Flw Day 4

[Quillback]

ROGERS, Ark. – Coming in to this event David Dudley of Lynchburg, Va., had career winnings of $2.9 million dollars – the most of any professional angler on the FLW Tour. Dudley widened that gap today by winning the FLW Tour Major bass fishing tournament on Beaver Lake. The $125,000 victory has pushed him over the $3 million mark. Dudley weighed in a five-bass limit worth 16 pounds, 9 ounces to win the tournament, besting the best bass fishing pros in the tournament.

Dudley weighed in 20 bass totaling 54 pounds, 7 ounces during four days of competition fishing. He edged out a man who had previously won this event in 2007, Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., who weighed in five bass today totaling 17 pounds, 8 ounces. Morgan’s four-day total of 53-15 was good enough for second place – and a $35,000 check.

“Winning a tournament like this really drives me,” said Dudley, who now has 32 top-10 finishes and six victories in FLW competition. “Me and Glenn (Browne) are good friends, but when he said on stage yesterday that there were only three anglers in contention to win and he didn’t mention my name, well, it really fueled my fire. So thank you, Glenn Browne. What I did today was like hitting two grand slams in the last inning of a baseball game. I just kept plucking away at it. It’s a passion for me.

“You really just have to go out there and catch as much as you can,” Dudley continued. “You can’t worry about what the other guy is doing. Fishing is so much of a mental game; you have to be mentally tough. It’s not about the skill, it’s about the decisions. It’s not like I’m a better angler than anybody out there. It’s the decisions that we make that separate us.”

Dudley used his decision-making skills today to leap from fourth place after Saturday’s weigh-in into the top spot. He caught most of his fish this week on an umbrella rig, but changed his strategy this afternoon after having a slow morning.

“I was catching them all week on the umbrella rig, but around 1 p.m. I realized that if I wanted to win I was going to need to switch it up,” he said. “I went to a steep bank that I had caught a couple off of this week using a wacky worm, and the wind was blowing pretty good against it. I made the decision to switch back to the wacky worm and I just worked my way down that bank. I caught four or five keepers and culled a couple of times, and it just seemed to turn on for me. Everywhere I stopped I caught a big one. I ended up only weighing in one on the umbrella rig today.”

Despite the umbrella rig being a key part of Dudley’s success throughout the week, he knows that it was not the only factor in his victory.

“That rig is something that we are all still learning about,” said Dudley. “It’s gotten a bad name because some people say that it mistreats the fish, but it doesn’t do any of that. It’s a lure that is going to catch some fish, but it does not dominate. Of my 20 bass that I weighed in, only 13 of them came on the umbrella rig. Seven of my fish came on different lures. The umbrella rig is a tool, not a cure-all tool. I believe the key decision to my tournament was not going after the spotted bass. I had a legit 10 to 12 schools located, and it was very tempting. I knew I couldn’t rely on them, though, because they would not have had the weight that helped me get to this spot today.”

Moments after his emotional victory, Dudley was already looking ahead to the next FLW Tour event on the Potomac River.

“I’m really looking forward to the Potomac, that’s for sure. I really love tidal rivers and I love the current. The Potomac is a very healthy fishery right now, so all of you Fantasy Fishing players out there better pick some good power fishermen.”

The remaining top 10 pros finished the tournament in:

3rd: Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., 20 bass, 53-9, $30,000

4th: Scott Canterbury, Springville, Ala., 20 bass, 52-13, $25,000

5rd: Glenn Browne, Ocala, Fla., 20 bass, 51-14, $20,000

6th: Jay Yelas, Corvallis, Ore., 20 bass, 50-5, $17,000

7th: Charlie Evans, Gilbertsville, Ky., 20 bass, 46-10, $16,000

8th: Jacob Powroznik, Prince George, Va., 20 bass, 45-14, $15,000

9th: Kelley Jaye, Dadeville, Ala., 19 bass, 40-2, $14,000

10th: Brad Rightnour, Mingoville, Pa., 17 bass, 38-12, $13,000

Overall there were 46 bass weighing 115 pounds even caught by pros Sunday. The catch included eight five-bass limits.

Chad Pipkens of Holt, Mich., won the co-angler division and $25,000 Saturday with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 22-15 followed by Todd Lee of Jasper, Ala., in second place with 10 bass weighing 18-14 worth $7,500.

In FLW Tour Major tournaments, pros and co-anglers are competing for valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup. The top 35 pro and co-anglers in the point standings from the six FLW Tour Major tournaments will qualify.

[Stump bumper]

He started out in Prairie Creek then junked fished down the river but they didn't say how far, that could be past Pt 12 or down to the Nursery Pond. That was my loosing pattern for years..lol I always catch more fish North of RT 12 Bridge but the bigger fish South of RT12 but I would have liked a few more details of where he was fishing but guess we will have to weight until the show and try to id the area's by cliffs and boat docs.

One year there was a big cliff point the winner was hitting a lot of fish on and I rewound that clip a hundred times and never made up mind if it was a cliff sticking out across from Rocky Branch or just south of Hickory Creek. Both are good places but after taking photos of both and comparing them to the footage I still could not tell and that kind of thing just bugs me to no end.....how about a shot of the GPS once in a while????

I really don't want to camp out on one hole I just like to know where I am watching when it is a lake I know so well.....

Glad they came and spent their money and had a good time..glad they are gone....looking forward to their return....

[Quillback]

Yeah Stumper I'm with you on knowing where on the lake they are, we'll all have to keep out eyes open when the run the footage to see if we can figure out where they were fishing. Between all of us Beaver fishermen we should be able to recognize some of the spots.

I'm glad they're gone too, I'm not anti-tournament but lately there's just been too many big tourneys on Beaver.

[Feathers and Fins]

They didnt bother me at all the last few days other then PC was a zoo, so i just launched at 12 bridge. Most the fish I have been getting they ignored. Long points way out from shore. Yesterday was hilarious. I had a Keitech dangling from the boat while I was muching some Pizza and a Browny came right up and grabbed it. Nothing monsterous just a little 14incher but still funny.... Only Major bad thing I saw was way to many boats following them around at speed causing major wakes and some Kayakers getting waked bad.

[Stump bumper]

That's nothing compared to Table Rock. I like the Arkansas side of the Rock just because it is quite and when the fog moves in I don't have to fear for my life there might be a 100 boat take off about to happen.

I would love to move over to Bull Shoals just for the lack of population it is like seeing Beaver 20 years ago but that is the price you pay for growth and alot of people that have moved here are really good people.

After the Elites fished Bull Shoals I still don't think it will get much more action since it has been a tournament lake for 20 years but with the main population centers around the Rock and North Fork it is just easier for the weekend tournaments to stay on their local lakes.

Weekend tournaments don't bother near as much as the WAKE BOAT craze, I can't fish the dog days in the daylight anymore just because of those boats......guess it's just a sign of age.

That's funny Fin that people are starting to chase them, I did that one year, I followed the leader around for the last two days and I was the only one doing so. I only have a 115hp so the camera man started cluing me in on the next move so I could get a head start..lol I was really wanting to be the back seater on day three the guy was just sitting there most of the time while the Pro was flipping into flooded brush I just kept thinking of a hundred different lures he could have been throwing that would not have affected the pro at all. Then again I hardly fished fished both days just took notes and talked to the camera boat no need to mark anything on the GPS since he was just hitting brush around all the hot map points.

Funny though how bass fisherman like the bank and less than 10 feet of water when Beaver is a flooded farmland, forest and towns and just full of structure everywhere. I have even seen bass spawning on cliffs 20ft deep and escape to 80ft of water when I tried to cast to their bed.

[jeb]

I saw Dudley in several areas around PC Sunday. I was out from about 9am to noon and ran down to Shaddox at one point. He was easy to spot with a WalMart spotter boat following him around, but staying well back. I guess I saw him fishing 5 or 6 places. I had no idea at the time who it was since I really don't follow the pro's that closely. But the Castrol boat stands out, so it was easy to spot.

When I saw him, not a single fan boat was following him. Only the WalMart boat. I thought that was kind of unusual. But he was "only" in 4th place.

[Feathers and Fins]

This is an example of some of the fish im getting off the long points... Pay No attention to whats in its mouth They are super secret baits lol

That fish is 17'' long and 15.5'' on girth and I have been getting 10 to 15 a day that size no problem on that Keitech.

[jeb]

That's a football!