Joe Uribe Jr. Wins Lake Havasu Rayovac
Two weeks prior to the tournament, Uribe went to Havasu and fished with his father for a few days while his tournament boat was being finished up. His parents have retired to Lake Havasu City and his father fishes some local tournaments on the lake so he was able to plug into his local knowledge. Compared to this time last year, Uribe said the water is three to four feet higher and was starting the day in the mid-50s for temperature. "The weather was great," he said. "It was a little cooler in practice, but we had a full moon on Tuesday and I knew that would move the fish around." They had immediate success with an umbrella rig (two-hook, three-teaser version) and a ChatterBait, catching pre-spawn largemouth transitioning into staging areas where shad were present. "He put me on the pattern right off the bat," he said. "We just went around and fine-tuned it in different areas. The thing was there was very little pressure around the lake and I'm very aware on these Colorado River lakes that any amount of pressure tends to move the fish around and it can get tough. We caught some nice ones during that time, but I didn't want to get my hopes up because I knew things would change." When he came back for 2 1/2 days of practice immediately before the event, he practiced with his sister, who fished the event as a co-angler. He credits her with clueing him in on where the fish were stacking up. "This year, the fish were definitely in pre-spawn mode," he said. "They were moving up in waves and I could tell in the areas I was fishing, they were replenishing. The largemouth were waiting in the shallow grass beds. They were all super healthy fish. "The three days in practice, there were a lot of birds in the area and the stripers would come in and out of the bay and that would get the bass active. On the last day, my sister made a long cast way up shallow to like two feet of water with a ChatterBait and a Skinny Dipper with a chartreuse tail. She caught a 4 1/2-pounder. We went to the next bay and she did the same thing and caught a 4. That told me where they were at."
Competition:
Uribe was stunned by the number of boats that headed south, meaning he had the areas he wanted to fish mostly to himself. He had most of his 19-12 stringer in the boat by 9 a.m. "The key was the spot I started on had no one else on it which was a little surprising," he said. "I wasn't focusing on the area so much as I was looking at the direction the boats were going. I was excited and I'm glad I sat there and evaluated and stayed local." The first cut he went into he saw seagulls diving in the water. That told him there were shad in the area and presumably bass. "The first five fish we caught were stripers and that got our blood flowing," he said. "They moved out and then we started catching largemouth. I went down a stretch of tulles and caught my limit." All told, he boated eight keepers, all off two spots. "The stretch I started on was a steep bluff bank with wood and shade, which was key," he said. "I ran shade until 9:30 or 10 each day. About five feet off the bank the water was 10 to 15 feet and it was just before you get to the backs of a flat bay. The fish were staging and I mainly targeted the south side of the coves." On day 2, he didn't return to the spot where he'd caught them the first day. Instead, he opted to fish other areas so as to not be seen on his primo spots. "I caught a few more fish just fishing around and caught a 4-pound smallmouth on my last spot," he said. He added a 3-pounder off another secondary spot and then bagged a pair of 5-pounders off an area after Jeff Michels had fished through it. His 21-00 bag put him in the driver's seat after two days with a 5-plus pound edge over Bertrand, who'd led after day 1. The highlight of the event for Uribe came early on the final day when he and his co-angler each hooked up at the same time. "My co-angler had a spinning rod with 6-pound test while I had an 8-foot rod with 20-pound test," he said. Uribe initially thought his fish was a striper, but when he saw a green flash as it came to the surface, he knew it was good-sized largemouth. How big, he wasn't certain. He quickly netted his fish and put in in the bottom of the boat before helping his co-angler land his fish, which turned out to be a 15-pound carp. "My fish was laying on the bottom of the boat for a while and when I turned and looked down at it, I was like, Oh my gosh, that's a big fish," he said. "My co-angler thought it was a 10." It turned out to be a 9-pounder and set the tone for a memorable day that saw him put nearly 27 pounds in the boat before 9:30 a.m. "We went to another spot and just caught them all day," he said. "We each caught 15 fish and were throwing back 3-pounders."
Winning Gear:
ChatterBait gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Performance Tackle casting rod, Daiwa Tatula (6.3:1 ratio) and Daiwa Zillion (6.3:1 ratio) casting reels, 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper, 1/2-oz. Z-Man ChatterBait Elite, War Eagle skirt (blue herring), Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer (sexy shad, menace shad). Uribe found in practice dipping the tails of the Skinny Dippers in chartreuse dye triggered more bites than baits that weren't dipped. "Adding that dye made a huge difference," he said.
Umbrella rig gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, 5-arm/5-blade Basstronix umbrella rig, 3/8- and 1/16-oz. jigheads, Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper on teaser arms, 3" Keitech Easy Shiner.
Main factor: "Just watching the birds and shad and striper movement and staying focused and being confident in my pattern. I didn't run around and try all kinds of things. The stars lined up for me. Everybody running south was a blessing because it left some areas wide open for me. There were two different guys who left areas for me on day 2 and they didn't have to do that. It was just my turn to win.
Performance edge: "My brand new Ranger Z521c with a Mercury 250XS. I literally broke the boat in during practice and everything ran flawlessly, including my MotorGuide trolling motor and Lowrance electronics. I could not be happier."
Lake Havasu Winning Pattern Bassfan 2/10/15 (Todd Ceisner)
