By BassFan Staff
Because of what he'd experienced during the final few hours of the last practice day for the Beaver Lake FLW Tour, Matt Arey knew that a day like the one he had on Sunday was possible. Thus when it materialized for him, he was thrilled but not surprised.
"The biggest thing about it is timing," the North Carolinian said. "I was lucky to get in that window today."
He caught a 17-13 sack, the heaviest of the tournament by a large margin, to overtake 2-day leader Andy Morgan and prevail at one of the toughest venues in professional fishing for the second straight year. His 4-day total of 55-06 bested runner-up Tracy Adams by more than 5 1/2 pounds.
Adams, another North Carolina resident who's had a superb start to his first Tour campaign since 2009, sacked a stout 15-03 to move up 6 places and finish with a 49-12 total. Morgan, the top-ranked angler in the world, managed just a 9 1/2-pound stringer and ended up 3rd with 48-10.
Cody Meyer caught 12-03 and finished with the same total as Morgan, but lost the tiebreaker to the two-time defending Angler of the Year (AOY) because Morgan had begun the day higher in the standings. Bryan Thrift, the 2011 winner at Beaver, finished 5th with 46-13 after weighing an 11-12 bag.
Here are the final numbers for the bottom half of the Top 10:
6. John Cox: 46-04
7. Peter Thliveros: 44-08
8. Stetson Blaylock: 44-04
9. Vic Vatalaro: 43-11
10. Mike Surman: 43-07
Arey joined Clark Wendlandt (1999, 2001) and Andre Moore (2002, 2005) as two-time winners at Beaver. He now has four Top-5 finishes in seven appearances at the White River impoundment.
Wesley Strader is the AOY leader at the midway point of the season, holding an 11-point edge over Luke Clausen. Adams is 3rd, followed by Cox and Thrift. Arey moved up to 8th and Morgan is 9th.
Arey caught the majority of his massive sack during a 2-hour window around lunch time.
The Tour takes a 2-week break before beginning its second half at Alabama's Lake Eufaula May 14-17.
Surreal Feeling for Arey
> Day 4: 5, 17-13 (20, 55-06)
Arey had an 11-pound limit – a more-than-respectable sack at Beaver – when 11 o'clock rolled around. He improved it by nearly 7 pounds over the next 2 hours courtesy of a 5 1/2-inch swimbait to leave the other nine remaining competitors far in his wake.
"Just like last year, it's an unbelievable feeling," he said. "It's kind of surreal. It was me and Andy standing there at the end again, so that felt a little bit odd.
"Your first win hits home a little harder, but after you do it once, you want it again and again and again."
He caught 15 keepers for the day and his bag was topped by a 5-pounder that he enticed out from under a dock. That fish took the swimbait right next to the side of his boat with only about 3 feet of line extending from his rod tip.
“First, that normally doesn’t happen,” Arey said. “But, back in the day when I was a rookie, I would have stayed standing and just kept winding my bait and the fish would have went back under the dock.
Tracy Adams turned in his best finish since his victory at Lake Champlain in 2006.
"Instead, I was able to keep my composure, knelt down and got the fish to bite and in the boat. It’s experience. You just have to block everything else out and fish against the fish.”
The hand-poured swimbait and a Lunkerhunt Lunker Stick were his primary baits. Full details of his winning pattern, as well as those of the other top finishers, will be published this week.
2nd: Big Move by Adams
> Day 4: 5, 15-03 (20, 49-12)
Adams' final-day bag would've been extremely impressive had Arey not topped it by more than 2 1/2 pounds. Still, he posted his best finish since his victory at Lake Champlain in 2006.
"I had a good day, but it wasn't quite good enough," he said. "I'm glad (Arey) beat me by a lot because I had to leave a 5-pounder on a bed that I couldn't catch. It would've gained me about 3 pounds, but he beat me by enough that it wouldn't have mattered."
He handled eight keepers for the day. He spent more than half of the day attempting to entice three spawners and was successful with two of them – a 4-pounder and a 3 1/2.
"I fished a point first thing this morning and caught a limit in an hour or so, and that let me take my time on those better bed-fish."
3rd: Morgan Ran Out of Steam
> Day 4: 5, 9-08 (20, 48-10)
Morgan said Arey's huge sack took much of the sting out of yet another high finish that came up short of victory.
"He caught the heck out of them, so I don't feel back like I would have if I'd caught 9 1/2 pounds and lost by a pound," he said. "I went back close to the launch 30 minutes early and caught a couple decent ones at the end of the day or I would've finished 7th or 8th. After all, I'm in this for the money.
Andy Morgan, who'd led after the previous 2 days, managed just a 9 1/2-pound sack on day 4.
"The fact is it was getting worse and worse for me every day. I caught 12 to 15 fish today, but most of them were just small largemouths and they never gave me a good indicator of what to do. I knew I had to have a good bag to even have a shot and nothing materialized."
4th: Meyer Edged Out Again
> Day 4: 5, 12-03 (20, 48-10)
Meyer found it ironic that he lost a tiebreaker to Morgan after dueling the Tennessean for the AOY throughout the 2014 season.
"I asked him, 'Dude, am I ever going to beat you?' and he said, 'Probably not," Meyer said. "We both got a laugh out of that, but one day I am going to beat that guy."
He stayed in Prairie Creek throughout day 4 and boated 25 keepers. He weighed five that were all in the 2- to 2 1/2-pound range.
"Right off the get-go they were biting pretty good. I caught a 10 of fish and had a good time."
5th: Mixed Feelings for Thrift
> Day 4: 5, 11-12 (20, 46-13)
Thrift wasn't quite sure how to feel about his finish.
"I'm happy with it, but I'm kind of torn at the same time," he said. "I had the fish on (throughout the event) to finish second and losing a bunch kind of leaves a bad taste.
"On the other hand, to lose that many and still finish 5th, you can't be too upset about that."
He caught just five keepers on day 4 – three on a swimbait in the early morning and two (including a 4-pounder) on a Damiki Stinger worm.
"I caught several shorts after that, but just no quality."
Notable
> Day 4 stats – 10 anglers, 8 limits, 1 four, 1 three.
Day 4 (Final) Standings
1. Matt Arey -- Shelby, NC -- 14-14 (5) -- 12-4 (5) -- 10-7 (5) -- 17-13 (5) -- 55-6 (20) -- $125,000
2. Tracy Adams -- Wilkesboro, NC -- 13-3 (5) -- 12-7 (5) -- 8-15 (5) -- 15-3 (5) -- 49-12 (20) -- $30,000
3. Andy Morgan -- Dayton, Tn -- 13-2 (5) -- 15-7 (5) -- 10-9 (5) -- 9-8 (5) -- 48-10 (20) -- $25,000
4. Cody Meyer -- Auburn, Ca -- 14-7 (5) -- 10-6 (5) -- 11-10 (5) -- 12-3 (5) -- 48-10 (20) -- $20,000
5. Bryan Thrift -- Shelby, NC -- 15-9 (5) -- 10-11 (5) -- 8-13 (5) -- 11-12 (5) -- 46-13 (20) -- $19,000
6. John Cox -- Debary, Fl -- 12-4 (5) -- 11-15 (5) -- 12-13 (5) -- 9-4 (3) -- 46-4 (18) -- $18,000
7. Peter Thliveros -- Saint Augustine, Fl -- 12-0 (5) -- 12-12 (5) -- 9-12 (5) -- 10-0 (5) -- 44-8 (20) -- $17,000
8. Stetson Blaylock -- Benton, Ar -- 13-8 (5) -- 12-9 (5) -- 11-2 (5) -- 7-1 (4) -- 44-4 (19) -- $16,000
9. Vic Vatalaro -- Kent, Oh -- 13-7 (5) -- 10-12 (5) -- 11-3 (5) -- 8-5 (5) -- 43-11 (20) -- $15,000
10. Mike Surman -- Boca Raton, Fl -- 13-2 (5) -- 10-3 (5) -- 11-0 (5) -- 9-2 (5) -- 43-7 (20) -- $14,000
