Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
California fisherman holds lead in FLW
ROGERS – Weathering a morning thunderstorm and cool, cloudy weather, Cody Meyer of Auburn, Calif., retained his lead after the second round of the FLW bass tournament at Beaver Lake.
Charley Slaton of Valliant, Okla., won the co-angler division and $20,000 with a two-day total of 10 bass that weighed 17 pounds, 15 ounces.
The top 20 pro anglers with the heaviest combined two-day weights will fish today in the third round. The field will cut to the top 10 heaviest combined threeday weights for the championship round Sunday.
Meyer caught five bass Friday that weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces that contributed to a two-day total of 28-9.
Surprisingly, Meyer has been fishing in solitude near Beaver Dam. The water is clearer in the lower end, and though it’s higher, the fish are still where they were in practice.
“The water has come up about 10 feet, but I’m fishing
where the fish were,” Meyer said. “I’m catching a lot of smallmouths, but they didn’t come up with the water where I’m fishing.
“Sixteen pounds of postspawn smallmouths is unbelievable for here,” he continued. “Today, I only had 12 pounds, but I’m really happy with 12 pounds because I know that catching another 16-pound bag of smallmouths is pretty much impossible.”
All of Meyer’s first-round fish were smallmouth bass, as were most of his second-round catch. That contradicts the consensus among most of the pros who traditionally target largemouth bass, which are bigger than smallmouths.
Historically, that has been true for this tournament, but the lake came up so high so fast that anglers are having a hard time finding big largemouths in their familiar haunts in the upper part of the lake south of the Arkansas 12 Bridge. Much of the upper lake is virtually inaccessible due to massive rafts of wood debris and logs that have floated into the lake. Debris has isolated Hickory Creek Marina from the lake, and almost isolated War Eagle Marina and Horseshoe Bend Marina.
Therefore, most anglers are fishing downstream from the Arkansas 12 Bridge. Many are clearly not comfortable fishing in those waters where smallmouth bass and Kentucky bass are prevalent. It essentially concentrated 322 anglers in half the usual area.
During practice, Meyer caught his fish at depths of about 25 feet. They are still in the same places, but those places are now 32-35 feet deep, Meyer said.
“That’s something they do in California, as well. They stay put,” Meyer said. “It’s deceiving because there’s so much good structure on the bank where you think they’re
going be. That could change, but as of now, they are staying put.”
Meyer said he used a soft plastic bait with a 1/4 ounce jig and yellow braided line. The light jig falls slowly, giving suspending smallmouths time to hit it before it falls below them. The yellow line allows Meyer to see strikes better.
Trailing Meyer is Jason Reyes of Huffman, Texas, who caught 5 bass that weighed 14-9 for a 2-day total of 28-6, followed by Dean Alexander of Georgetown, Texas (5/16-4; 26-3), Brandon McMillan of Clewiston, Fla. (5/12-11; 24-13) and Nick Gainey of Charleston, S.C. (5/11-1; 24-5).
Despite his success with smallmouths over two days, Meyer can read the trend. He lost 4 pounds between rounds one and two while Reyes, Alexander and McMillan gained weight. He said he’ll have to find some big largemouths to hold off his challengers.
“In a perfect world I could catch a limit of big smallmouths, but the reality is that I need largemouths to win this tournament, so I’ve got to go find some,” Meyer said. “With the way the water has come up, the smallmouths are going to get deeper and deeper, and I’m afraid they’re going to leave.”
To win the co-angler division, Slaton followed Meyer’s smallmouth philosophy to catch big largemouths.
Slaton said his pros threw spinnerbaits at bankside cover that fish have not yet inhabited. He said he knew the fish hadn’t moved from a week ago, so he threw to where they had been.
The lake has come up 7 feet,” Slaton said. “I got to thinking about where the fish on spawning beds are going to be. Well, they’re going to be in 10 to 12 feet of water. They haven’t gone anywhere, so I dragged a Carolina rig through there.”
His first fish Thursday weighed 5-1. He caught a 4-pounder later in the day, along with some smaller fish. He did the same thing Friday.