Jeremy Lawyer Wins FLW Tour Grand Lake

As a kid, Jeremy Lawyer used to come to Grand Lake with his grandparents to fish for white bass in the spring. Now, he's partial to the black bass that swim there. He's competed in countless tournaments there over the years, winning a few local events and claiming top-10s in multiple FLW events. He lives an hour away, in Sarcoxie, Mo. It's his home lake. Last week, he added a signature achievement to his Grand Lake resume with his first FLW Tour win. It was an event he had highlighted on the schedule since it was announced last July.

"It was exciting just to have the opportunity to fish one on something I was familiar with," he said. "I've not been through that. We went to Beaver during my rookie year (2017), but I hadn't fished Beaver in 10 years." The victory also kept alive his hot streak which dates back to last fall when he won the Lake of the Ozarks Central FLW Series event. He's not finished lower than 60th so far in the FLW Tour this season. "Momentum is no doubt one of the biggest things that keep you going in the right direction," he said. "When you get out of sync, it's hard to get it back. I don't know what gets that started. Joe Webster and I are both having good years and we've been working together 100 percent. At each event throughout the year, if one of us has struggled to get going in practice, the other one has fed him just enough to get on the right road. We have worked well together. That's a big thing to this point. Fishing at home and fishing well. Those played a big role."

The March-April time frame was something he has plenty of experience with. Back in 2016, he won a team tournament there in early April throwing a spinnerbait. Sure, crankbaits, jerkbaits and jigs can produce at Grand this time of year, but he knew before practice what he was going to rely on. "I just felt my best chance to win was with a spinnerbait," he said. "I knew as tough as the fishing was I could tie on brown jig and win 10 grand, but I couldn't win doing that." His stubborn mindset also worked in his favor. "Most times, you can't get tunnel vision in these tournaments, but this was one of those events under those conditions that I could put my head down and being stubborn paid off," he added. "I have fished a bunch the last three or four years with these conditions and that kept me in areas that I felt had potential for a bite or two."

Practice:

Lawyer went into practice with an open mind based on his background at the lake. Webster, on the other hand, was seeing the lake for the first time so Lawyer suggested he start in a particular creek arm and told him to "just fish how you fish and let me know what happens," he said. Webster got a few bites, which gave Lawyer an idea that the fish were in several different areas. Lawyer, meanwhile, got a feel for other parts of the lake. He got seven bites on the first day and opted to bypass similar areas over the next two days. "I fished some brown jig stuff and cranked some," he said. "I caught a couple, but there's no way to catch five a day doing this. I eliminated several areas and that allowed my stubbornness to take over. I couldn't do any better doing anything else." He had his mind made up that a spinnerbait would be his go-to option based on the conditions. "When the water creeps into the 50s, it's just had a history of being a fish catcher," he said.

Competition:

Lawyer prepared an arsenal of spinnerbaits for the myriad conditions Grand inevitably threw at the anglers during the tournament. And he used just about every one of them. Some had single blades, others double. Willow, Colorado, painted blades. You name it, Lawyer had it covered. "I had different ones for certain water clarities and temperatures," he said. For the first three days of competition, he rotated through three areas primarily. He mainly targeted the water around and behind docks, paying particular attention to the shade created by the walkways when the sun was out. "The docks had to have deep water under them and had to have a ledge behind them so those fish could slide up there and spawn," he said. He also noticed fish were pulling up on the banks that were getting the most sun exposure. If there were dock walkways nearby, all the better. "That's pretty typical at Grand," he said.

He also had specific docks that he's fished before that he revisited because they had brush piles around them. He wanted to catch a minimum of 12 pounds on day 1, but had 15 in mind as his ultimate goal. He wound up with 12 1/2, which put him in 35th place. "I survived," he said. He followed up with 18-13 on day 2, his biggest bag of the event which moved him up to 11th. "I had all of my weight by noon and never culled," he said. "I caught the same amount of fish as day 1, but they were all just bigger."

"Everybody was throwing Colorado blades so much the first few days, I think they got used to the vibration," he said. "That willow just makes a different sound." He got shut out in the morning and didn't catch a keeper until after 1 o'clock. Once he figured out what they were sitting on, he ran from dock to dock and caught a limit in the matter of 45 minutes. His 17-09 limit jumped him up to second behind Bryan Thrift, who seemed destined to win. Lawyer trailed him by 3-03 entering day 4. "I'd have rather been in front of Bryan than behind him," he said. With the sun out and wind finally slacked off, the final day offered up yet another set of conditions. Lawyer had a productive morning, a contrast to the previous day, and it had him thinking a big day was in store. He had just five bites, all before 11 a.m., and they all wound up in his livewell. He never culled. "I figured I'd light them up after Saturday, but it never transpired," he said, adding that he did very little running around after narrowing down his locations from the first three days. When he came in with 13-14, he figured he'd fall short of overtaking Thrift. "I never thought he didn't have 15 pounds," he said. "I didn't think for a minute I had a chance to win."

Winning Gear:

Spinnerbait gear: Lawyer used the same rod, reel and line for each spinnerbait he had rigged up - 7'6" heavy-action Lew's Custom Pro Mag Heavy Cover casting rod, Lew's Hypermag Speed Spool SLP Series casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 25-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line.

Day 1: 3/4-oz. Freedom Tackle double Colorado spinnerbait. The spinnerbait comes as a double willow model, but Lawyer replaced them with size 3.5 (red) and size 6 (gold) Colorado blades made by Hildebrandt. He attached a 5/0 Gamakatsu flipping hook to the Freedom head. He also removed the stock skirt and slid on a Hildebrandt collared skirt in coleslaw, which is a mix of chartreuse, white and orange.

"The wire on that spinnerbait is great because it's really bendable, which gives it a great vibration," he said.

Day 2: 3/4-oz. Freedom Tackle spinnerbait, same hook, same skirt, size 5 Colorado blade (gold). He liked the single-blade configuration as it allowed the bait to fall a little more and took away some of the resistance. "Even though it was raining, I had to slow it down and bump it off the bottom and whatever else was around like pipes," he said.

Day 3: 1-oz. homemade spinnerbait with one size 3.5 willow blade (chartreuse) and one size 4.5 blade (white), same skirt.

He used trailer hooks on all his spinnerbaits.

FLW Tour Grand Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 4/2/19 (Todd Ceisner)

Michael Matthee was in his element at Grand Lake, getting to heave spinnerbaits all day long. "I grew up throwing a spinnerbait and if fish are shallow and I can catch them that suits my style. It all fell into place," he said. It took him until the tournament started, though, to get keyed in on what he needed to be throwing. In practice, he threw Texas-rigged plastics on points and cranked with a square-bill some. A spinnerbait only produced one bite during practice. "Then on day 1, the first fish I caught came off a laydown and it had my spinnerbait in the back of its mouth," he said. "That's when I said, 'This is the bait I need to be throwing.'" His only hiccup all tournament was only bringing three fish back to the scales on day 1. Another keeper would've locked up the win for him. He said the fish seemed to be staging on timber on day 1, then they transitioned to docks with the sun shining.

By day 4, laydowns and chunk rock or "little spines of rock" was where he got most of his bites. "Most of the bigger fish had a big shad in their mouths," he added. He said he tried throwing a big swimbait, too, but couldn't generate the bites or the confidence needed to stick with it. His spinnerbait choice (double willow with painted blades) was prompted by seeing plenty of other anglers relying on Coloardo blades. "I always try to be different," he said.

Gear:

Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" heavy-action FX Custom Rods Xtreme Anglers Series casting rod (1/2-oz. spinnerbait), 7'4" medium-action FX Custom Rods Xtreme Anglers Series casting rod (3/8-oz. spinnerbait), Lew's casting reel, 14- and 16-pound Gary Yamamoto Sugoi fluorocarbon line, 3/8- and 1/2-oz. unnamed double willow spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) with lime-green top blade, white bottom blade, 3.8" Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbait (sight flash), 3.75" Strike King Rage Swimmer (pearl flash) trailers.

FLW Tour Grand Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/4/19 (Todd Ceisner)

Like Matthee, Burghoff is in a position to look back on the tournament and wonder, 'What if?' What if he caught two - heck, even one - more fish on day 2? Still, it was another stellar showing for the rookie who's now second in Angler of the Year points behind Terry Bolton. "At the start of the year, I made no results-related goals like winning AOY, making the Cup or winning," he said. "The only one I wanted was Rookie of the Year because you only get one chance at that. My goal was to make sure I don't leave anything on the table and work hard at every event and let the results speak for themselves." He came away from Grand pleased with how he broke the lake down. "What hurt me was day 2 with just three fish," Burghoff said. "I didn't realize how few fish had moved up. I went through the same areas that I went through day 1 and didn't run new water with my spinnerbait pattern. That's what hurt me. I couldn't go through old areas and catch them."

In practice, he realized that fish were accessible up shallow. He had a 14-pound day with a square-bill and spinnerbait to start practice. "That keyed me in on the region of the lake I wanted to fish," he said. "When I got zero bites the next two days, I knew that's where I needed to focus." He found most of the fish were relating to docks. He caught a few on straight banks, but "when those fish move up to spawn, they like to be around docks even without a post to be next to," he said.

Early on, he opted to concentrate on a series of creeks and pockets on the north shore in the mid lake area. "I chose those because we'd have a north wind at some point that would hurt the south shore," he said. By day 3, he was targeting "less obvious stuff," such as the areas behind long docks that didn't have access to it from either side. He fished short pockets as well and that's what produced the bulk of his day-3 weight. "The common denominator was a somewhat 45-degree bank and the back end of the dock needed five feet of water under it," he said. "They were in the back half of the creeks, but not all the way to the back."

Gear:

Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Fitzgerald Fishing Vursa Series casting rod, Fitzgerald Fishing Stunner casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 17-pound Vicious Pro Elite fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Z-Man Fishing Sling BladeZ spinnerbait (white), Z-Man Fishing MinnowZ trailer (pearl).

Burghoff modified the spinnerbait by removing the stock willow blades and replacing them with a single size 5 gold Colorado blade.

Cranking gear: 7' medium-heavy Fitzgerald Fishing Vursa Series casting rod, same reel, same line (14-pound), Strike King KVD HC 1.5 square-bill crankbait (brown craw).

Burghoff swapped the stock hooks for size 4 Hayabusa TBL 930 trebles.

Always on the hunt for shallow-water situations, John Cox found Grand Lake was made-to-order as he collected his second top-5 finish of the season. "I knew the water was really cold and saw we had a little warming trend coming during the week," he said. "That was exciting because I was preparing for when the water would be warming up and be able to catch some while they were sunning themselves." Practice was a struggle as far as generating bites, but he was focused on areas that might improve during the tournament. "I knew something was going to change," he said. "It was a case of hurry up and wait."

By the final day of practice, though, he started to panic a little that he'd not laid his hands on a bass. He launched his boat at eight different ramps around the lake and spent roughly an hour exploring in each area. "When I panic I do that, which is pretty much every practice," he joked. "These open-mind sorts of tournaments are the ones I seem to do a lot better in. In the back of my mind, I thought I'd catch them because I had no idea what to expect." On day 1, he caught out of one area, then caught one at every subsequent stop, most coming within the first couple of casts. He keyed on rocky points halfway back into creeks as well as isolated wood in pockets, all with a spinnerbait. "Random stuff I saw that I figured would have a fish on it," he said.

Day 2 was his best day weight wise and after trying to recycle areas from day 1, he settled down in the area he started day 1 in and piled up more than 19 pounds, mostly with a vibrating jig. "It was a long finger in a creek near the dam with a couple pinch points and a bridge," he said. "I was bouncing around between it all. They were biting all over the place in there." Day 3 was his undoing as he thought he could ride the vibrating jig to another solid day despite the rainy conditions. "That was a mistake," he said. "The bites were much softer and they wouldn't hold onto the ChatterBait. I think if I'd have switched to a crankbait, I'd have caught them. That day threw me off." The final day was similar to day 2 and he committed to the crankbait, which he worked parallel to the bank, contrary to how he fished it earlier in the tournament when the fish were staged away from the bank. "I feel like I learned a lot, which was good," he added. "Maybe I'll retain some of it for later."

Gear:

Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Abu Garcia Fantasista Premier casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel (6.6:1 ratio), 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Dirty Jigs Tackle double willow spinnerbait (chartreuse/white), Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Flatnose Minnow trailer (blue pearl black hologram).

Vibrating jig gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, 1/2-oz. Z-Man Fishing Original ChatterBait (spot remover), 3.8" Berkley PowerBait Power Swimmer trailer (sexy shad).

Crankbait gear: Same rod (7' medium-action), Abu Garcia AL-F casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), same line (15-pound), Berkley SquareBull 3.5 (big money).

FLW Tour Grand Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/4/19 (Todd Ceisner)

Bradford Beavers went against the spinnerbait grain and hunkered down in the Elk River, which he got to know quite well over the course of the event. He relied on a combination of slower presentations and picked off bass holding on blowdowns and just about anything laying the water, he said. He started practice in the mid lake area and targeted points and banks leading into the pockets with little to no success. He moved into the Elk the following day and caught a couple small fish and one keeper. He returned for the final day of practice since he knew it has a reputation for harboring a population of bass. "I went back in there to try to figure something out and caught a couple more shorts and a 4-pounder late in the afternoon," he said. "He was on a piece of wood right off the main bank. I went around looking for other things just off the bank a hair - a willow or a log or a rock, anything laying in the water. I felt like that was my best shot to catch some fish." He started strong with 19-00 on day 1, but it was a grind. He spent 15 to 20 minutes on every piece of cover, firing cast after cast at it, but was often rewarded with a keeper bass.

He said had generated a pattern in practice elsewhere on the lake, he wouldn't have been so patient. "The fact that I had nowhere else to go and slowing down to that extent, I realized what the pattern was," he said. "Those fish were on any hard object just off the bank." He thinks the fish were spawning on day 1 because when he'd catch a female, a male often followed soon after. He had fish drag baits and drop them, which is typical behavior for males guarding a bed. "Fish were on almost everything in there, but it just took tons of casts to get them to bite," he said. "If I had caught them somewhere else, I would've been long gone, but every fish built my confident that they were there." He settled into slow-down mode on day 2 and tapped into a new area where he had six bites late in the day. With the wind howling on day 3, he only generated five bites and landed four of them with a couple coming on a spinnerbait.

On the final day, he went back to the cove he found late on day 2 and found the weather had shut them off. "As shallow as they were with the sun, I figured the flats would be warming up," he said. "The fish were already in there trying to spawn so they hadn't gone far." He worked over the last piece of wood in the middle of the cove for 25 minutes, but after putting his Power-Poles up, he caught a 3 1/2-pounder. After retying, he caught a 3 on his next pitch. "After 11, they started biting and I caught a bunch of shorts," he said. "I culled once later on. With the warm weather and it being so shallow in there, they started to feed with the sun out. "I didn't win, but it was coming together toward the end of the day," he said. "I really feel like I was making good decisions in the last half of the last day. I'm thrilled to death."

Gear:

Shaky-head gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Dobyns Champion XP casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 14-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/8-, 1/4-, 3/8-oz. Katch-Her Lures shaky head jigs, 7" Roboworm Straight tail worm (green-pumpkin).

In calm conditions, he relied on the 1/8-oz. version and when the wind picked up, he went with the heavier models.

Wacky-rig gear: 7' medium-light Dobyns Champion XP spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 15-pound PowerPro braided line, 10-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line (leader), size 1 unnamed straight shank hook, rubber O-ring, 5 3/8" unnamed soft plastic stickbait (green-pumpkin).

FLW Tour Grand Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/4/19 (Todd Ceisner)