Top 5 Patterns from Lake Mead – Day 2
Overton Arm continues to produce potential winning fish
Sean Coffey brought 11 pounds of fish to the scale on day two of the Costa FLW Series Western Division opener presented by Ranger Boats on Lake Mead to grab hold of the lead heading into the final day of competition with 25 pounds, 1 ounce in total. He's done his damage in Overton Arm, the section of the lake where most anglers at the top of the leaderboard have fished both days of the tournament so far.
Despite changing weather conditions that slowed down the bite on day two, these anglers managed to find something that worked.
2. Benjamin Byrd – Moab, Utah – 24-13 (10)
“In practice I was really getting them good,” says Moab, Utah’s Benjamin Byrd, who's turned in limits of 12-6 and 12-7 so far this week. “The tournament started and I couldn’t get bit. Yesterday I didn’t have a fish at 1 o’clock.”
At that point, having fished slow-moving baits all day, Byrd stuck to his same spots but switched his approach. He began throwing reaction baits, and primarily a rip bait.
“All my bigger fish came on those reaction baits,” he says.
Byrd is fishing in Overton, and he admits the boat pressure has had an impact on the fishing in that section of the lake. He credits his reaction baits for giving fish a little something different to entice a bite.
“The quality went up for me today across the board,” he says. “The males are getting up there a lot farther, and the females are showing up now.”
With fish slowly starting to move up to spawn, Byrd’s reaction bait deal could very well be the ticket to a top finish.
3. David Valdivia – Norwalk, Calif. – 20-1 (9)
David Valdivia is one of the few pros at the top of the leaderboard who didn’t fish in Overton on Friday, but he does plan on making a run there on day three after he hits his best spot in Temple Bar.
“I have a small spot up in Overton that I’m saving,” he explains. “It’s a deeper spot. I’m going to go hit it tomorrow. I’m going to go to my original area and then go up there.”
Valdivia’s approach has everything to do with wind. He says the fish in his area won’t bite if there’s even a little bit of northerly wind, and all four of his keepers this morning were at least in small part a result of glassy water and no wind to speak of.
Those keepers brought him closer to the top spot on the leaderboard, but a couple fish he lost delivered a good deal of agony. Valdivia lost one on a swimbait and one on a jig, either of which might have propelled him to the top spot following day two.
Still, the Norwalk, Calif., pro feels confident in his chances on day three.
“I feel good about it,” he says. “This lake, when it doesn’t have pressure and if the conditions are better than what they’re calling for, it’ll be good fishing.”
4. Rusty Salewske – Alpine, Calif. – 19-12 (9)
Rusty Salewske only weighed in four fish for 8-15 on day one, but the Alpine, Calif., pro upgraded with a five-fish limit of 10-13 on Friday, thanks in big part to an area with fish continuing to move up and cycle through.
“I didn’t know what I was going to have left,” he says. “Yesterday, where I was fishing [in Overton], there were 20 boats in that small area. It was a little bit less today.”
Salewske’s day started off “super slow." He didn't catch a fish until about 9:30. He caught two pretty quickly and was then faced with a big decision after another hour without a bite: stay and hope the fish move up, or start running new water.
“I decided to milk it,” he says. “I had this one little pocket I kept both sides of. It needed rest. That’s the problem.”
New fish moved into that area, and the ones he caught looked pristine, as opposed to the fish he weighed in Thursday that had sores on their mouths, which he believes might have resulted from being caught in practice.
Salewske relied on two techniques to catch his fish: winding a small Rapala DT6 crankbait and flipping a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver.
5. Roy Hawk – Lake Havasu City, Ariz. – 19-8 (9)
Roy Hawk only landed four fish for 5 pounds, 12 ounces on Friday, but it was just enough to hang on to the fifth-place spot heading into the final day of competition.
“I started out in the morning fishing the same way I did yesterday, and it didn’t work,” he says. “I hardly got bit. My co-angler ended up catching two, and I still had none.”
Hawk slowed down and tried dragging around some finesse baits to no avail. He went back to cranking a shad-color Megabass crankbait and managed to pick up all his fish on that lure.
Having fished in Overton both days, Hawk believes boat pressure has played a big role in how fish have been biting.
“I think conditions could improve [tomorrow] because we’re going to have more room,” he admits. “There have been a lot of pros in that area. I need them [the fish] to be set up and sitting there waiting for something to come by, and every time a boat comes by it spooks them.”
Hawk may go to Las Vegas Wash if boating conditions are too difficult on day three, but his plan for now is to run right back to that spot in Overton where there will be a lot less pressure from other anglers.