Yelas Talks '09: New Ride, Classic Insight, More

BassFans who've watched the career of Jay Yelas know they never can tell how things will go for the 22-year veteran. Which is probably why he's one of the sport's most dynamic stars.

A down year for Yelas might be a mediocre points finish. A good year might be a win or several Top 10s. A great year might be a championship win or Angler

of the Year (AOY) title. He's done it plenty of times before. In terms of major titles alone, he's won the Bassmaster Classic, plus one BASS AOY and two FLW AOYs.

BassFan got together with Yelas to ask about the upcoming year. He'll fish the FLW Tour and Western FLW Series, and he'll do it from a Ranger instead of a Skeeter. Plus, he'll wear a Team Chevy jersey – a jersey he wore back in 2002–03.

BassFan: This will be your 22nd season as a pro. Mentally, how do you feel?

Yelas: I feel good. I'm anxiously anticipating the kickoff event at Guntersville in the next few weeks. You're right that I've done this a lot, and it's always good to have a fresh start to each year. But I really like the schedule this year – it's got some good lakes and I have high hopes for the year.

Last year was a little bit of an off-year, coming off the AOY in 2007, so I'm hoping to get back to the form I had in 2007 and have a great year.

And really, I think it's going to be good to just get out and fish. With all this stuff going on in our industry – a lot of concerns with the economy and all that – it'll be good to put that behind us and get back to doing what we do best as tournament fishermen, and that's competing in fishing tournaments.

It's been a pretty lengthy off-season since the Forrest Wood Cup in August. I did fish one Western FLW Series in the fall, so I've had a 3- or 4-month off-season, and I'm looking forward to getting back out there.

About the switch from Skeeter to Ranger, was that something you'd been pondering for a while, or did it suddenly come about this off-season?

Anytime you fish FLW, that's something that's always in the back of your head. Running a Ranger just makes sense if you're committed to the FLW Tour like I am. It just makes sense to be in a Ranger for several reasons.

It allows you to do a better job for your other sponsors, because you have more opportunities to get exposure as a Ranger pro on the FLW Tour, so I can do a better job for companies like Berkley and Yamaha. And of course, it gives you the opportunity to win a million bucks at the championship, plus the performance bonuses.

The last 3 years for me have really been a transition time. After starting my career with BASS, running a Skeeter and doing that for so many years – the last 3 years I've been fishing strictly FLW events in a Skeeter, and that's been a transition.

Now I'm planning on fishing FLW for the rest of my career, and as you look at the long term, it's the best way to go for someone who's going to be fishing FLW for the next 15 years or so. That's what my line of thinking was.

And I really like what FLW's doing. I really enjoy fishing their tournaments, and working with their staff and sponsors there. It's where I want to be. I enjoy everything about it, as far as the family atmosphere of their tournaments and the people there. I just wanted to be a part of that FLW family, and I feel that's what I've done.

And you were invited to join an FLW team.

They (FLW) put me on their Chevy team – they decided that was the best spot for me. I'd been on that team in the past, so it was a natural fit.

Do you have your Chevy boat yet?

I'm going to get my boat next week. I'm flying back to Flippin, Ark. to pick it up at the (Ranger) factory. It's a pretty neat place, and the Forrest Wood Hall of Fame, for someone who loves the whole history and trivia of our sport – it's pretty sweet.

I'm going to have a boat out here on the West Coast too for the Series, so I'll have a Chevy-wrapped boat on each coast. That saves me from having to drive all over the place – it's a pretty crazy schedule next year.

Speaking of history, the Classic is a month away. Will you be there?

Yes, I'll be there for Berkley and Ranger, working at the (outdoors) show.

Are you looking at anybody right now as a potential winner?

Boy, as far as who could potentially win it, that's anybody's guess. Most of the anglers competing are familiar with the water, so it's not an unknown. And you know how rivers are – if they rain, they can be unpredictable.

I think it'll be a shootout. I think it'll be real close. Don't expect anybody to blow that thing open. And the river will fish fairly small.

Davy Hite's won there. I think Ike won a Federation tournament there years ago. VanDam's done really well there. Mark Davis, I think, has done well there. So gosh, it's hard to pick a winner.

Do you look at that fishery and think, 'Man, that's a Jay Yelas Classic'?

I haven't thought about that. I think my best finish there was 3rd, back in the '90s sometime. But yeah, I love fishing rivers, and I always enjoyed fishing the Red River. I thought it was a good fishery, and for a small field like the Classic, it's a really good fishery.

I really think anybody could win this one. Remember when they fished Lay Lake a few years ago? Nobody thought Boyd Duckett would win, except of course those people who knew Alabama fishing. But certainly, most BassFans around the country didn't think he'd be the winner. They could have something like that this year.

(Yelas finished 9th at the Red River Bassmaster Tour the year after he finished 3rd at the Red River Bassmaster Invitational.–Ed.)

But your season actually starts a week before that. How do you feel about having the FLW Tour opener at Guntersville? That should be right up your alley, style-wise.

I'm really looking forward to that. I really enjoy going there. It's just a great fishery and I've had a lot of experience there over the years. It'll be a big-fish deal. You're going to have to have some 7- and 8-pounders to make the cut and win. Who doesn't like that? We're not going to be fishing for 3- and 4-pounders. You're going to have to have some major weight.

It'll be a typical late-winter, early spring tournament, where not everybody catches them, but the guys who get on them will really load up. It could take close to 100 pounds to win, like in 2004 when George Cochran won with 99 pounds.

And Guntersville fished really well last year. It was one of the best lakes in the country all year long. It'll be a pretty exciting event.

Notable

> Yelas, for much of his career, was a member of Team Daiwa. That ended in early 2008, when he and Denny Brauer and George Cochran were cut from the team. He now fishes Fenwick rods and Abu Garcia reels, and the news there is he's designing a new line of signature-series rods – not for Fenwick, but for Abu Garcia. For details, click on over to the Catch More Fish page.