Mark Tyler Wins Arkansas River Bass Open
A great deal of practice on his adopted home water had never before paid off in the short term for Tyler. There was the lock disaster last year, and prior to that the flooding that caused the final event of his last Elite Series campaign to be shifted to Fort Gibson Lake just days before it was set to begin. A lot of the effort he'd put in on the Arkansas in previous years paid off last week, however. He had little choice other than to rely on those memories as his practice leading up to this event consisted of a mere 6 hours. "I went out on Monday (3 days prior to day 1) and I got there about 9 o'clock after checking for new calves and doing some other chores early in the morning," he said. "I spent a couple hours just getting familiar with the boat and making sure everything worked and that left 3 or 4 hours for fishing. I spent some of that making sure the navigation was the same and that there weren't any new sandbars that made the water depth 6 inches where it used to be 3 feet. "I tested a few areas and got a few bites on reaction baits and plastics. I had to leave by a little after 3 to do my afternoon rounds checking for the calves and on Tuesday and Wednesday I was just too busy to get back out."
Competition:
Tyler fished both the Webbers Falls Pool (where the launch took place) and the adjoining Kerr Pool. His 15 weigh-in fish were split almost evenly between them. He had a slow morning on day 1, going without a keeper for the first 2 hours in the rainy conditions. He though the setup was prime for reaction baits, but the fish apparently felt otherwise. He eventually switched to flipping and pitching plastics and caught a solid stringer that put him within a pound of early pace-setter Clayton Coppin. "Things definitely didn't start out as planned, but I just kept at it and eventually the bites started coming," he said. "The whole tournament was like that - it was pretty much a grind the whole time. I caught eight keepers the first day, seven the second day and six the last day. "I never knew when my next bite was going to come, how long it was going to take to get it or even if I was going to get it. I tried to stay focused on the process and stay confident that it was eventually going to work out." Plastics were the ticket again on day 2 when he took over the lead. The moving-bait action finally materialized on the final day. "You don't always know why things like that change, but you know they're going to change and you have to adapt. Maybe the fish were feeling a little pressured and they needed something moving faster to make them bite. "I started out with the crankbait in the morning and it just felt right, and I caught one pretty quick. When I went to the plastics I wasn't getting bit, but I had just enough confidence in the crankbait and the subtle clues were telling me I needed to stick with it. "It's (the fishes') environment and they know why they do what they do," he concluded. "It's our job to figure out whatever works - and to do it quickly."
Winning Pattern:
Tyler said he was on the move frequently. He fished mostly woody targets, but also worked weed points and anything else that provided any type of current break. He always had at least four rods rigged with plastics and switched between them often. "If I was confident a fish should be there, I'd attack each piece of cover from different angles," he said. "I wanted to exhaust every opportunity to give that fish something it wanted to bite." All of his fish came from water that was 4 feet deep or shallower, with most in the 1- to 3-foot range.
Winning Gear:
Tyler opted to withhold details of the equipment he used other than his rods (he still has a sponsorship deal with Denali). "That's not because I'm worried about people knowing what I was using, but because it does a disservice to all pro fishermen," he said. "If companies want their products mentioned, they have to pay. It should be given away for free." His plastic offerings included craw worms, traditional worms and Beaver-style baits. He went with dark colors (black or blue) in dirty water and greens and purples in clearer water. All were fished on 20-pound fluorocarbon line. "I tried to find what each individual fish wanted and I got bites on all of them."
Arkansas River Open Winning Pattern Bassfan 9/16/14 (John Johnson)