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Team Lucky Craft Battles Beaver Lake
at FLW Tour Wal-Mart Open Sammy 100’s put Bolivar, Ehrler in the “big money” |
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ROGERS, Ark (May 21, 2007) – When the FLW Tour pulled into Arkansas for the 2007 Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake, things were much different than they have been in the past. The Wal-Mart Open is a perennial event on the FLW Tour, but over the last decade, the Tour has always gone to Beaver Lake in late March or early April when the fish are headed to the bank for the spawn. This year’s event was held during the second week of May, when fish were vacating the bank from the spawn, and it was reflected in tough fishing and low weights. As a watermark, last year’s event, held the first week of April, saw several bags weighing more than 15 pounds after day one and a 10-pound catch was good enough for 35th place. Fast forward to this year’s May event where no one broke the 14-pound mark on day one, and there were just 18 bags that weighed more than 10 pounds. Along with fickle post-spawn bass, another thing making Beaver difficult this year was the high water – some 12 to 15 feet higher than preceding years – which spread out the few remaining bank-bound fish. Dominant patterns that emerged during the event included topwaters, swimbaits and, of course, shaky heads. Gabe Bolivar and Brent Ehrler led the way with solid 27th and 50th place finishes, respectively, both receiving “big checks” of $12,000 and $10,000. |
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>>>Gabe Bolivar |
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“The main difference between the two days was that I threw a Sammy 100 in chartreuse shad on the morning of the second day,” Bolivar said. “I caught two decent largemouths on it and I regretted not throwing it the first day.” Bolivar passed on the topwater bite on day one because he knew where he could catch a quick limit of spotted bass first thing. “I knew it was going to be a tough event, and I had a couple of bluff walls loaded with spotted bass that I could catch on a shaky head,” he said. “I wanted to get off on the right foot so I ran there first thing in the first morning and secured a quick limit. But then I didn’t know what to do to cull up.” On the second day, Bolivar decided to gamble on a topwater bite for about an hour before going to the bluffs for spotted bass.
“There was a topwater bite going on for largemouths in the backs of the pockets, but it was a risky option,” he explained. “A keeper largemouth on Beaver is 15 inches and there were a lot of 14 to 14-3/4 inchers that would bite topwater. So as far as keepers, it was possible to pull a blank on it.” Bolivar’s first bass on the Sammy on day two was a 3-1/2 pound largemouth. “That instantly gave me the cushion and confidence to fish the Sammy for the next two hours, and I ended up catching another 2-1/2-pounder on it. Then I went to my bluff walls and rounded out a limit with spotted bass. Those two nice largemouths on the Sammy pushed me over the 9-pound mark.” Bolivar fished the Sammy in “tumbleweed pockets” where old dead bushes had grown up in low water and were flooded with the new high water. “I fished the Sammy on a Lucky Craft Sammy rod,” he added. “Lucky Craft is now making rods specific to their lures, which is pretty cool because it eliminates the guesswork of the sizes and actions needed for certain baits. The Sammy rod is 6-feet, 10-inches and has the perfect action for walking the Sammy.” His spotted bass pattern involved casting a Zoom finesse worm on a 1/8-ounce Reaction Innovations Screwed Up jighead on steep bluff walls in the mid lake portion of Beaver. After four events, Bolivar now sits 15th in the FLW Tour points standings.
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>>>Brent Ehrler |
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“I caught my two biggest bass right off the bat on the Sammy 100 (Ghost Tennessee Shad) on the first day, which got me off to a great start,” Ehrler said. “On the second day, I caught more keepers (four) on the topwater but none were as big as the two largemouths I caught on it the first day.”
Ehrler’s topwater pattern during the event was carefully crafted around fishing the shade thrown off by Beaver’s high cliff walls in the morning. “I timed the shade,” Ehrler explained. “I started on places I knew the sun would hit first and saved the shadier pockets for later in the morning after the sun got up. Doing that extended my topwater window by about two hours every morning.” Ehrler also used a Lucky Craft Sammy rod to fish his 100. After his topwater pattern died with the sun by 10 a.m., he switched to the infamous shaky head to finish out his limit. His shaky head tackle included a 1/8-ounce Picasso Powerhead teamed with a Yamamoto cut-tail worm fished on a Lucky Craft medium-action spinning rod. Ehrler now leads Team Lucky Craft in the FLW Tour points, in 11th place after four events.
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>>>Anthony Gagliardi |
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Anthony Gagliardi would rather forget about his 149th place finish at Beaver Lake rather than review it.
“I missed the boat completely at Beaver,” Gagliardi said. “I thought it was going to be an all out schooling fish fest all day, but that wasn’t the case. There was some schooling going on, but it was real early in the morning and just in isolated places.” Adding to Gagliardi’s frustration was the fact that during the last few years of low water, he had purposely spent several days GPSing isolated boulders, offshore humps and trees for when he returned in high water. “I was really excited about coming here later [in May] because I had graphed so much of that premium offshore stuff purposely for post-spawn on higher water,” he said. “But I could never make any of it work. The fish were just not relating to the bottom very well; they were suspended out in the middle of nowhere.” Gagliardi did find about eight good keepers on beds during practice that he thought he could catch on the first day. “But they were either gone or too hard to catch during the tournament; I only caught two of those,” he lamented after day one. Gagliardi was left scrambling during most of the event, catching 4 pounds, 13 ounces on day one and 3 pounds, 8 ounces on day two. He is now in 62nd place in the yearly standings. |
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>>>Joe Thomas |
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Like fellow pro staff member, Gagliardi, Joe Thomas would was not at all satisfied with his tournament on Beaver Lake.
“It was a pretty discouraging event for me.” Thomas said of his 175th place finish. Thomas found a solid topwater bite during practice with a Sammy 115, but the bite disappeared during the event. “I don’t know what happen,” Thomas said. “Two of the four days of practice, I caught nice limits of spotted bass on top. “During the tournament, though, it completely died. We had a cold front come through, which might have done it in. All I know is my topwater bite was non-existent so I had to beat the banks like everyone else with a little worm.”
On a brighter note, Thomas weighed in one of the biggest limits in the FLW Series event held the preceding week at Lake Dardanelle. After zeroing the first day of the Series, Thomas picked up a Sammy 115 in aurora brown on day two and proceeded to catch 18 pounds, 8 ounces on the topwater bait. “It was just an awesome day of fishing,” Thomas said. “Every fish that crushed that Sammy was a big one. Those are the kinds of days you live for out here.” The next FLW Tour event featuring Team Lucky Craft will be on the Potomac River, June 14-17. |
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Provided by Cox Group