Okeechobee FLW Tour Open

Jay Yelas – Competition wrapup
Saturday, February 11, 2012

> Day 1: 5, 19-09
> Day 2: 5, 15-14
> Day 3: 5, 10-06
> Total = 15, 45-13 (13th place)

The tournament went well and I was pleased to finish 13th after such a lousy practice. I was basically on nothing and I ended up fishing in some places I'd never fished before.

The first 2 days I flipped a 1-ounce jig with a Berkley HAVOC Craw Fatty in the bulrushes and had pretty good days, but today that place got torn up by the wind. I went to a part of the lake I hadn't been to in 5 or 6 years and found one little hole where I caught my 10 pounds on a Berkley Frenzy Rattl'r.

I fished by the seat of my pants, but I'm happy with the results. I'm a notoriously slow starter and this was a decent showing to begin the year.

One of the real keys was the Minn Kota Talons. I've got two of them this year and when you're battling that wind and the fish are shallow and spooky, they really pay off. I'd drop the poles and fish awhile, then pull them up and float 10 or 15 feet and drop them again. Fishing real slow and methodical like that seemed to pay off the best for me.

I fished pretty clean and there wasn't anything that cost me a Top 10 – I was 7 pounds out of 10th place. You very seldom have a shot to win and in this tournament I certainly didn't, but it ended up good for what I was on.

Luke Clausen – Competition wrapup
Saturday, February 11, 2012

> Day 1: 5, 10-14
> Day 2: 5, 11-15
> Total = 10, 22-13 (70th place)

Three times in the last year and a half I've gotten the last check and two times I was tied for it and won it on a tiebreaker, so it's like I've had a lucky horseshoe in that regard. This was really a pretty poor performance, though. I wasn't on much in practice and I scrambled around and caught fish, but I didn't get quality bites.

I probably should've spent more time flipping a big weight, but I didn't do that much in practice. The first day I caught them flipping the 7-inch Z-Man Finesse Wormz and the second day I got them on Grass KickerZ. I thought that might be the best avenue to get a bigger bag the second day and work my way up to a $10,000 check, but I wasn't able to get the bites.

The first day, when the wind was blowing so hard, I should've got to a bulkier bait. But hindsight is always 20-20.

Luke Clausen – Practice
Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Practice wasn't real great – I didn't get many big bites at all. I got plenty of bites, but the size was disappointing. I'm going to keep pre-fishing and keep hunting and trying different stuff. I know some guys are struggling, but there are also guys who've got their areas figured out who could catch 25 to 30 pounds.

Hopefully I can catch a limit early and then I'll try for a big one – one of those 7-, 8- or 9-pound game-changers. If you can get a couple of those, you can get into the mid-20s real quick.

This place is changing by the minute. With the wind, some places are going to get dirtier and some places will have more water, while others will have less. Hopefully the changes will be for the better. The first day might be a day when I burn a lot of gas.

Jay Yelas – Practice
Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The fish seem to be in kind of a holding pattern and it's fishing a lot different than last year. I don't think most of the weights will be anywhere near what they were last year. I spent a lot of time looking for bedding fish, which is my normal M.O. down here, but they're just not there. This place has thrown us a curveball and I don't have an explanation for it.

I spent a lot of time looking for beds with my Typhoon sunglasses, but other than one 5- or 6-pounder the only big fish I found were tilapia. I think the guys who spend a lot of time down here are going to have an even more of an advantage than usual because they know where the bigger fish have been living and they can stick with those areas and fish them slowly and thoroughly.

It's going to be flipping, flipping and more flipping. There's other ways to catch them – topwaters, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, worms – but in cases like this, usually your bigger fish will come on the long rod from the heavy stuff.

The top weights might be eye-popping, but the check weight will be a lot lower than it was last year. It's a lot slower fishing.