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Matt Arey Wins FLW Tour Beaver Lake

Whether they'll admit it or not, a lot of FLW Tour pros would prefer to never visit Beaver Lake. Matt Arey would be thrilled if every tournament took place there every year. Beaver is arguably the trickiest venue in all of professional fishing. It doesn't harbor a lot of quality fish to begin with, the clear water makes the ones that are there extremely skittish and prone to frequent relocation, and seldom does a pattern carry over from one year to the next. More often than not, major adjustments are required on a daily basis to keep an angler near the top of the leaderboard. Arey has the place wired, though, and it seems that it just can't fool him. He's logged Top-5 finishes four times in his last seven visits and on Sunday he became the first back-to-back winner of the event, which has now been staged 17 times. He caught a tournament-best 17-13 sack on Sunday to move up from 2nd place and claim his latest victory. He went way outside the box to do most of his damage, throwing a swimbait that was larger than most of the finicky fish at Beaver had ever seen in their lifetimes (although they're sure to see a lot more of them now). His 55-06 total outdistanced runner-up Tracy Adams by more than 5 1/2 pounds. He's now earned a quarter of a million dollars at the lake over the past 12 months. The annual spawning ritual was in full force when the field arrived at Beaver and Arey, like many competitors, spent much of his practice time searching for quality fish on beds. He found some - he marked about 75 that ranged from 1 1/4 to 3 1/2 pounds - but knew the tactic wouldn't carry him through a 4-day derby in which he'd likely need an average of roughly 13 pounds a day to claim the trophy again. He describes the lake as highly "conditional." The fish can change their habits and moods due to the slightest weather-driven alteration to their environment, which can render even the most effective practice patterns totally obsolete come tournament time. On the afternoon of the final practice day, however, he discovered the bonanza that a 5-inch swimbait could potentially bring about. "It was unbelievable - I could've weighed 18 to 20 pounds," he said. "I knew that bite would be there at some point during the tournament and the key would be capitalizing on it. "It wasn't going to happen on all 4 days, but I knew I'd have a chance on at least 1 of the days."

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."

Beaver Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 4/28/15 (John Johnson)

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