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Wal-Mart FLW Tour Stop #4 Beaver Lake – Rogers, Arkansas
By Duke Jenkel Beaver Lake was the fourth stop of the 2008 FLW Tour. With the tour at the halfway point, it was important for me to have a good finish, to maintain or improve my position in the point standings, practice was great, and the tournament, was…well, you’ll see below. Practice As I stated before, I practice with Jasper Engines and Transmissions pro Chad Morgenthaler, and this tournament was no different. Beaver Lake was approximately 9 feet high during this event. Having never seen the lake prior to practice, I thought it looked great. Practice got underway on Saturday and in a relatively short amount of time we were catching fish. Chad explained that the water color for Beaver was extremely muddy in comparison to its normal color. As mentioned above, the lake was extremely high. During the first day of practice we endured cloudy / rainy weather. This should have been and was a good day for fishing moving baits. We spent the better portion of the day fishing in the clearer water and much to our surprise we found the fish biting well. The difficult part of fishing this lake at high water levels is it provides an innumerable amount of targets to flip or pitch to. With the fish being in the spawn / post spawn stages, there were fish guarding fry, and fish that were setting up in their typical post spawn patterns. Having grown up in Southern Illinois, it is difficult to get away from the desire to flip / pitch heavy cover when the opportunity presents itself. However, in the clean water and slightly stained water areas of the lake, it was difficult to get a lot of bites flipping or pitching. What did materialize was a bite that I most likely would have overlooked, and that was a chatterbait bite. I personally do not throw a chatterbait as much as I should; it became painfully obvious that I need to start. The only problem with this approach came, when we realized the fish were setting up on the first few feet inside the edge of trees that grew on the bank. As you can imagine the trees that grew at the original bank line also had small bushes and shrubs, growing there as well. What Chad and I found in practice was the shad were close to bank, just on the outside edge of the original bank line, and they would move in and out of the trees at the original bank line, you could throw your bait through openings in the trees and as you slow rolled through the trees, you would get bit. This is where the problem of throwing a chatterbait began; it was difficult to get a regular chatterbait to come through the brush without getting hung. Chad then switched to a Lunker Lure Shakin’ Shad (a vibrating jig type bait) and that made all of the difference. The Shakin’ Shad comes from the factory with a weed guard installed, and much to my dismay, will come through the brush flawlessly. I have to stop here and say that I had not thrown Lunker Lure’s Shakin’ Shad at all prior to this event; this bait truly surprised me on how well it will come through the brush. There is no doubt in my mind, I have missed several opportunities in tournaments past by not owning any of these baits, hopefully I have solved that problem. As Chad threw the Shakin’ Shad, I was also able to bring out old reliable; you guessed it, the Shaky Head, and catch some fish on the outside edge of the cover. These fish seemed to be positioned on the bottom, just a few feet out in front of the cover, on the original bank line. Day two began with a little more sunshine that day 1, as we moved up the lake into a little more stained water, the chatterbait continued to produce the type of quality bites that an angler needs to do well on Beaver. What also began to happen was an increased number of bites flipping. Several baits began to prove that they would work: an Ultimate Rattling Jig ½ oz Black and Blue, coupled with a Sapphire Blue Zoom Super Chunk jr and a Zoom Black Neon Baby Brush hog. We again continued to get quality bites on day 2 and Chad’s confidence began to grow with each cast. We were definitely beginning to get the fish dialed in. Days 3 and 4 were much like the first two as we began to move into the muddier water, the flipping bites increased and to an extent the chatterbait bites did decrease a little. Again we used the same baits on these days as mentioned above. So as I prepared my rods for the tournament, Here’s the list: 1 GLoomis 6’10” Shaky Head rod model # SHR822S rod spooled with 8lb Maxima Fluorocarbon line and rigged with a 1/4 ounce Lunker Lure Shaky Head Jig and a Reaction Innovations 4.95 Flirt worm in Green Pumpkin. 1 GLoomis 7’6” GLX rod model MBR 905X rod spooled with Maxima 20 lb fluorocarbon line and rigged with a ½ oz Black and Blue Lunker Lure Ultimate Rattling Jig. 1 GLoomis 7’0” GLX rod model # BCR 854 rod spooled with 20lb Maxima Fluorocarbon Line and rigged with a ½ oz White Lunker Lure Shakin’ Shad. 1 GLoomis 7’0” GLX rod model # MBR844 spooled with 15lb Maxima Fluorocarbon, a 5/16 ounce weight and a Black Neon Zoom Baby Brush Hog on a Gamakatsu 4/0 EWG hook. Tournament Day 1 Finally Tournament day is here. I was paired with Yamaha Factory Pro Mark Hardin from Jasper, Georgia. Mark was fishing both the clear water and the dirty, working two different patterns. . We started out on the lower end of the lake fishing in the clear water. I managed to boat my first keeper on the Shakin’ Shad in the first 30 minutes of the day. As the morning wore on, I got into normal co-angler mode and switched to my shaky head. It was obvious as we moved around in the lower end of the lake that these fish were not cooperating very well, Mark and I had only boated one keeper each by ten o’clock, so we moved up the lake to the muddy water. I attempted to continue throwing my Shakin’ Shad as Mark went about his business flipping log piles that had floated up against bank during the high water. As Mark began to boat keeper bass on a Black and Blue jig, I switched over to my Flipping stick and began to flip right along with him. This is most likely where my demise began. With the flooded conditions, and not too many “log piles” available Mark was able to pick the prime areas apart, leaving me with only a few opportunities, which were difficult to cast to at best. I soon began to get frustrated at my inability to get bit. This is where I should have taken out my baby brush hog and fished the water that was available to me. It was obvious that the fish were positioned on the log piles; Mark did a very good job at fishing them thoroughly. I began to force pitches into areas where Mark had not hit, which in turn caused me to get hung a considerable amount of the time. I would break my bait off and re-tie. What I feel I should have done is get out my Baby Brush hog and fish the outside edge of the trees, the original bank line. All of the fish were not positioned in the log piles. I will admit the better ones were, but fishing as a co-angler you do not have to have “big ones”, you need keepers, of any size. 5 keepers a day in most all of the events we’ve had would not only serve you well, they would most likely put you in the cut. I have to start remembering this, if I’m going to make the FLW Championship. Back to day 1, I continued to force pitches with my jig, and managed to generate four bites, I boated all four fish which would not measure. I would never have imagined that I could catch 4 spotted bass on a ½ oz jig and not get one of them to measure 12 inches, hmmm, this was frustrating. Mark was able to finish out his limit and catch a good kicker, he boated a 5lb bass around 1o’clock, which was a huge fish on this lake. I finished with one fish for 1lb 7oz and Mark had 11lbs 1oz. Tournament Day 2 My day two partner as unbelievable as this is was none other than Jasper Engines and Transmissions pro Chad Morgenthaler, yes you read it correctly. I had been paired with my practice partner. I know some folks won’t fully understand this, but I did not fish very hard on day two. For the most part I spent the better part of the day dragging a texas-rigged Senko behind the boat, in an effort to give Chad all of his water. I travel with Chad and personally I didn’t want to catch a good fish that would have possibly allowed him to make the cut, or for that matter finish better. I’m learning that every point you earn in this points race is extremely valuable. Chad caught his entire limit on the Lunker Lure Shakin’ Shad, just like in practice. I did manage to boat two keepers for 3lbs 2oz. Tournament Notes: I finished the tournament in 134th place, another 100+ finish, which in turn moved me out of the top 40 in the point’s standings. I fell from 26th to 43rd in the points standings; I am going to have to pick up the pace in the next two events. My thoughts about the first day were only reconfirmed when I fished with Chad, as I fished basically directly behind the boat and caught two keepers. I finished 1lb 10oz out of the money and I am confident had I drug my Brush hog or Senko behind the boat or at the normal waterline when I fished with Mark on Day 1, I could have caught another keeper or two. Obviously being hard-headed has hurt me in the last two events. I will be a little more prepared for the Ft. Loudon event having spent a few days on that lake last fall for a BFL regional. I can tell you that old reliable, the shaky head will definitely be back in action down there. Good Luck and Good Fishin’, Duke Jenkel |
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