Sight-Fishing Basically All There Was At Beaver

In the last few years, the FLW Tour's Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake had been a pre-spawn event. But this time it was once again held bang-smack on the spawn, and – guess what – all the top finishers sight-fished, at least for most of their fish. But each had little variations on the theme. Here's what they did.

2nd: Darrel Robertson Covered Water

> Day 1: 5, 14-15
> Day 2: 5, 11-11 (Total: 10, 26-10)
> Day 3: 5, 14-06
> Day 4: 5, 9-06 (Total: 10, 23-12)

Darrel Robertson says he can sight-fish, but doesn't consider himself good at it. Still, that's what he did to finish 2nd and collect 100,000 greenbacks.

"I think the reason I did as well as I did was I covered so much water," he said. "I was having good luck finding the 3-pounders you need to find at Beaver. I had three every day, except (day 4) I only had one. Fishing really fast probably helped that (happen)."

He found those bigger fish in a specific place. "They were kind of like long pockets with bluff banks and wood. (The bigger fish) would be about halfway back, not in the back (of the pockets). If the pocket was 1/4-mile long, you'd go in about 100 yards and look for the next 200 yards. They'd be somewhere in the middle half."

Though most of his fish were sight-fish, the first 2 days he caught four fish on a spinnerbait while looking for beds, and on the final day he caught two on a "little worm" the same way. On day 4 "the wind wasn't blowing so it was too quiet for a spinnerbait," he noted. Plus, the worm rig was "better in the trees."

Notes:

• Gear: 7' medium-action Castaway casting and spinning rods; Seaguar fluorocarbon line in 8- and 10-pound test ("the water was real clear and I think that helped"); 1/8-ounce lead weight; 3/0 Gamakatsu hook; 6-inch lizard in bubblegum color.

• Here's what he said about sight-fishing: "You have to let (the fish) get used to you, then you abuse them with the bait, and then they get mad and bite. Only one fish I found bit easy. The rest took 20-30 minutes."

• Main factor in his success – "I have to say the good Lord blessed me. He showed lot of favor on me. A lot of good guys were fishing, and I just wound up catching more than they did." (Editor's note: That is in fact true. Though he finished 2nd, his 50-06 total over 4 days was exactly 1 pound better than Andre Moore's 4-day total.)

3rd: Alton Jones' 10-Minute Rule

> Day 1: 5, 11-08
> Day 1: 5, 14-02 (Total: 10, 25-10)
> Day 1: 5, 11-04
> Day 1: 5, 11-01 (Total: 10, 22-05)

Alton Jones basically practiced every day. He knew what he was looking for, but if he didn't look in new places, he couldn't find what he needed. "For me the key was just going to new water every single day," he said.

"I was fishing spawning pockets, but as the tournament went on, I really dialed it in to where steep-sided pockets were better than flat pockets," he noted. Once he figured that out and found fish there, then he applied his 10-minute rule. "I'd set up on the fish, and within 10 minutes I'd make a judgment about whether I could catch that fish.

"If it was a maybe or a no, I left, even if it was a good one. I didn't want to waste an hour or two (on a fish). That doesn't mean I'd catch it in 10 minutes. I just needed to see something that told me something – maybe it was sitting a little stiller or maybe it reacted to the bait. Every fish is different, but they give you little clues."

"I've bombed on Beaver trying to catch those tough sight-fish, and I wasn't going to make that mistake again."

Notes:

• On day1 he weighed-in four bass caught sight-fishing and one caught casting a Yum Dinger Senko-type bait. Day 2, the numbers were reversed. Day 3 he caught three sight-fishing and two casting the Dinger, and on the final day all five fish were caught sight-fishing.

• Sight-Fishing Gear: 6' 6" medium-action Berkley Series 1 casting rod; Ambassadeur Torno 3006 HS reel; 30-pound SpiderWire with a 20-pound Stren fluorocarbon leader; 3/16-ounce tungsten weight; 4/0 Excalibur TX3 hook; Yum Megatube in bluegill color (smoke with blue/green flake).

• Dinger Gear: Same rod, reel and line; one rod rigged with no weight and another with a 1/32-ounce weight for throwing into cover; same hook except in 5/0; Yum Dinger in green-pumpkin/ purple metal-flake.

• On his final 2 days' weights: "You have to get lucky to get into the teens. You have to catch a big one, and I never saw a fish like that."

• Main factor in his success – "Judging the fish that I could and couldn't catch, and spending my time on catchable fish. Even doing that I was only catching 5-7 keepers a day. That's shows how critical (catchability was) to determine. Beaver Lake has the toughest sight-fish I've seen anywhere."

4th: Cliff Pirch Went from Pre-Spawn to Spawn

> Day 1: 4, 8-01
> Day 1: 5, 19-08 (Total: 9, 27-09)
> Day 1: 5, 11-02
> Day 1: 5, 8-13 (Total: 10, 19-15)

Arizona rookie Cliff Pirch was unique among the top finishers at Beaver because he fished mainly for pre-spawn fish on days 1 and 2. He also was unique because that gave him, on day 2, the highest 1-day weight of the tournament: 19-08.

"The first 2 days I was mainly fishing for pre-spawn fish and a few boiling fish with some topwaters and a Baby Jerky J," he said. His main bait was the Baby Jerky J, a soft jerkbait made by Castaic Softbait Co., which was "just killing those (pre-spawn) fish."

On the final 2 days he was catching almost all spawning fish, but still caught one or two each day on the topwater or Jerky J.

"Most of my fish I was were on steeper cover on secondary points or little cuts inside secondary points in the backs of creeks," he said. "I found some really big fish there in practice, though the water wasn't real clear."

The dingy water wasn't great for sight-fishing, but as he showed on day 2 the fish were "just too big" to leave them. "I stayed in my areas the whole tournament. I knew the big ones were there. You didn't catch a lot, but the quality was good."

Notes:

• Jerky J Gear: 7' Rogue 703 medium-light rod ("almost like a dropshot rod"); 12-pound test McCoy Mean Green ("it was scary as heck fishing docks, but you had to fish it on light line to get it to work right"); homemade 3/16- or 1/4-ounce darter-type leadhead jig ("I shaved a little off to make it do what I needed it to do"); Castaic Baby Jerky J in "a couple of different shad colors – one was a Japanese color."

• Sight-Fishing Gear: 7' Rogue baitcaster; 50-pound McCoy braid; 1/2-ounce tungsten weight; 4/0 heavy-wire widegap hook; he used a couple of different baits, but mostly the Kinami Norie's Bug in white/chartreuse and green-pumpkin/green flake.

• Main factor in his success – "I worked hard. Things didn't pan out right away, so it was just a real blessing from God to be able to finish where I did. I was panicked the first day. I'd been fishing too fast just trying to find the big ones The second day I slowed down, started knocking the big ones and settled in."

5th: Kevin Vida Just Had Fun Again

> Day 1: 5, 13-07
> Day 1: 5, 9-03 (Total: 10, 22-10)
> Day 1: 5, 9-01
> Day 1: 5, 9-03 (Total: 10, 18-04)

Kevin Vida sight-fished "70 percent of the time," and threw a Berkley finesse worm on a shaky head the rest of the time, he said.

Unlike most top-finishers, he also concentrated on sight-fishing for smallmouths. "You just had to run the bank, and when you found them they were in tight groups – like 15 beds in a 50-yard stretch." With the exception of one bed, which he found in 14 feet, the beds were in 8-12 feet.

He figures he weighed 4-5 keepers caught on the finesse worm. He fished it on tapering main-lake points in 10- to 16-foot range.

Notes:

• Bed-Fishing Gear: 7' Fenwick Techna AV medium-heavy rod; Abu Garcia Torno 3006 reel; 14-pound Berkley Vanish Transition fluorocarbon; 3/16-ounce weight; 3/0 Gamakatsu wide-gap hook; Mizmo tube in green-pumpkin.

• Shaky Worm Gear: 6' 6" medium-heavy Techna spinning rod; Abu Garcia CD6-3000 center-drag spinning reel; 8-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon; homemade 3/16-ounce mushroom-head jighead; 4-inch Berkley finesse worm (green-pumpkin).

• Main factor in his success – "Putting the fun back into fishing. I came here with the intention of doing that with all the unfortunate events I've had the last three tournaments. I came here with an open, clean mind, and said to myself, 'Have fun.' I love Beaver Lake and said I was just going to go fishing, and that's what I did."