Marc Evans, a second-year FLW Tour pro from Indiana, turned in by far the best finish of his pro career in last week's event at Beaver Lake. His 23rd-place showing was 70 slots better than he'd achieved in any of his eight prior Tour outings.
He caught a 9-11 sack on day 1 and was in 68th place. He then boxed a stout 12-13 the following day to move up to 23rd, missing the cut to the Top 20 by just 5 ounces.
The key to his improvement was moving to deeper water – which many of the fish he was pursuing had previously done.
"It seemed like when we got there for practice, a wave of fish had moved in (to the spawning grounds) or were already up," he said. "Practice was good, but it seemed like the farther along we went in the tournament, it turned into a post-spawn event to a degree.
"A lot of fish that were on the bank decided to move off – first the females, then the males."
When they were shallow, he caught them on a jerkbait and a jig. But by the end of day 1 he was targeting cedar trees in about 12 feet of water with a shaky-head and a Senko, and he stayed with that program throughout day 2.
"It was nice to have a good practice and get on them early, and then stay with them when they changed their positioning and what they were relating to. I'd been busting my butt, but the results hadn't been there. It was nice to have it all come together."
The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses on the angler who makes the most significant single-day move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.
