Pickwick FLW Tour Major

Jay Yelas – Day 2
Friday, July 22, 2011

> Day 1: 5, 10-04
> Day 2: 5, 10-02
> Total = 10, 20-06 (83rd)

Today was about like yesterday – not so great. I had 10 pounds each day and I just never got on the right stuff here. I fished shallow and deep and should have probably done just one or the other. I never really could get on the big fish all week. That's what cost me. But it's over with and I made the Cup, so that's good. That was one of my goals in this tournament.

And I'm looking forward to Ouachita. I'm heading over Sunday to pre-practice for about 3 days.

I caught my fish on topwaters today. The deep spot I found yesterday was dry today, so I had to fish shallow and scrounge around and catch enough to make the Cup. I think 19 of the Top 20 guys are fishing ledges, so that was the deal.

I think this marks my 22nd championship in a row. It gets harder every year it seems like, so I'm just glad to be going to Ouachita.

Jay Yelas – Day 1
Thursday, July 21, 2011

> Day 1: 5, 10-04 (84th)

I caught lots of fish, but I didn't have a very good day. I started out on the ledges and went to my best one and caught like 10 keepers there, but they were all 2 pounds or less. Then I went and fished shallow stuff where I had a few decent bites in practice and kept catching 2-pounders. So I ended up catching 10 pounds. That kind of tells me that I'm not in the right spot. I know the area's good – a couple of other guys around me did well. I just didn't get any good bites. I'll try some different stuff tomorrow and mix it up a little bit. I'll try some new water and fish some of the same water. I'm hoping I can get better bites.

I caught a lot of my fish on 10- and 12-inch Berkley Power worms. On the ledges, they want the bait real slow. The crankbait bite's just not there.

If you look at the weights, the fishing was good overall. I think the old lake did pretty good for the end of July.

Jay Yelas – Practice
Wednesday, July 20, 2011

We have 1 more day of practice today, which is an anomaly. They gave us 4 practice days in this tournament, I think because this was a rescheduling from Table Rock and they had a bunch of guys fishing the EverStart up north who would miss a day or two of practice. So it's to accommodate them and give them an extra day to practice.

My practice is pretty much complete. The fishing's typical of mid-July. The ledge fishing's not as good as it is in June, and the shallow fishing isn't very good. There are lots of fish shallow, but it's really hard to catch good ones up shallow. I spent the first 2 days fishing shallow, then ledges yesterday. I did better on ledges than I did shallow, so I'm planning on starting on a ledge, then going shallow to catch little ones if I need to.

They didn't pull any water to speak of yesterday, and here, how good the bite is depends on how much water they pull. So I think this tournament will be won by somebody who has intimate knowledge of the ledges to pick through, or by someone getting waypoints from somebody. I don't have either of those, so my expectations are realistic. My main goal is to qualify for the Cup. That's what I'm really setting my sights on. I'm 15th in the points, so I'd just like to get through this one and get into the Cup. That's what I'm thinking mostly about. Hopefully I'll do decent, but I'm not entertaining any fancy notions about winning the tournament.