Matt Arey Wins FLW Tour Beaver Lake
Competition:
Arey's opening-day bag put him in a tie for 3rd place, just a pound off the initial pace set by his road roommate, Jacob Wheeler. He'd never fall below that mark the rest of the way. He had the No. 3 position to himself after rainy day 2, but had to catch a couple of 2 1/2-pound spawners that he was hoping to save in order to achieve that. He went to them late in the day because he felt it was important to get past the 12-pound barrier to stay within striking distance of the lead over the weekend. He fell off his average considerably on day 3, but actually gained a place in the standings as the post-frontal conditions kept weights down throughout the field (John Cox's 12-13 haul was the best of the day). He was just over a pound and a half behind leader Andy Morgan with 1 day to go. That last day was a special one indeed. He boxed a solid 11 pounds in the morning and then experienced an almost surreal 2-hour period with his homemade swimbait. His bounty during that timeframe included a 5-pounder that came out from under a dock and followed the bait all the way to his boat before engulfing it. Arey, in a kneeling position, had run out of line to reel and was manually pulling the bait along the side of the boat, just under the surface. He knew that flurry had given him a good shot at his second straight Beaver victory, but he was far from overconfident. "Andy was the guy I had to catch and he's capable of pulling a rabbit out of his hat at any time," he said. "Why would I think for one second that he wasn't going to do it (Sunday)? "I wasn't satisfied; I was still trying to catch another big one. He could've easily caught 16 pounds." He didn't, though - the top-ranked angler in the world managed just 9-08. Arey would've won even without the bite-and-swing 5-pounder, but the day wouldn't have been quite as memorable.
Winning Pattern:
Arey estimated that he caught 10 fish that he was looking at throughout the event, but only seven of those went to the scale. Of the remaining 13, approximately eight were enticed by the swimbait and the other five bit a Lunkerhunt Lunker Stick. He primarily focused on wood (both laydowns and bushes), but docks and rocky points were targets as well. He often got fish that he assumed were actively spawning to pursue the swimbait and thus reveal their location, then he'd follow up with the Lunker Stick to induce a strike. He's certain that some of the fish he caught on the swimbait were post-spawners looking for a big meal to help them recover from the reproduction process. He fished the bait about a foot below the water's surface in depths ranging from 3 to 7 feet.. He started each day in Prairie Creek and would would eventually get several miles up the White River. He made his farthest jaunt in that direction on day 3 and picked up a couple of key bed-fish that pushed his stringer into double digits.
Winning Gear:
Swimbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action KisselKrafts rod, Okuma Helios casting reel (7:1 ratio), 20-pound P-Line fluorocarbon, 7/0 Gamakatsu EWG Monster hook, 5" hand-poured soft-plastic swimbait (black back/silver flake).
Worm gear: 7' medium-action KisselKrafts rod, Okuma Helios spinning reel, 15-pound P-Line TCB 8 braided line, 8-pound P-Line fluorocarbon leader (12'), 1/0 Gamakatsu Split Shot/Drop Shot hook, 5"Lunkerhunt Lunker Stick (coffee/red-black fleck).
Sight-fishing gear: 7'3" or 7'6" medium or medium-heavy KisselKrafts rods, Okuma Helios casting reels (7:1 or 8:1 gear ratios), 17-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, 3/8- or 1/2-ounce tungsten weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu SuperLine EWG hook, Texas-rigged Lunkerhunt Lunker Bug (pumpkin or pearl sparkle).
Main factor: "Fish management - knowing how to rotate my areas - and, kind of like last year with the jig, figuring out something different than what the rest of the field was doing. That swimbait wasn't big for California, but it was big for Beaver."
Performance edge: "Probably the KisselKrafts swimbait rod. You've got to have the right rod for fishing swimbaits and it was perfect for that setup."