Meyer Battled Through Illness, Crushed 'Em At Amistad

If there's been a single running theme in this young 2008 tournament season, it has to be the story of the runaway win. Clint Brownlee and Chris Laskowski both cruised to easy victories in their respective Stren Series events, and J.T. Kenney milked a magic spot at Lake Okeechobee on his way to spanking the field at the first FLW Series event of the season.

But Clayton Meyer's win last week at the FLW Series East/West Fishoff at Lake Amistad may be the most convincing triumph yet. After starting off slowly on day 1, Meyer loaded the boat with back-to-back limits over 30 pounds on days 2 and 3. His 3-day total checked in at 76-11, and he finished nearly 10 pounds in front of 2nd-place finisher Neil Russell.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Meyer's 5-day practice period was miserable, but not because he wasn't finding fish. A nasty bug got a hold of him as he was driving down from Las Vegas.

"I hurt everywhere," he said. "From the top of my head down to my feet - everything just ached. And I've never felt a pain like that in my throat. It took me 26 hours to drive in because I would drive a couple hours, then pull over and take a nap."

In spite of wanting nothing more than to curl up in bed and let the bug run its course, he was on the water every day trying to pin down a pattern. He found some fish during practice, but the quality bites were iffy. He sacked 25 pounds on a swimbait during one of his prefish days, but noted "the conditions were perfect for it.

"Honestly, I just wanted to get through the tournament," he added. "I didn't feel like I was on fish that could win, but I figured if I could get one or two quality bites a day I might be able to win my bracket."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 12-05
> Day 2: 5, 34-05
> Day 3: 5, 30-01
> Total = 15, 76-11

Meyer came in as the No. 13 seed in the Western Division and was paired up against the No. 18 Eastern division seed and FLW Tour pro Mark Rose.

Due to the lack of strength brought on by his illness, most of the areas Meyer scouted were relatively close to the Diablo East launch. "The last thing I wanted to do was run around in my boat," he said.

On the morning of day 1, he ran about 5 miles to the east to a point he'd caught a few fish on in practice.

"I immediately started getting bites," he said. "I put about 7 1/2 pounds in the boat really quick, and I was feeling pretty good. But then the wind started blowing and everything just fell apart for me."

Frustration set in and his focus wavered a bit after losing several jigs in the gnarly Amistad brush. "I lost like 10 jigs - that's absurd," he said. "I didn't have too many jigs that I could throw into a 40 mph wind and I just wasn't being effective with my presentation. I had to switch to a Texas-rig to fill out my limit, but the Texas-rig was catching smaller fish."

He started day 2 about 14 pounds back on Rose, and he knew he'd have to coax some bigger fish into biting if he was going to make up ground in his bracket.

He returned to the same area where he'd fished on day 1. "It was just a couple little points," he said. "I went in during practice and caught a swimbait fish on this one little finger point. Then I turned around and I saw another big point sticking out into the cove. That's where I ended up catching most of my fish for the tournament.

"I was concentrating on areas where there wasn't any brush. I knew if there wasn't any brush growing, it was because the bottom was rocky. Most of my fish came by hopping a jig over a rocky bottom with a little grass on it. I didn't fish the brush much."

He worked the jig from shallow to deep on the point and was crawling it out to a depth of 25 feet before he made his next cast. His first pass on the point produced an 8-pounder. "I caught that big one and I was pretty excited, but then the bites just kept coming."

Shortly after boating the 8, he added a few 3- and 4-pounders to his livewell. Then a 10-pounder thumped the jig. "It was awesome. I had about 28 pounds in the boat by 9 a.m."

In an effort to help his struggling co-angler bag a limit, he headed to a cove on the north side of the lake at about 11 a.m. "It was another point similar to the one we were fishing (on the south side of the lake), but it was smooth like a driveway," Meyer noted. "There was nothing on it.

"I was crawling the jig on the bottom when I felt this one little bump, then my rod goes 'th-thunk.' That was a 6-pounder."

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell

Here's a shot of the awesome 12-pound kicker Meyer weighed in on the final day.

But the big-fish bonanza didn't end there. He moved to another cove that he thought "looked good for throwing a swimbait in." His intuition was correct and his swimbait was inhaled by a "chunk of a fish," but it pulled off. "A few minutes later I see this 7-pounder swimming around. I tossed my jig out there, she flared her gills, and that was it. It was the same fish that ate my swimbait."

If you're keeping track, that's a 10-pounder, an 8-pounder and a 7-pounder, all in one day. His 34-05 day-2 limit put him in control of his bracket and the tournament, and he never looked back.

He decided he'd spend his entire third day back at the original point that had surrendered the 10- and 8-pounders the day before. He boated four quick fish, but no monsters. "It was just fun out there. The fish were biting like crazy. You could catch 3- and 4-pounders all day."

Half an hour in he boated his first big fish of the day, a 7-pounder that ate the jig. After catching several more fish, he made a slight change in his presentation and cast his jig parallel to the bank. "As soon as I made that change, I got the 12-pounder," he noted.

"At that point, I pretty much felt like I was done. I kept fishing because we were having so much fun. I ran around and tried to get my co-angler some more weight. I went in about 2 1/2 hours early. I was so excited. I just wanted to find somebody and tell them about my day."

Winning Gear Notes

> Jig gear: 7' medium-heavy Bait Breath Evola rod, Shimano Citica casting reel, 17-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon, 5/8-ounce Phoenix jig (brown), 3" Gary Yamamoto Single Tail grub trailer (green-pumpkin).

> He also caught a couple fish the first day throwing a 7" Roboworm Fat Straight Tail on a 3/16-ounce bullet weight.

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