Missed Opportunities at Beaver Lake

Beaver Lake is a tough place to fish, but if you’re going to fish on the Walmart FLW Tour, you’d better learn to like it. I used to absolutely hate going there, but lately I’ve come to anticipate and appreciate the challenge. As a result, over the last few years I’ve been doing better there. A negative attitude in this sport can surely kill you, especially with only six events on the schedule.

This time around on Beaver Lake, I was on the fish to win it and make it two in a row. After winning Smith a couple of weeks before, I felt the momentum, and I had an awesome three-day practice period. I love to sight-fish, and I found some nice ones in an area of the lake that was not getting any pressure at all. In fact, I never saw a tournament boat the entire first day – it was strange.

In this sport, though, none of that matters. All that matters is that you hook the bass and get them into your boat, lol. Sounds pretty easy, but sometimes, despite your preparedness, things just don’t work out right. After starting the day on a smallmouth spot and getting three in the livewell, I lost the first three big ones I had found on beds: a 4-pounder and two in the 3-pound class. I managed to boat the fourth, one and then I was done sight-fishing.

The rest of the day I swam a Terminator Jig with a Yamamoto Double Tail Grub and caught several 2-pounders, and upgraded one late in the day. I had a good weight and sat in 11th after day one, but “what could have been” hurt badly.

I thought I would need at least 12 pounds to make the top-20 cut, which should have been easy, but it turned out not to be – mainly because of my bad decision-making. At the start of day two I went to a smallmouth place and quickly put one in the well. But my big mistake was spending way too much time trying to catch just one of those three big spawners I lost on day one. I spent a combined five hours of day two trying to coax one to bite, and believe it or not, I lost the big one and one of the 3-pounders again … really??

Had I just thrown the swim jig all day, I most likely would have breezed into the top 10. I ended day two with just over 8 measly pounds. Sadly, I only needed 9 and change to make the cut.

My equipment for the smallmouths was pretty important. I was using a 5-inch Yamamoto Kut Tail Worm on a 1/4-ounce Gambler Giggy Head. I went through a 100-count bag of green pumpkin/purple worms at Beaver; it was special. When the Beaver Lake event rolls around each year, a lot of guys ask me for those Kut Tail Worms, which are a little different from most straight-tail finesse worms. Those Beaver Lake bass really eat them. I was using a 13 Fishing 7-foot, 1-inch medium-heavy Envy Casting rod and a 7:3.1 Concept E reel. My line was 10-pound-test Sufix fluorocarbon.

I was using a prototype 13 Fishing Omen 7-foot, 3-inch casting rod for the swim jig, and this particular rod is a favorite for several other techniques as well. It’s a great “all-purpose” stick for sure! My swim jig was a black and blue 1/4-ounce Terminator with a green pumpkin Yamamoto 4-inch Double Tail Grub trailer. I used the same high-speed reel (very important) and 14-pound-test Sufix fluorocarbon.

Overall, this was typical Beaver Lake. Finesse worms, small swimbaits, bed-fishing and drop-shotting all worked. A few guys caught key fish by crankin’ – mainly the Storm Wiggle Wart, of course – but though I love doing that, I couldn’t make it work. It was just a tad late in the year, I think. My buddy Vic Vatalaro even sacked them up on a jerkbait.

I went out on the top-20 day just to look around for the Will Fish for Kids charity tournament coming up the following Monday. What I found truly made me sick. I found a little pocket next to my smallmouth spot that had 15 to 17 pounds of bedding fish in it. I saved them for the Monday event, and I came in fourth with 14 1/2 pounds … go figure, lol. There was a 5-pounder in there, but I could not catch her in the derby.

Until next time, good fishing