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I just want to thank you all for pulling for me at the Havasu FLW Series! Thanks to those who called me and dropped me messages!
I had a great prefish sticking 2 fish a day and averaging 4-5 bites a day. I started prefishing the main lake with my 5th cast landing a 4+ smallie on a 1/2 oz. football brown and orange Skinny Bear jig(Iwamoto ties these jigs better) with Yammy twin tail trailer...This was a great locating bait for me in practice. I worked it fast, figuring contours and finding man-made habitat which Havasu is full of! I found 2 key areas which I knew I could catch fish out of mainly because I could see the bass! I found out later in the tourney the only way to catch um was to make long, repeated casts to those areas.
Day 1 I hit all my good water with only 2 fish(only 1 kept, less than 2 lbs.). It was a long, brutal, windless day. Day 2 of the competition was a different story. We had wind in the morning and right before blast off, I tied up a Ghost Green Craw Wiggle Wart and a Chartruese Shad Staysee 90 on two seperate glass rods...The only 2 rods on the deck. get to my first spot...lotta boats around but they were dragging...ya know...lol. Anyway, in the first five mins. I had a Striper, a Smallie, and a Black! All on the Staysee rip. Cool, 2 fish in the well for 5 lbs. over the next 2 hours I caught a 3 lb. black and a 1.5 lbs. smallie on the Wart. Fish and Game were in the area checking all the bass boats and when he came aboard mine, he had me open my livewell and all he said was "good night!" he said there was no need to put them on the measuring board. Sweet, I knew all the other boats in the area were struggling at that point. I ended the day weighing 9-09 and into 33rd place. Day 3 I whacked um. The wind blew all day and I put on a ripping clinic for my co-angler. My 10-10 sack was anchored by a 3 lb. smallie I caught over some submerged island tops I found 20+ miles down the lake. I was boat 177 out and my Triton got there in about 16 minutes...straight up haulin'. I lost 2 fish that day but I didn't care because I made the top ten! I was the bubble boy fishin day 4 against Dobyns, Yelas, and Ehrler! Way cool! My cellphone was about to have a breakdown after the weighins, I only answered my parents call to hear they were comin out to watch me weigh in at the Wal-Mart the following day. Awesome. Day 4 felt like a dream. I only managed to farm one fish for 1.5 lbs. I can go on and on about haw many of those smallies would just slap or follow, or even kiss the Staysee but not hook up...I'm doing everything right too. Hooks, line, rod, and presentation were flawless...the fish were in some kind of funk...Maybe the ice on the docks that morning had something to do with it. Anyway, I fished very hard all day long trying to impress the FSN camera man in my boat. I went to the Walmart to way in with a single fish...better than 2 of the other 9 guys that day, those 2 blanked. Russell and Yelas! I moved into the 9th spot after all was said and done. I am very happy with the way it all turned out. I ended up taking home $15,629 and met alot of very cool people. Not to mention all the "powerful" hands I shook with the people from FLW. Well, thats my quick Havasu story...Thanks again to all, I really appreciate the support from my BNT Bro's! I've got an AC Pro Am at Oro this Fri/Sat. I may stop by Whiskey on the way home Sunday and check you all out...If not, good luck and stay dry!!!
-Zaldain
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