Guntersville FLW Tour

Jay Yelas – Competition
Saturday, February 14, 2009

This was one of the more frustrating tournaments of my career. I was around some fish – the first day my co-angler had me down 25 pounds to nothing and I finally had to borrow his bait to catch the one fish I did catch. It was some off-brand little lipless rattlebait that I'd never seen before.

We were just fishing main-lake flats and grass. There was quite a few co-anglers who caught more than their pros did, but being down 25 pounds to nothing hurt a little bit.

I went back out there the next day thinking the fish were there that would catch me back up. I caught a 7-pounder and a 2-pounder, but that was it.

I've always had a hard time with this type of pattern because it's a very random style of fishing. You're not casting to targets on a point or a hump or a dropoff, you're just on big flats with grass. This lake is full of big fish, but it's always been kind of a nemesis for me.

I was around them, but I just couldn't get them to bite. I threw lipless crankbaits most of the time and I tried a lot of other baits, too. It was just a bomb and I hate to start the year out that way, but I have to live with it.

The worst part is there's nothing I can learn from a week like that. It just wasn't my week to get bit.

Jay Yelas – Practice
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

My practice was mediocre. I found one spot that has some big fish out deep, and that's kind of what I'm banking on. I never found another place that had any big ones grouped up together. I found some small ones up shallow that I could catch on a different pattern, but they're not Top-10 material.

I'm hoping that one area produces because this isn't the time of year when you can run all over the lake and catch 5- to 8-pounders. It's going to be all about who has the best spot. There'll be some big stringers caught, but there'll be some guys that don't have squat, too.