it's timing. The place where I lost that 6-pounder's a spot where I've seen other guys fish during the week. I just pulled up there at the right time.

Jay Yelas – Day 1
Thursday, August 14, 2008

> Day 1: 5, 10-03 (15th)

My partner's 2nd in the co-angler side, so I'm around a lot of fish. I'm just disappointed I only had 10 pounds. I can't complain, though. It was a good day. I caught eight or nine keepers, mostly flipping. It's just a slow plastics bite.

I'm up the river, and there are 15 or so boats up there. Other guys are fishing where I'm fishing, but we're out there for 10 hours, and people aren't going up the same bank all the time. You can let it rest, then pull back in and catch a fish or two.

There wasn't any water-color change in the river – none. I was very happy to see that. I was really concerned about that this morning. But it's still a wildcard on whether it'll get muddy or not. The mud might work its way downriver.

I think this tournament will be won flipping. I'm almost positive of it. Not necessarily up the river, but somewhere in the grass. The lake has alligator grass. It grows in 4 feet of water and mats up on the surface.

I think probably 20 pounds will make the cut, and I feel like that's an average day in the river, so I should be able to do 10 pounds every day.

Jay Yelas – Practice
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It's tough. It's amazing – these lakes just get so hard in August. Everybody knows there's a lot of fish in this lake, but like everywhere else in the dog days, they're hard to catch.

I think maybe 22 pounds total will make the Top 10 cut. But you know, I had a good practice, and I think I could have caught that much a couple of days. I had a couple of really bad days too, but I'm hopeful.

We're getting a lot of rain, and the weather is the big variable this week. It rained an inch or two yesterday up the lake, and we could get as much as another 3 inches. So that could be the real wildcard in this tournament.

As far as how that'll affect what everybody found in practice, I don't know. We had that at Wylie when Takahiro Omori won the Classic. It rained a bunch right before the tournament, the water came up like 2 feet, and he won it shallow. That was one of those shallow-or-deep tournaments like this one was.

I'm not that familiar with Murray to know how much rain it takes. It's a lot bigger than Wylie, so it might take more rain to bring the lake up.

We've got that hanging out there as a wildcard, but other than that, the water temperature's in the upper-80s to low-90s in the afternoons, and it's a tough summer bite because it's bait-oriented. It should be a good, competitive tournament. I like it tough – I tend to do better.

I'll fish shallow – that's what I usually end up ding. I fished deep for a whole day of practice and didn't have much luck, so I'm going to concentrate shallow. If it only takes 11 or 12 pounds to do well, there's a whole lot of different ways to catch that shallow.

Because the fish are so spread out from deep to shallow, there might be 10 different patterns that make the Top 10. But this lake has so many big fish, somebody could get on the right spot and blow it away. That could easily happen. Or somebody could get on an oddball pattern.