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.
