Jay Yelas – Day 2
Saturday, April 16, 2011
> Day 1: 5, 14-04
> Day 2: 5, 13-09
> Total = 10, 27-13 (59th)
I pretty much had a similar day to day 1. I stayed about the same in the standings – I dropped maybe seven places. I just didn't get a big bite. That was the thing about this tournament: Everybody in the Top 10 caught a 6 or 7 or bigger fish. I didn't come up with one.
I caught a lot of my fish just pitching Berkley Power lizards to stumps and wood and laydowns and stuff.
I don't know what I would have done differently. The creek I was fishing had a lot of big fish in practice. I couldn't get them to go in the tournament.
It's disappointing to have another mediocre finish but you try to learn from it and go on and do better in the next one. That's one thing about this sport – there's always another tournament in a few weeks. For me, it's on to Table Rock.
Jay Yelas – Day 1
Thursday, April 14, 2011
> Day 1: 5, 14-04 (52nd)
The bite was just remarkably diminished from what it was in practice. The fishing was so good here in the practice round, but apparently the lake dropping 2 or 3 feet just pushed a lot of the fish out of the bedding areas. They're just gone. In practice, you could see them swimming all over the place and bedding, but 3 feet of water on the Tennessee River's huge. They all bed shallow, so it's not like losing 3 feet at Tackle Rock, where it's not that big of a deal. It really hurt the shallow bite.
It was amazing and I'm awed at how low the weights were today. We were all thinking it was going to better than Guntersville-type weights. And the weather stayed pretty good. I guess with the lake dropping the fish just called it quits and packed up their bags and are waiting until the lake comes back up.
I scrounged around and caught some fish cranking this morning. My main deal had been fishing spawning areas, but those were just dry today. We actually went into a couple of the areas and my co-angler caught three 4 1/2-pounders just throwing a shakey-head out in the middle. They're not up around the cover like they were. They must just be cruising around the bedding areas. I think they're probably confused with having to move. There's a lot of weird stuff going on.
I tried to get into my best spot but I couldn't. If the lake comes up 3 or 4 inches I might be able to get back in there.
I'm Texas-rigging my fish and Carolina-rigging – using Berkley lizards and worms. I also caught a few this morning on a lipless crank. I'm just trying to find those bigger fish and it's a real tricky bite right now.
