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Sam Rayburn Reservoir FLW Tour Open

Jay Yelas – Competition Recap
Friday, October 12, 2012

> Day 1: 5, 9-08
> Day 2: 1, 1-11
> Total = 6, 11-03 (94th place)

I had a hard time. I couldn’t even catch a fish today. It was crazy. My partner and I caught 12 (on day 1) and then today, we had one keeper bite. I can’t explain that. I fished a lot of the same water. I fished some new places as well, but usually when you catch 12 one day, you’re going to catch eight or so the next day on the same water, but I never could get bit by a keeper fish all day.

I fished areas that are traditionally really good here. I don’t have an explanation. I flipped a lot and my partners threw Rat-L-Traps and worms out the back all day and we couldn’t find anything all day. I guess we were in the wrong area, obviously. It’s just weird. I’d like to start the whole week over again from scratch.


Luke Clausen - Practice Recap
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

I don’t even know where I’m going (on day 1), probably somewhere I haven’t been. I haven’t caught one over 3 pounds in 3 days. I’m just looking for answers at this point. I’m going to run somewhere I haven’t been yet and throw something different. What I’m doing obviously is not working.

I’m going to tie up a bunch of different rods and fly around and try to fish different stuff. I’ve pretty much ruled out fishing deep. I’m probably going to fish shallow and cast around at anything that looks good and flip and pitch and frog – you name it, I’ll do it and see what I can come up with.

Things are probably changing as we go here. We had that cold front and now it’s warmed back up. I’m sure things are changing fairly regularly. That’s the bad thing about practicing for this because it changes so much that you really want to get on something that’s just starting to happen as the tournament begins as opposed to what was happening.

There’s a fair amount of grass. There’s about a 10-mile section of the lake that has a good amount and in some areas it grows deeper than others. I think it’s a timing thing. They don’t bite all the time, grass fish never do. We’re also experiencing those changing weather conditions so where they weren’t biting the last few days, come tomorrow, it could turn them on. It’s almost like starting over.

Jay Yelas - Practice Recap
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

With it warming back up, the fishing will change some, but the weights aren’t going to skyrocket by any means. The water temperature probably cooled off about 10 degrees so as it warms back up I think you’ll see more topwater baits come back in more as a factor and maybe some more schooling fish. The guys who were catching them Carolina-rigging on the bottom might not do as well.

This lake has been fishing tough for a couple years now, according to some of the guys I’ve talked to. It’s not the Rayburn that it used to be. Plus, it’s October and the big ones are real hard to come by. It’s hard to get on anything that’s real consistent other than the little fish.

My practice wasn’t real good. I don’t like what I’m on. I know where some fish live, but the lake’s a lot different from what I remember it being. There’s a lot less grass than there used to be. There’s plenty of fish in the grass, but there’s very little grass so I expect the good grass to be crowded with a lot of boats. There are whole sections of the lake that have no grass, the lower end in particular.

There are some big fish being caught in 25 to 30 feet. I tried that Tuesday and caught like 25 or 30 bass, but just didn’t find any big ones. There are a lot of good ones out there and it wouldn’t surprise me if it were won out deep, but it’s not easy out there to get on the right bunch of fish.

It’s a tough little puzzle right now. I think 17 or 18 pounds a day for 4 days will probably win it. I expect there to be some 20-pound bags weighed in, but I think you’ll see a lot of inconsistencies with the guys that catch those big bags.

I haven’t found anything like that, but I’m going to keep practicing as the tournament goes along. I’ve found some fish, for sure, but 12 or 13 pounds is all I’ve been catching in practice. I’m not on the right deal yet. The big fish just seem to be random. The guys that get those 7- or 8-pound bites will up there the first day and the second day, it’ll be someone else.


Jay Yelas - Day 1 Practice
Monday, October 8, 2012

BassFan
Photo: BassFan

I lived here from 1991 to 1997 and I haven’t been back in 9 years, so it’s good to be back out on the old pond. It probably is my favorite lake to fish. It’s just one of the few undeveloped lakes in the whole country. You can go fish all day and never see anything man-made other a bridge. It has a lot of natural beauty. It’s always fun to come back.

It was a slow day today. It was cloudy and windy all day and rather cool. The high was only in the 50s and the water temps in the low 70s. There is a lot of grass in the lake, but it’s not as much as we used to have. When I lived here, there used to be grass in 15 to 17 feet with hydrilla matted on top. The deepest grass I found today was about 7 feet deep. I don’t know why it’s like that. It probably has something to do with the big drought. The lake was down 10 feet last year from where it is now.

Everything looks in good shape. There are lots of small fish. We didn’t get on the right grade of fish, but we still have 2 more days. It typically fishes a lot tougher this time of year than it does in the spring, summer or winter, but you’ll see some 20-pound stringers in this tournament. Not many, but you’ll see some. They’ve been catching them that way all summer.

This lake’s full of the great, big ones. You just have to find them. I’m going to fish a different end of the lake. We were limited in what we could do today because of the wind. It blew 15 to 20 all day so we couldn’t fish much offshore. Today, it was mostly just running the pockets out of the wind. Hopefully, the wind will lay down and we can get out there and look at some deeper stuff.


Luke Clausen - Day 1 Practice
Sunday, October 7, 2012

FLW/David Brown
Photo: FLW/David Brown

I fished a lot today – a lot of different depths and did a lot of different things. I just never really got on anything too great. You can catch fish here on about everything you do. I don’t think I went very long today without catching something. There just wasn’t anything with any kind of quality.

The water’s got a little color to it. Every creek’s a little different as far as color goes. I don’t know if this cold front has them in a bit of shock because it got cold real quick. I don’t know what the deal is. I’m kind of amazed that we caught a lot of fish, but just didn’t catch anything of any size. I’m going to try a different part of the lake tomorrow and I think we’ll see things improve as the conditions stabilize throughout the week. That remains to be seen.

Rumor has it there was some tournament here yesterday and it only took 13 1/2 pounds to win it. That’s kind of hard to believe at this place.

The shoreline has plenty of terrestrial vegetation on it – a lot of sticks and grass that grew when the water was down. It really only comes out a couple feet and there’s only 2 1/2 to 3 feet of water in that stuff. The hydrilla is real hit and miss. I didn’t find any with a bunch of depth in it today. About 5 feet was the deepest I saw all day. Hopefully, I can find some better-looking grass before I’m done.

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