By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor


The Beaver Lake FLW Tour has been a pre-spawn event for the vast majority of the 17 times it's been staged. This year it went down in the middle of the spawn, which caused most in the 154-angler field to spend at least part of their practice time looking for quality fish on beds.

Spawners were easy to come by from a numbers perspective, but quality was another matter entirely. Some found enough to get them through a day or two, or perhaps supplement a conventional fishing pattern, whereas others quickly gave up on looking and chose to focus on fish they couldn't see – whether those fish were nested up for the reproduction ritual or not.

A high finish could be had either way.

2nd: Tracy Adams

> Day 1: 5, 13-03
> Day 2: 5, 12-07
> Day 3: 5, 8-15
> Day 4: 5, 15-03
> Total = 20, 49-12

Tracy Adams has been to Beaver as an FLW competitor on numerous occasions, but hadn't visited since his most recent Tour campaign in 2009. The notoriously stingy venue treated him well upon his return.

He pulled about half of his 20 weigh-in fish from beds (including all five on day 1) and spent the rest of his time on nearby points, where he caught both pre- and post-spawners.

"I didn't have that many bed-fish; the weather in practice was terrible for looking," he said. "I probably had 15 or 20 marked. The big wave is still yet to come, but I think the warm weather we had (on day 3) moved a few more of them up. I found four (on day 4) and caught two of them."

He threw a shaky-head attached to 6-pound line on the points and worked his way through a lot of smaller fish in order to catch a few that would aid his case.

"I could get some decent ones if I kept throwing it," he said.

> Sight-fishing gear: 7' medium-heavy Cashion rod, Bass Pro Shops Pro Qualifier casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 17-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon line, 5/16-ounce Bass Pro Shops XPS tungsten weight, 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, Zoom Centipede (watermelon seed).

> Shaky-head gear: 6'6" medium-action Cashion rod, Bass Pro Shops Pro Qualifier spinning reel, 6-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon, 3/16-ounce unnamed shaky-head jig, 4.95" Reaction Innovations Flirt (watermelon/green-pumpkin).

Main factor in his success – Getting a limit early on the last day with a couple of good fish in the mix. That allowed me the time to find a couple more good ones on the beds."

Performance edge – "All my equipment played a big role, from my Nitro Z9 boat with a Mercury Pro XS 250 motor to the Bass Pro Shops rods and reels to my Minn Kota trolling motor."



FLW
Photo: FLW

Andy Morgan led the event for the 2 middle days, but struggled on day 4.

3rd: Andy Morgan

> Day 1: 5, 13-02
> Day 2: 5, 15-07
> Day 3: 5, 10-09
> Day 4: 5, 9-08
> Total = 20, 48-10

Andy Morgan was seemingly in control of the event heading into the final day, but that was somewhat of an illusion. Bed-fish had carried him through the first 2 days, but he'd completely run out of them. Also, he'd one big fish on a spinnerbait during each of the first three rounds.

"It was actually getting worse and worse for me every day," he said. "I'd ended up only getting 2 days or practice because I had another (commitment) and that kind of backed me into a little bit of a corner because I didn't have a lot of bed-fish found. I had 15 to start.

"The other ones I caught were spawning too, but I just couldn't see them."

He had to resort to a shaky-head on day 4 just to catch a run-of-the-mill 9 1/2-pound Beaver limit and remain near the top of the standings.

> Sight-fishing gear: 7'6" medium-heavy iRod Morgan's Junk Rod, Lew's Super Duty casting reel (8:1 gear ratio), 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 4/0 Easy2Hook Elite Pro Series flipping hook, Zoom Z-Craw (green-pumpkin).

> Spinnerbait gear: 7' medium heavy iRod, Team Lew's Lite casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 14-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait (sexy shad with No. 3 gold and No. 4 silver willow-leaf blades).

> Shaky-head gear: 6'10" medium-heavy iRod, Team Lew's Gold Spin reel, 8-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon, 1/8-ounce War Eagle shaky-head jig, Zoom Finesse Worm (green-pumpkin).

Main factor in his success – "Just finding some of those decent-size bed-fish."

Performance edge – "I really like the new Garmin GPS unit – you can mark waypoints and go directly back to where you need to go. You hear a lot about GPS for deep water, but it can be very important in shallow water, too. I'm not a great graph guy, but these are pretty simple and they work great for me."

FLW
Photo: FLW

Cody Meyer made his second straight final-day appearance at Beaver.

4th: Cody Meyer

> Day 1: 5, 14-07
> Day 2: 5, 10-06
> Day 3: 5, 11-10
> Day 4: 5, 12-03
> Total = 20, 48-10

Cody Meyer recorded his second straight Top-10 finish at Beaver. He found four good bed-fish during practice and caught all of them on day 1, then relied on his versatility to stay near the top of the standings the rest of the way.

"I spent a lot of time just looking around to see what I could find," he said. "I caught all my other ones (after day 1) casting. I found some others on beds, but they weren't the size you needed."

He began fishing in Prairie Creek on day 3 and caught a limit there within 15 minutes before heading out in search of kickers. The second part of that equation didn't pay dividends, so he spent the entire final day in the creek and waded through more than two dozen keepers to catch five 2 1/2-pounders.

He targeted transition areas featuring pea gravel and caught both pre- and post-spawners. He believes some were fish that had been caught earlier in the event and released in the area.

A swimbait, a grub and a dropshot (primarily for bed-fishing) were his key offerings.

> Swimbait gear: 7' medium-action Daiwa Steez AGS rod, Daiwa Steez 2508 DX spinning reel, 10-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, 1/4-ounce homemade ball-head jig with Owner hook, 4" Strike King KVD Swin-N-Shiner (shad).

> Grub gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Daiwa Tatula rod, Daiwa Tatula Type R casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce Strike King Jointed Structure Head jig, Strike King Menace twin-tail grub (honey candy).

> Dropshot gear: 7' medium-light Daiwa Steez AGS rod, Daiwa Steez 2508 DX spinning reel, 6-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, 1/4-ounce tear-drop Strike King tungsten dropshot weight (on 12" leader), size 2 Owner Mosquito hook, 4" Strike King KVD Deram Shot worm (pearl white).

Main factor in his success – "The main thing was just kind of changing up, moving from sight-fishing to off shore, and then scrapping all that on days 3 and 4 and just fishing around Prairie Creek. I kept fishing the conditions and fishing new water and trying to find active fish."

Performance edge – "That new AGS spinning rod is just so light and so sensitive. Some of the bites were very subtle, but I could feel everything."

FLW
Photo: FLW

Bryan Thrift had a big day 1 despite losing some extremely large fish.

5th: Bryan Thrift

> Day 1: 5, 15-09
> Day 2: 5, 10-11
> Day 3: 5, 8-13
> Day 4: 5, 11-12
> Total = 20, 46-13

Bryan Thrift, the winner at Beaver in 2011, did no sight-fishing whatsoever.

"Practice was kind of tough," he said. "I spent a lot of it looking and I never found anything good. I ended up just fishing history – places where I'd caught decent fish over the last 7 or 8 years."

Those places were all over the lake and he plied depths ranging from 2 to 15 feet. He caught some weigh-in fish on a small swimbait, but his biggest specimens were all enticed by a Damiki Stinger worm.

He focused on wood, with laydowns comprising the majority of his targets.

"I started throwing the Stinger on the first day (of competition) after I'd caught a limit on the swimbait," he said. "I'd skip it up to a piece of wood and let it lay there for 10 or 15 seconds on a slack line, and then I'd go to check it and it'd be swimming off.

"I was able to go behind a lot of guys who were flipping the laydowns and get bites that way."

He had a big day 1, but he said it could've been much bigger.

"I had an opportunity for a giant bag – like 21 or 22 pounds," he said. "Losing those big ones kind of set the tone for the tournament."

> Swimbait gear: 7' medium-heavy Fitzgerald Stunner rod, unnamed casting reel (7:1 ratio), 8-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, 3/16-ounce homemade jighead, 3.8-inch Keitech swimbait (pro blue red pearl).

> Worm gear: 6'8" medium-action Fitzgerald rod, unnamed casting reel (7:1 ratio), same line, 2/0 Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap hook, 4" Damiki Stinger (watermelon candy).

Main factor in his success – "Just having the confidence to slow down and fish that Stinger weightless like I needed to. I fished slow enough that I felt like I caught every fish that was around."

Performance edge – "That 4-inch stinger. Several times I went in right behind guys and got five or six bites."

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