ROGERS - Matt Arey of Shelby, N.C., caught the heaviest limit of the tournament Saturday to grab the lead entering today’s final round of the FLW Tour bass tournament on Beaver Lake.
The pro field was cut to the top 10 after the third round Saturday, and those anglers will fish in today’s championship round with the winner taking home $125,000.
Arey, who started the third round in third place, caught five bass weighing 16 pounds, 4 ounces, to boost his three-day total weight to 43-10. Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., was second with five bass that weighed 13-3 for a three-day total of 41-2.
He was followed by Travis Fox (5/14-9; 38-9) of Rogers; David Dudley (5/12-11; 38-5) of Lynchburg, Va.; Micah Frazier (5/11-4; 38-3) of Newnan, Ga.; Cody Meyer (5/12-1; 3-2) of Auburn, Calif.; Scott Martin (5/13-11; 37-8) of Clewiston, Fla.; Troy Morrow (5/10-11; 37-5) of Eastanollee, Ga.; Casey Ashley (5/11-5; 37-2) of Donalds, S.C.; and Mark Rose (5/11-6; 36-4) of West Memphis.
Unlike most of the other 20 anglers who fished Saturday, Arey started in Prairie Creek and then fished stained water in a tributary arm looking for big largemouths. It’s the same pattern he has fished the entire tournament to catch weights in the low- to mid-teens. It was easier Saturday, he said, because he had a lot less competition for his prime spots.
“There were 15 to 20 boats in the there the first two days, but there were only three today,” Arey said. “I’m just running a stained water deal for prespawn largemouths, and I’m catching them every day on the same transition rocks. They’re solid white, so I know they’ve been in deep water and are coming up.”
Arey said he decided during practice that water levels could vary during the tournament, so he looked for places in deep water where fish seemed to be staging consistently to come shallow. As he expected, the water has fallen a little more than 2 feet since the tournament’s first round Thursday.
“I’m fishing transition areas that are deep enough that falling water won’t affect them too much,” Arey said.
Arey has never led a major tournament going into the final round. He said it’s a great feeling, but he is also aware of what happened to Spencer Shuffield of Hot Springs, who led after the second round but plummeted to 12th Saturday and missed the cut.
“It’s great to be leading a deal like this, but I’d rather be behind by one ounce,” Arey said. “I’ve never led an event going into the last day. I’ve finished in the top five twice, but I’ve never felt as good as I do now going into the last day of a tournament.”
Right behind him is Morgan, a defending FLW Angler of the Year with 56 top-10 finishes. He won the Beaver Lake tournament in 2007 and trails Cody Meyer by one point in the 2014 Angler of the Year standings. He said today’s fishing conditions could help somebody catch a huge weight.
“It’s supposed to storm tomorrow, and that’s the best time to fish Beaver,” Morgan said. “Somebody will catch 16 to 18 pounds tomorrow.”
After the first round Thursday, Fox said he had to decide whether he wanted to win or just be happy with a $10,000 check. He said 8-9 pounds a day would probably earn him $10,000, but winning would require making the adjustments to catch bigger fish.
“I don’t want to knock a $10,000 check, but I want to win one of these things,” Fox said. “I had to do something to eliminate those smaller fish and get bigger bites. The lake got muddy and it got high, and there’s some color in the water.
“It got the way I like to do it, so I decided to swing for the fences. You won’t hit a home run if you don’t swing.”
Fox said Monday his pattern would last four days. It has held up for three.
“You’ve got to get lucky on a few, but if I get lucky for four days I’ve got a heck of a pattern I’m running,” Fox said. “It will hold up for four days.”
Rose said he abandoned his routine out of the gate Saturday and never recovered. He was left hoping somebody else would stumble, and nobody did.
“That’s how it goes when you’re fishing against the best in the world,” Rose said.
Sports, Pages 38 on 04/13/2014