Longer day, bigger sack for Weyer

Big rebound puts California pro on top at FLW Series in Cal Delta

OAKLEY, Calif. – If we compared tournament fishing to cookies, Charlie Weyer’s first three days of the FLW Series National Guard Western Division event would be an inverted Oreo – the sweet stuff was definitely not in the middle.

The West Hills, Calif. pro started strong with a 24-pound, 7-ounce day one bag that landed him in third place. The next day, an early flight deprived Weyer of the afternoon bite that had delivered big fish for him a day earlier and he managed only a small limit of 11-9. Fortunately, the strength of his opening effort kept Weyer afloat and he dropped only one notch to fourth.

Today, Weyer was in the last flight and when he approached the bump tank straining with five heavy fish bags, the Delta veteran had “comeback” written all over his face. With a 5-fish limit that included an 8-pound, 4-ounce beauty, Weyer weighed 22-5 for a 3-day total of 58-5.

“I went down a 200-yard stretch and had most of my weight by about 9:30 this morning,” Weyer said. “I still had more fish to go to, and my partner could have won the co-angler side if he had caught the fish he hooked, so I have some bigger fish that we left today.”

Targeting grass and pennywort in 3-8 feet of water, Weyer has been punching weeds with a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver in the California 420 color on a 4/0 hook. He’s using 1 3/8- and 1 ¾-ounce Penetrator weights and dressing his rig with homemade skirts that match the 420.

Weyer described the benefit of this rig. “A punch skirt helps the bait slide through the cover a little easier. The material flares out and looks like a crawdad. The mats I’m fishing are full of big crawdads and when the punch skirt comes through the cover it looks like a crawdad trying to take off and the fish just hammer it right away.

“A lot of times, when it falls I’ll hop it two or three times and that makes it look like a crawdad flaring up. They make your line jump – it’s pretty awesome.”

The areas the Weyer is fishing are loaded with forage – bluegill, shad and, of course, those crawdads. Besides having nature’s buffet, the area benefits from good water flow. Working his spots slowly and methodically was intrinsic to Weyer’s success.

“You have to be near current all the time and the area I’m fishing has current all the time” he said. “The current moves both ways (in different parts) of the area I’m fishing. It goes south and it goes west.

“I’m just putting my nose of the boat in the current and punching really slowly. I have the trolling motor on 1. A lot of guys have their trolling motors on 3, 4 or 5, but you have to just pick (the spots) apart. I fished a ¾-mile section and it took me four hours.”

Salewske still in the hunt at second

Suffering from the same early flight vexation that bit Weyer a day earlier, Day two leader Rusty Salewske bagged another limit, but slipped back a notch to second. His day three weight of 14-5 puts him 3 pounds, 5 ounces off the lead at 55-0.

Salewske caught four of his fish by punching weeds with a Sweet Beaver and the other limit fish on a chatterbait. He found his best action on the morning’s rising tide, however, he said the sluggish outgoing cycle made fishing tough.

“I had a limit by 9 a.m. and then it was a long struggle the rest of the day,” he said.

Summarizing his strategy, Salewske said: “I’m fishing points with current flushing around them. I have a couple of areas with a lot of little points where I can fish them all and just stay on the trolling motor. Then, I have some other spots where I can run a mile and fish a point, run a mile and fish another point.”

Lee leaps into third with big bag

Robert Lee of Angels Camp, Calif. continued his climb up the standings, but today he made major progress by bagging the day’s second largest limit – a 25-pound, 9-ounce effort that ranks behind only the 28-14 caught by 20th place Arizona pro Ron Colby. Lee’s three-day total stands at 54-7.

Fishing Beavers with 1 1/2- and 2-ounce weights with Punch Skirts in areas of thick weeds with current, Lee found his best action at the end of the high incoming tide. His was a low percentage, high quality plan.

“I just fished for big ones the whole tournament,” he said. “I wasn’t getting a lot of bites, but today I got a couple of big bites and I got both of those fish. I lost a couple of fours and I replaced them with 7 1/2-pounders, so I guess that’s an even trade.”

Phoenix pro Brett Hite dropped one spot to fourth with 53-5, while Ricky Shabazz of Rialto, Calif., took fifth with 53-1.

Best of the rest

Rounding out the top-10 pro leaders at the FLW Series Cal Delta event:

6th: Ken Mah of Elk Grove, Calif., 53-0

7th: Chris Zaldain of San Jose, Calif., 52-13

8th: Zack Thompson of Orinda, Calif., 52-0

9th: Brent Ehler of Redlands, Calif., 50-10

10th: Dee Thomas of Brentwood, Calif., 50-5

David Kromm of Kennewick, Wa. earned Folgers Big Bass honors with his 11-pound, 8-ounce giant. Kromm caught his fish on a 1/8-ounce shaky head worm with 8-pound Berkley 100-percent fluorocarbon line.