by Sean
Ostruszka
FLW PRESS
RELEASE
 |
| Twenty year old weathers wicked storm to lead. (Photo: FLW) |
Bailey Boutries of Daphne, Ala., celebrated
his 20th birthday less than 2 weeks ago. Grand Lake is providing him one heck
of a birthday present thus far.
The FLW Tour rookie followed up his 14-14 day
one with only the third 20-pound bag of the event (20 pounds, 6 ounces) on day
two to take the lead at Tour stop No. 4 presented by Mercury. His total of 35-4
gives him a 4-ounce lead over former FLW Cup champion John Cox.
“I’m so excited,” says Boutries of being in
the lead. “I love fishing. It’s incredible to be competing against guys like
Scott Martin, David Dudley and Bryan Thrift.”
Ironically, one of those pros (Thrift) happens
to be right on his heels in fifth. In fact, after Kyle Weisenburger held a
sizable lead yesterday, the top of the leaderboard has tightened considerably,
with less than 4 pounds separating Boutries from Terry Bolton in 10th. Oh, and
the top 10 is loaded.
Along with the former Cup champ, Cox, and the
former Angler of the Year, Thrift, you also have Bradford Beavers (coming off a
top 10 at Seminole and in third), Seminole-winner Brian Latimer in sixth,
tournament-favorite Bradley Hallman in ninth and current AOY-leader, Bolton.
That might intimidate most young rookies,
especially one that has only caught one limit in his first three tournaments.
Yet, Boutries is calm and confident thanks to his pattern.
“My roomamates and I figured [the pattern] out
in practice,” Boutries says. “It’s only in certain areas, but the lure and
water clarity don’t seem to matter.”
That said, Boutries did do the majority of his
damage today on a War Eagle spinnerbait
thrown on a 7-2 medium-heavy Profishiency rod, with a 6.5:1 Ardent reel
spooled with 17-pound P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon.
He had to switch up his retrieve a little
today, but he caught nine keepers, with the majority coming with some help from
mother nature.
“That storm really helped,” says Boutries of
the significant storm cell that hit the lake for little more than an hour late
in the morning. “When it started raining and got really windy, they really bit
that spinnerbait. The wind was a huge factor for me.”
Boutries was able to replicate his pattern on
at least 10 different areas, and most of them were new water he’d never fished
before. He’s simply able to run around and find exactly the right combination
of rock to key his pattern.
“I’ve always prided myself on staying calm and
not letting things get to my head,” says Boutries.
2. John Cox – Debary,
Fla. – 35-0 (10)
Cox is convinced the bass in Grand Lake want
to go to the bank to spawn in the worst way. He certainly wants them to, as
well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, but he’s
finding a way to adjust and stay with them.
“The bass are kind of sitting back off the
bank,” says Cox, who weighed in 19-1 today after 15-15 on Thursday. “I was
originally fishing closer to the bank, but today I started fishing a little
more out.”
While he has a rough idea of where they are,
bites have been extremely hard to come by, as he figures he got eight yesterday
and only six today. Yesterday, he says the majority of his bites came in a
strong hour of fishing, but today it was random flurries.
“It seems like it’s been in little flurries,”
Cox adds. “Like, I’ll catch two back to back and then go hours with nothing.
And where they’re sitting is random.
“I’m just going to do the same thing tomorrow,
which is simply try and catch a limit. That’s hard enough right now.”
3. Bradford Beavers –
Summerville, S.C. – 34-15 (10)
Many anglers are on similar patterns. Beavers
is not one of them.
His deal is much more methodical, and it’s not
producing many bites (though that’s pretty much par for everyone). Yet, when he
gets bit it’s been the right ones.
“It takes a long time to get a bite,
especially today,” says Beavers, whose weight dipped to 15-15 after 19-0
yesterday. “They were a lot more finicky today.”
Along with adjusting his tackle, he also had
to adjust how he fished today due to calm conditions in the early morning. Once
the storm came through, though, and the wind picked up, he was able to finish
up his limit pretty quick.
“I don’t know about tomorrow,” Beavers says.
“My whole game plan every day is to just get five bites. We’ll see if I can do
it again.”
4. Jamie Horton –
Centerville, Ala. – 32-14 (10)
If there’s an award for resilience, Horton has
earned it.
After boat troubles cost him a good portion of
day one, they once again resurfaced today.
“It’s a fuse issue,” Horton says. “They
thought they had it fixed, but I had to get towed in once today and idled in
the second time. Fortunately, (Tournament Director) Bill Taylor gave me another
boat to use.”
Normally, that kind of luck would sink a pro.
Instead, Horton actually has excelled. In fact, he made a key adjust with a
little dose of home that keyed his 19-pound bag today.
“I got bit today, and the way the fish bit
told me I should try something I do a lot back home,” Horton says. “As soon as
I made the switch it got silly. I mean, they were choking it.”
Needless to say, Horton was tight-lipped on
what the lure was, but he’s hopefully the fish keep “acting like they’ve never
seen it before” tomorrow.
5. Bryan Thrift –
Shelby, N.C. – 32-14 (10)
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Thrift is
in the top five burning the bank and making as many casts as he can. Shocker,
right?
“I’m just throwing a ChatterBait and making as
many casts as I can trying to put it in front of as many fish as I can,” says
Thrift, who only caught seven fish today but has been the most consistent pro
thus far, weighing in 16-12 and 16-2.
What area of the lake is he fishing, you ask?
“The whole lake,” Thrift says. “Well, I haven’t seen the dam yet, but I’ve been
close. I probably hit more than 20 places today.”
And any pattern? “None,” Thrift adds. “It’s
totally random.”
NEWS AND
NOTES
Stormy highs and lows
Spring often means storms, and a good one blew
through the area late morning today. It turned out to be the turning point for many
pros.
Almost as soon as the heavy stuff started
falling and the thunder rumbling, big catches were reported. Brandon McMillan
and Andy Young both immediately caught 6- and 7-pounders, with Young’s fish
taking big-fish honors for the day.
Boutries credits the storm for igniting
his bite, and Hallman says he caught all of his fish during the rain.
Of course, it wasn’t great for everyone.
“All I did was get wet,” Cox says.
Still no quantity
When pros say it’s hard to catch five fish,
they truly mean it in this tournament. After only 37 limits brought to the
scales on day one, it got worse today, with a mere 31. Meanwhile, the number of
pros who didn’t bring in a single fish increased from 22 to 26.
If you can believe it, only 13 pros have
managed to bring in limits both days.
It also seemed no one was immune, as none of
the top three anglers from day one brought in a limit on day two.
And it could get worse because …
Cold is coming
After pleasant temperatures in the 60s and 70s
the first two days, Mother Nature is fixing to throw a massive curveball, as
the forecast is calling for temperatures to drop more than 20 degrees tonight
and get down into the 20s tomorrow night.
Throw in storms and more rain tomorrow
morning, and few pros were optimistic for their patterns.
Top 10 pros
1. Bailey Boutries – Daphne, Ala. – 35-4 (10)
2. John Cox – DeBary, Fla. – 35-0 (10)
3. Bradford Beavers – Summerville, S.C. –
34-15 (10)
4. Jamie Horton – Centerville, Ala. – 32-14
(10)
5. Bryan Thrift – Shelbyville, N.C. – 32-14
(10)
6. Brian Latimer – Belton, S.C. – 32-11 (8)
7. Kyle Weisenburger – Ottawa, Ohio – 32-7 (8)
8. Billy McCaghren – Mayflower, Ark. – 32-2
(10)
9. Bradley Hallman –Norman, Okla. – 31-12 (10)
10. Terry Bolton – Benton, Ky. – 31-8 (10)
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