Matt Arey set a goal for himself to catch 60 pounds at the Smith Lake FLW Tour event. He figured if he averaged 15 pounds a day over four days, he’d be right near the top of the standings at the end.
He got about 75 percent of the way to his goal, catching 44-13 over 3 days, falling 13 ounces shy of qualifying for the final day and settled for 11th place.
“The way it played out, it fished better than I expected it to,” he said. “To me, Smith is a lot like Beaver Lake. It’s not like Florida where someone can pop 30 pounds. You just have to grind out 15 a day.”
He fished exclusively for spotted bass because of their numbers and noteworthy quality. He also factored in weather conditions that might’ve hampered any sort of largemouth game plan he had.
“The spots were a lot bigger and healthier than they were two years ago,” he said. “I thought there were enough of them that a man could win just on spots.
“Also, looking at the weather going in, in a four-day event, I try to stay ahead of the fish and be a step ahead and I felt like targeting spots was the right move because they’re more reliable during fronts like the one we were going to have.”
While his plan came together, he was surprised to see how well some of his competitors did catching spawning largemouths.
“I never thought in a million years that those largemouth would be active and be doing their thing during the front conditions we had,” he added.
He had a milk run of pockets between the bridge in Ryan Creek to Rock Creek that had stair-step banks with a mix of shells and rock.
“The majority of the fish were spawning on those stair-step banks,” he said. “On Saturday, I really got dialed in. I must’ve caught 35 keeper fish. In hindsight, I could’ve gone looking for a big largemouth on day 3, but I also felt like I was going to catch enough to make the cut.”
He used a swimbait as a search bait mainly and when he’d see fish following his bait, he’d pitch back to the same area with a soft-plastic stickbait, rigged wacky-style without a weight.
“Most times, that bait didn’t make it to the bottom because they were suspended up off the bed,” he said. “It was efficient and I had a good hook-up ratio fishing that way. I have no regrets. I fished clean all week and didn’t lose anything.”
The Big Bite Lookback, which focuses on the angler who's first out of the final cut at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great folks at Big Bite Baits.
