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FLW Open: Beaver Lake, AR

Tour Event # 4 of 6

Day 1: Montgomery Leads FLW Open on Beaver Lake

ROGERS, Ark. – Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., weathered a tough bite and managed to cross the stage with a five-bass limit weighing 13 pounds, 11 ounces to lead day one of the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Wal-Mart Open presented by Folgers on Beaver Lake. The bite was so tough, in fact, only the top 20 anglers managed to post weights of 10 pounds or more. Montgomery now holds a 12-ounce lead in the tournament featuring 200 pros and 200 co-anglers from 37 states, Australia and Japan.

“I had probably the worst practice of my life,” said Montgomery, who is fishing his first year as a professional on the FLW Tour. “I saw something this morning that kind of clued me in — something similar to the fish back home — and I managed to catch my limit early.”

Montgomery remained tight-lipped about the pattern he found, but claimed he had caught his limit within 20 minutes of making the discovery.

“I had a good limit by 9:30 and then went up the river and culled three fish flipping Shooter Lures jigs,” Montgomery said. “My plan was to go down the lake and fish for a limit of spots and maybe catch 6 or 7 pounds, but when I caught the good fish early it kind of relaxed me.”

Montgomery said he caught his fish on crawdad-colored jigs — a 3/8-ounce version that he swam and a 1/2-ounce model for probing the bottom in deeper applications.

Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., trails Montgomery in the No. 2 spot with five bass weighing 12-15.

Rounding out the top five pros are Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn. (five bass, 12-3); Tom Monsoor of La Crosse, Wis. (five bass, 11-12) and Alvin Shaw of State Road, N.C. (five bass, 11-11).

Morgan earned the day’s $1,000 Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 4-pound, 11-ounce bass. If that weight holds up Friday as the biggest of the two-day opening round, Morgan will earn an additional $1,000.

Overall there were 785 bass weighing 1,181 pounds, 6 ounces caught by 195 pros Thursday. The catch included 111 five-bass limits.

Pros are competing for a top award of $200,000 this week plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol in Hot Springs, Ark., Aug. 2-5, where the winning pro will earn as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award. The top 40 pros after six qualifying events will advance to the Forrest Wood Cup.

Pete Bridges of Tallapoosa, Ga., leads the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 9-11 followed by Kelly Greer of Green Forest, Ark., in second place with five bass weighing 8-11.

“We found fish that seemed to be in deeper water,” said Bridges, who caught his fish on a 4-inch, green-pumpkin Gary Yamamoto Senko. “We found suspending fish that were around 30 feet deep, but we were sitting in about 40 feet of water.”

Bridges caught a total of eight keepers during the day, including seven smallmouth and one largemouth bass, while fishing with J.R. Beehler of Bella Vista, Ark., who is currently in 14th place with five bass weighing 10-6.

Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Brandon Sheeler of Warsaw, Minn. (five bass, 8-4); Rick Parnell of Casselberry, Fla. (five bass, 7-10) and Greg Fleming of Holly Ranch Lake, Texas (five bass, 7-6).

Robert Mulleins of Cumberland, Va., earned the day’s $500 Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 3-pound, 13-ounce bass.

Overall there were 448 bass weighing 597 pounds, 1 ounce caught by 166 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 24 five-bass limits.

Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $40,000 this week.

Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from Prairie Creek Marina located at 1 Prairie Creek Marina Drive in Rogers, Ark. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at Prairie Creek Marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s weigh-ins will be held at the John Q. Hammons Center located at 3303 Pinnacle Hills Pkwy. in Rogers beginning at 4 p.m.

Day 2: Yelas Leads FLW Open on Beaver Lake

ROGERS, Ark. – Yamaha pro Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 15 ounces Friday to capture the lead in the Wal-Mart FLW Tour’s $1.5 million Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake with a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 23-10. He now holds a 2-pound, 8-ounce lead in the tournament featuring 200 pros and 200 co-anglers representing 37 states, Australia and Japan.

“The morning went very well for me,” said Yelas, who is making his third consecutive top-10 appearance of the season. “I was culling fish by 7:15.”

Yelas said he and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., fished a dock in the back of a creek that they had shared on the first day of competition. On Thursday, Montgomery started the day on the right side of the dock and Yelas took the left side. Montgomery’s side proved to be the more protective one. On Friday, the tables turned and the largemouth were on Yelas’ side of the dock.

“It will be interesting tomorrow morning,” Yelas said of his strategy involving sharing the dock with Montgomery, who also made the top-10 cut. “There’s schooling fish there, and they’re coming up and busting shad. It’s wide open there for a little while, and then it’s over with by about 7:30.”

Yelas said he caught only two keepers after the dock pattern died down. He said the dock fish fell for standard schooling-fish baits such as shad-colored swimbaits and topwater lures.

“That’s just typical post-spawn behavior,” Yelas said. “The first hour of the day is worth way more than the whole rest of the day.”

Fishing for Team Duracell, Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., advanced to the final round of 10 pros in the No. 2 spot with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 21-2.

Rounding out the top five pros who will continue competition Saturday and Sunday are Montgomery (nine bass, 20-13); Team Berkley pro Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla. (10 bass, 19-15); and J.R. Beehler of Bella Vista, Ark. (10 bass, 19-15).

Also clearing the top-10 cut weight of 18 pounds, 13 ounces and adding to this already power-packed top-10 field are pros Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn.; BP pro Ray Scheide of Russellville, Ark.; Bounty pro Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va.; BP pro Alfred Williams of Jackson, Miss.; and Chad Morgenthaler of Coulterville, Ill.

Jeffrey Thomas of Broadway, N.C., earned the day’s $1,000 Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 4-pound, 4-ounce bass.

Overall there were 732 bass weighing 1,053 pounds, 12 ounces caught by 190 pros Friday. The catch included 91 five-bass limits.

Pros are competing for a top award of $200,000 this week plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol in Hot Springs, Ark., Aug. 2-5, where the winning pro will earn as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award. The top 40 pros after three $1 million qualifiers and three $1.5 million opens will advance to the Forrest Wood Cup.

Chris Koester of Rogers, Ark., leads the Co-angler Division with an opening-round total of 10 bass weighing 15 pounds, 11 ounces, followed by J.R. Grubb of Hamburg, Ark., in second place with 10 bass weighing 14-14.

“We caught topwater fish early,” said Koester, who has one top-10 finish as a co-angler on the FLW Tour. “I talked to my partner early this morning, and he said he wasn’t on any schooling fish. I knew we might be in trouble, so I asked him if he wanted to go to some schooling fish I had found in practice. We did, and the fish were there, and I caught five decent ones.”

Koester said he had his limit before 9 a.m. both days of competition and then the bite died as the days progressed. He said the majority of his fish were spotted bass that fell for a topwater presentation.

Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Andrew Lemle of Perrysburg, Ohio (10 bass, 13-9); Dino Caporuscio of Coto de Caza, Calif. (nine bass, 13-6) and Spencer Shuffield of Bismarck, Ark. (seven bass, 13-5). A five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 4 ounces helped Shuffield jump up from 128th place after the first day of competition.

Also clearing the top-10 cut weight of 12 pounds in the Co-angler Division were Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark.; Sammy Orr of Maryville, Tenn.; James Green of Lincoln, Ala.; Arch Cornett of Huntsville, Ala.; and Mark Myers of Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Steven Meador of Bella Vista, Ark., earned $500 for the day’s Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 5-pound bass he caught while fishing with Tylenol pro Sean Minderman of Spokane, Wash. The fish also earned Meador the tournament’s overall big bass award of $1,000 for a total of $1,500.

Overall there were 396 bass weighing 531 pounds, 10 ounces caught by 153 co-anglers Friday. The catch included 21 five-bass limits.

Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $40,000 this week.

Anglers will take off at 6:30 Saturday and Sunday morning from Prairie Creek Marina located at 1 Prairie Creek Marina Drive in Rogers, Ark., followed by 4 p.m. weigh-ins at the John Q. Hammons Center located at 3303 Pinnacle Hills Pkwy. in Rogers.

Prior to the weigh-ins, FLW Outdoors will host a free Family Fun Zone and outdoor show at the John Q. Hammons Center from noon to 4 p.m. each day. The Family Fun Zone is a chance for fishing fans to meet their favorite anglers and review the latest products from Berkley, Lowrance, Ranger, Evinrude, Yamaha and other manufacturers while children are treated to fishing themed games and rides like the Ranger Boat simulator. The first 300 children 14 and under visiting the Family Fun Zone Saturday will also receive a free FLW Outdoors hat. On Sunday, the first 300 children 14 and under visiting the Family Fun Zone will receive a free rod and reel combo. One lucky person attending the final weigh-in Sunday will even win a trip for two to the Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs, Ark., where they could ultimately win a $53,000 Ranger Z20 powered by Yamaha. The drawing for a free vacation getaway to Hot Springs will be held immediately following Sunday’s 4 p.m. weigh-in. Participants must be present to win.

Day 3: Yelas Leads FLW Open on Beaver Lake

ROGERS, Ark. – Pro Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces Saturday to capture the lead in a top-10 field that includes some of the greatest anglers in the world. Yelas now holds a 2-pound, 7-ounce edge over his closest competitor, Team Duracell pro Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., heading into the final day of competition in the FLW Tour’s $1.5 million Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake. If he holds on for the win, Yelas will pocket $150,000.

“Today was very similar to the first two days,” said Yelas, who posted a record third consecutive FLW Tour top-10 finish at Beaver Lake. “I have a spot that I start on that produced another limit for me. That’s the third day in a row that I’ve started there, and me and my partner pulled nine fish off of that spot, so I guess that’s pretty good. You would think there’d be another five in there tomorrow, but you never know.”

Yelas said he caught his limit by 8 a.m. using a 6-inch swimbait and spent the rest of the day fishing dead stickups with shad-imitating baits.

“I think I have a good shot of catching another 10 to 12 pounds of fish,” Yelas said. “I caught maybe eight or nine keepers today. The fish are around — I just have to get them to bite.”

Morgan, who has won more than $604,000 in FLW Outdoors events without an FLW Tour victory, caught five fish weighing 9 pounds, 6 ounces to advance to the final day of competition as the No. 2 seed.

“It was a terrible day for me,” Morgan said. “I lost pretty much every good one I had on, including two that jumped off in the last 30 minutes.

“My schoolers never really showed up this morning,” Morgan added. “I just had to grind it out. It was just pretty uneventful.”

Morgan said he caught his keepers on a 1/8-ounce War Eagle Shakey Head jighead with a watermelon candy Zoom finesse worm. Morgan also employed a Cotton Cordell Red Fin-type bait for topwater schooling fish.

“Tomorrow I’m going to one area I’m really catching them in, and I’m just going to milk it,” Morgan said. “If they’re schooling in the morning, I’ll have a real good shot to beat Jay. If his don’t school, he’ll have a hard time beating me.”

Rounding out the top 10 pros are Chad Morgenthaler of Coulterville, Ill. (five bass, 7-3); Bounty pro Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va. (five bass, 6-0); Berkley pro Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla. (four bass, 5-15); J.R. Beehler of Bella Vista, Ark. (four bass, 5-10); Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C. (four bass, 4-13); BP pro Ray Scheide of Russellville, Ark. (four bass, 4-13); Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn. (four bass, 4-5) and BP pro Alfred Williams of Jackson, Miss. (zero bass, 0-0).

Overall there were 40 bass weighing 59 pounds, 14 ounces caught in the Pro Division Saturday. The catch included four five-bass limits.

J.R. Grubb of Hamburg, Ark., won the Co-angler Division and $30,000 Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces followed by Chris Koester of Rogers, Ark., in second place with five bass weighing 11-11 worth $10,000.

Grubb opened the tournament in 26th place Thursday with five bass weighing 5-10 while fishing with Team Tylenol pro Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif. On Friday he jumped into second place on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 9-4 while fishing with Jimmy Milsaps of Canton, Ga. He wrapped up his win while fishing with Morgan.

“I’m satisfied with what I had,” said Grubb, who is fishing his second season as a co-angler on the FLW Tour. “I had my limit by 10 a.m. and I backed off to let Andy get his fifth fish.”

Grubb said he caught his fish using two topwater baits, a white Zara Spook Jr. and a Bomber Long A, which he swam back to the boat.

“I also caught fish on a silver rainbow Fluke, and that’s just what it was — a fluke,” Grubb said. “I hadn’t thrown a Fluke all week, but I had one tied on and I tried it. I had it rigged on 8-pound test line with a 1/8-ounce weighted hook. I’d just dead-stick it by letting it die and then just popping it up.”

Koester led co-anglers into the final day of competition, but came up 2 ounces short of the win.

“I’m a little bit sick,” said Koester, who caught all of his fish on a swimbait. “There were a lot of ups and downs today. I caught four fish in the first hour, and I thought I was off to the races. Then the bite died. We spent the rest of the day trying to get bit, and I could not catch another keeper.”

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers are Arch Cornett of Huntsville, Ala. (five bass, 6-13, $9,000); Dino Caporuscio of Coto de Caza, Calif. (three bass, 5-8, $8,000); Sammy Orr of Maryville, Tenn. (five bass, 5-7, $7,000); Mark Myers of Cedar Falls, Iowa (five bass, 4-15, $6,000); Spencer Shuffield of Bismarck, Ark. (two bass, 3-8, $5,000); James Green of Lincoln, Ala. (two bass, 3-4, $4,000); Andrew Lemle of Perrysburg, Ohio (two bass, 2-8, $3,000) and Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. (two bass, 2-7, $2,000).

Overall there were 36 bass weighing 57 pounds, 14 ounces caught in the Co-angler Division Saturday. The catch included five five-bass limits.

Day 4: Morgan Wins FLW Open on Beaver Lake

ROGERS, Ark. – Team Duracell pro Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., caught a final-round total of 10 bass weighing 17 pounds, 6 ounces to win $200,000 in the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake. Morgan topped his closest rival, Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas, by more than 1 1/2 pounds to earn the win and 200 points toward qualifying for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs, Ark., where the winner will earn as much as $1 million – the biggest award in bass fishing – Aug. 5.

“I was devastated going into the final day more than 2 pounds behind Jay,” said Morgan, who notched his first FLW Tour victory with the win on Beaver Lake. “I’ve fished long enough and been in these pressure situations before, and you just have to let it roll off your back. You can’t lay down and quit. I just hoped that Jay would stumble, and today his schoolers didn’t come up.

“I figured he’d have five fish, and I’d have five, and there’d be no way to catch him,” Morgan said.

Morgan said he really had to “grind” Sunday to catch his fish, which included eight keepers. He employed a 1/8-ounce War Eagle Shakey Head jighead with a watermelon candy Zoom finesse worm to catch his limit. Morgan defined his “grinding” technique as fishing methodically.

“I had the trolling motor set on 10 percent and was casting every three feet,” Morgan said. “I tried to drag it out to 7 or 8 feet of water and then reel it in. I was throwing in up to maybe 4 feet of water and catching my fish 6 to 8 feet deep in grass.”

Morgan opened the tournament Thursday in second place with five bass weighing 12-15. He stayed in second place Friday with a five-bass catch weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces to advance into the final round of 10 pros with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 21-2. On Saturday, weights were cleared, and Morgan caught five bass weighing 9-6 to advance to the final day of competition in second place. Morgan added another five bass weighing 8-0 to his final-round total Sunday.

Yelas, who led the tournament after days two and three, caught a final-round total of eight bass weighing 15-12 to claim second place and $75,000.

“I went to my spot I had started the past three days and caught a limit out of it in the first hour three days in a row,” said Yelas, who is leading in the Land O’ Lakes Angler of the Year points standings. “I never had a keeper bite there today. I caught a few shorts and didn’t lose any, but I never got a keeper bite.

“I only needed to go in there and catch one keeper today to win,” Yelas added. “I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Yelas said he and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., fished a dock in the back of a creek that they had shared on the first day of competition. On Thursday, Montgomery started the day on the right side of the dock and Yelas took the left side. Montgomery’s side proved to be the more productive one. On Friday, the tables turned and the largemouth were on Yelas’ side of the dock. Yelas said he caught the dock fish on a 6-inch swimbait.

Yelas and Montgomery, along with their partners, caught more than 40 keepers off of the dock during the course of the tournament. Yelas said he returned to the dock Saturday and Sunday, but the fishing hole had dried up at the time he needed it most.

“The shad weren’t in there as good as they had been, and the fish weren’t schooling, and I knew right away it was going to be tough for me,” Yelas said. “I went around and scrambled and fished some other stuff and got three little keepers.

“How can you not go and start on that spot when you’ve had such success on it?” said Yelas, whose three bass Sunday weighed just 3 pounds, 15 ounces. “I don’t know that I would have done anything different today.”

“I knew his spot had to dry up sooner or later, and I was just hoping it would happen today,” Morgan said.

Rounding out the top 10 pros are J. R. Beehler of Bella Vista, Ark. (nine bass, 14-14, $50,000); Bounty pro Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va. (10 bass, 14-1, $40,000); Montgomery (nine bass, 12-3, $30,000); Chad Morgenthaler of Coulterville, Ill. (10 bass, 12-3, $29,000); Berkley pro Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla. (nine bass, 11-8, $28,000); BP pro Ray Scheide of Russellville, Ark. (nine bass, 11-8, $27,000); Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn. (six bass, 6-5, $26,000) and BP pro Alfred Williams of Jackson, Miss. (four bass, 5-8, $25,000).

Overall there were 45 bass weighing 61 pounds, 6 ounces caught in the Pro Division Sunday. The catch included seven five-bass limits.

On Saturday, J.R. Grubb of Hamburg, Ark., won the Co-angler Division and $30,000 with a five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces followed by Chris Koester of Rogers, Ark., in second place with five bass weighing 11-11 worth $10,000.

Grubb opened the tournament in 26th place Thursday with five bass weighing 5-10 while fishing with Team Tylenol pro Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif. On Friday he jumped into second place on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 9-4 while fishing with Jimmy Milsaps of Canton, Ga. He wrapped up his win while fishing with Morgan.

“I’m satisfied with what I had,” said Grubb, who is fishing his second season as a co-angler on the FLW Tour. “I had my limit by 10 a.m. and I backed off to let Andy get his fifth fish.”

Grubb said he caught his fish using two topwater baits, a white Zara Spook Jr. and a Bomber Long A, which he swam back to the boat.

“I also caught fish on a silver rainbow Fluke, and that’s just what it was — a fluke,” Grubb said. “I hadn’t thrown a Fluke all week, but I had one tied on and I tried it. I had it rigged on 8-pound test line with a 1/8-ounce weighted hook. I’d just dead-stick it by letting it die and then just popping it up.”

Koester led co-anglers into the final day of competition, but came up 2 ounces short of the win.

“I’m a little bit sick,” said Koester, who caught all of his fish on a swimbait. “There were a lot of ups and downs today. I caught four fish in the first hour, and I thought I was off to the races. Then the bite died. We spent the rest of the day trying to get bit, and I could not catch another keeper.”

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers are Arch Cornett of Huntsville, Ala. (five bass, 6-13, $9,000); Dino Caporuscio of Coto de Caza, Calif. (three bass, 5-8, $8,000); Sammy Orr of Maryville, Tenn. (five bass, 5-7, $7,000); Mark Myers of Cedar Falls, Iowa (five bass, 4-15, $6,000); Spencer Shuffield of Bismarck, Ark. (two bass, 3-8, $5,000); James Green of Lincoln, Ala. (two bass, 3-4, $4,000); Andrew Lemle of Perrysburg, Ohio (two bass, 2-8, $3,000) and Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. (two bass, 2-7, $2,000).

Overall there were 36 bass weighing 57 pounds, 14 ounces caught in the Co-angler Division Saturday. The catch included five five-bass limits.

Coverage of the tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on July 1 and 8 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to 429 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.

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Compiled by Brandon Shook

President/Publisher: Brandon Shook.