By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Roy Hawk thought his summer couldn't get much better after his son, Sunny, claimed the co-angler title at last month's Forrest Wood Cup. Then he went out and won the most prestigious tournament in his home region.

Hawk, the Lake Havasu City, Ariz. resident who's been a mainstay on Western circuits for many years, needed an average of less than 10 pounds per day to prevail at the 33rd WON Bass U.S. Open at Nevada's Lake Mead. He found himself in 3rd place after day 1, then moved up one position on each of the ensuing days to claim a top prize valued at nearly $100,000.

Hawk is unsure how many times he's competed in the event, but figures the number is at least 10. He fished his first U.S. Open in the late 1990s.

"One of the cool things is I used to borrow boats to fish as a pro, and I did that until 2002 when I won my first boat for catching the single big fish. That was a smaller boat and I sold it and bought a bigger one.

"It's neat to kind of come full-circle and win the tournament – and another boat."

Here are some of the details about how he approached the tournament that many consider the most grueling annual event in the country.

Practice

Hawk and partner Mark White entered a team tournament at Mead last month immediately after Hawk's return from Arkansas, where he finished 37th in the Cup at Lake Ouachita. Having had no practice, they opted to simply run a lap around the Lower Basin and ended up catching about 9 pounds to place in the Top 6 of the single-day derby.

"We had opportunities throughout the day to have a little bit bigger bag," Hawk said. "I liked what I saw, and I knew a lot of guys (in the U.S. Open) would probably run and leave the lower basin open for me.

"I saw what I needed to see on the first day of practice. There were questions about the weather – first we were going to get tons of rain, then it was going to be no rain – and I knew I didn't have to make a long run if we did get bad weather.

"It was kind of hard to not practice in other places, but I felt good about what I was seeing," he continued. "I just covered the shoreline over 4 days and I got ideas of where schools of fish were – at Mead, a school might be only two, three or four bass. I looked for areas with bait and watched for the presence of stripers. I was really trying to get my timing down, like which places were best in the morning and which were better in the afternoon."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 10.68
> Day 2: 5, 9.97
> Day 3: 5, 8.75
> Total = 15, 29.40

The morning of day 1 presented slick-calm conditions and Hawk took advantage by hitting places that would get blown out when the stiff south wind started to blow later in the day.

"After the wind picked up, I just targeted what was left," he said.

His prediction that the Lower Basin would be abandoned by most of the field proved correct. He had free run of the entire shoreline and frequently criss-crossed the lake while traversing from one place to the next.

He didn't target specific cover types – any piece of vegetation, wood or rock held potential. He caught the vast majority of his fish throughout the event on a topwater, while a few were enticed either by a crankbait or a soft-plastic attached to a 3/4-ounce jighead.

He got about 10 keeper bites on each of the first 2 days, and then just six on the final day.

He began day 3 just a few ounces out of the lead, but didn't put a fish in the boat until after 11 o'clock. There were no big celebrations when his co-angler caught the initial keeper (the U.S. Open is a shard-weight event) on a dropshot, but it was somewhat of a relief.

"It barely measured and I was like, 'Cool, maybe I'll get a check now. Good job, dude."

They both plied finesse techniques for the next couple hours or so, which produced nothing other than a few bites from tiny fish. If he was to make a serious run at victory, he'd need to perform some late-day heroics.

"I knew the wind would blow in the afternoon and I knew some fish would bite. The water would warm up and something would happen."

The next stop produced a nice smallmouth (along with a couple of stripers). The magic moment occurred following a trip back across the basin to the back of a pocket, where Hawk caught two largemouths on the same cast with his topwater. One fish was a 2-pounder and the other was slightly larger.

He picked up his limit fish with the crankbait just outside the cove, then made a cull from the place where he'd started the day as two quality smallmouth came up on his topwater and one ate it.

"I knew that upgrade gave me 8-something (pounds), so at least there was a chance," he said. "I knew I didn't do great and I didn't even stay on my 10-pound average, and I knew some other people would have to falter.

"I thought (winning) was possible, but not very probable."

He ended up being pleasantly surprised.

Winning Gear Notes

> Topwater gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Kistler rod, Quantam Smoke PT casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), unnamed 50-pound braided line with unnamed monofilament leader (3'), Duo Realis Pencil (transluscent shad).

> Cranking gear: 8' medium action Kistler rod, same reel, 12-pound Yamamoto Sugoi fluorocarbon line, Spro Little John Baby DD 60 (clear chartreuse).

> Jig gear: 7'5" heavy action iRod Air Series rod, same reel and line as crankbait, 3/4-ounce Pepper Custom Baits jighead, 5" Yamamoto Double Tail grub (smoke hologram).

The Bottom Line

Main factor in his success – "Staying focused on the Lower Basin. I think the tournament could've been won anywhere on the lake and guys caught some bigger bags than I did in other places, but those places just didn't hold up. Staying close, I ended up getting a lot more time to fish than most people."

Performance edge – "Your boat is of huge importance in that tournament and my Ranger is just so solid. It handles big water really nice and it's a very comfortable ride."

Notable

> For complete final standings, click here.

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