Roy Hawk capped off a great past month for his family on Wednesday in the desert outside of Las Vegas. After competing in the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup, and watching his son Sunny win the co-angler title there, Hawk crested a mountain he'd come close to reaching the pinnacle of before as he claimed victory at the WON Bass U.S. Open.
The Lake Havasu City, Ariz. resident began the final day less than half a pound behind the leader; however, the consistency of his weights made many believe that he held the inside track to win. He went fishless until after 11 o'clock on day 3, but managed to cach 8.75 pounds for a winning total of 29.40.
"I really wasn't getting too uptight because I had a better bite in the afternoon on most of my practice days," he said. "The only thought that kept going through my head was that I had lost one of the events in the past because I tried to force a reaction bite that wasn't there, so I scaled down and finesse-fished until I couldn't stand it anymore after the morning went slowly."
That approach only resulted in a single keeper that his AAA partner caught at 11:15. "I tried it for a little while after that and then went back to my primary areas and started getting bites," he said. "I had a double hookup on my topwater bait that gave us fish No. 2 and 3, and then managed to catch a few more on the topwater and a jig to fill out the limit and cull a couple."
He reported heading back toward Callville Bay for weigh-in without much anticipation.
"I really felt like I had left the door open once again and really didn't have much chance of winning," he said. "I thought the only chance I had was if other anglers struggled too, and that happened today. I can't believe I won the U.S. Open – I am completely blessed."
Hawk said he spent his entire practice and the tournament fishing the lower basin near the dam, Hemmingway Harbor and Kingman Wash. He said he competed in a team tournament a few weeks prior that had showed him there was potential in the area.
"I never went anywhere else to practice because I felt so good about it and I spent my whole tournament in the lower basin in sight of the entrance to the dam."
Hawk said three baits were responsible for his win. The primary lure, which allowed him to target shad-chasing bass that would occasionally school, was a Duo Realis Pencil topwater. He said he produced a few on a SPRO crankbait as well as a Yamamoto Football Jig and Double Tailed Grub trailer.
For his victory, Hawk will earn the keys to a U.S. Open-themed red, white and blue 2015 Nitro Z8 bass boat and Mercury ProXS 200 outboard valued at nearly $40,000 and an additional $50,500 in cash, bringing his total winner's purse to nearly $100,000.
Clayton Meyer of Henderson, Nev. ended up 2nd with 27.43 after weighing 7 1/2 pounds on the final day.
"I never really felt like I had a chance to win at any point during the day because I didn't do enough on the water today," he said. "I can't say that I'm disappointed because I really did all I could, I just never really got the kind of bite that would have made the difference today.
As it is, Roy won by a big margin for Lake Mead (nearly 2 pounds) and a $20,000 payday for second place is a pretty big deal."
Full details of Hawk's winning pattern will be published soon.
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Roy Hawk: 29.40
2. Clayton Meyer: 27.43
3. Philip Roesener: 27.08
4. Tim Klinger: 27.04
5. Keegan Graves: 27.00
6. Wade Strelic: 26.88
7. Tom Leedom: 26.65
8. Marco Fenelli:26.57
9. Klayton Belden: 26.42
10. John Morrow: 26.17
