Though hardly average, Lawyer, 39, is typical of the best
anglers that are coming out of the Ozarks these days to test
their skills in other regions of the country. Since 2012, for
instance, BFL anglers from the Ozarks have captured three of
five All-American titles. In that period, the only All-American
titles claimed by “outsiders” were in 2013 when Kerry Milner
of northeast Arkansas won and in 2015 when Canadian
range of fisheries – Truman Reservoir, Beaver Lake, Stockton
Lake, Table Rock, Lake of the Ozarks, Bull Shoals. All those
fisheries are different from each other in some respects, but
what they share are features and fish similar to those likely to
be encountered at various FLW tournament stops.
“We have a whole lot of different things going on in four or
five different lakes. You better learn how to compete on each
of them if you want to get your lunch money back,”
offers Lawyer. “A long time ago, when I was a teenag-
er, I decided I really wanted to pursue a career in tour-
naments. An older family member who fished a lot
told me if I could compete in the Ozarks I could com-
pete anywhere. I think he was right.”
It’s not simply their access to a variety of fisheries
that makes Ozark anglers so competitive, however,
but how well they prepare for a tournament and then
follow the game plan that experience and practice
suggest.
Navigating the Mental Maze
Jeremy Lawyer is bound for the All-American and Forrest Wood Cup in 2017
for the second consecutive year.
Curtis Richardson of The Bass Federation took it home.
Incidentally, Lawyer was runner-up to Richardson.
Lawyer started fishing FLW tournaments in the early
2000s and has collected almost $300,000 in winnings since.
One of his rivals, Marcus Sykora – the 2014 All-American
champion from Osage Beach, Mo. – has won more than
$284,000, all except about $51,000 of it in BFL competition.
Lawyer and Sykora are joined by a small army of Ozark fish-
ermen who have made names for themselves in the pro
ranks of both FLW and B.A.S.S.: Guido and Dion Hibdon,
Denny Brauer, Randy Blaukat, Basil Bacon, Stacey King, James
Watson, Shane Long, Greg Bohannan, Travis Fox and Mark
Tucker among them.
What makes anglers from the Ozark Mountain region
encompassing the southwest corner of Missouri, the north-
west corner of Arkansas and parts of northeast Oklahoma so
good? To some degree, it’s due to the “home lake advantage”
they find just about anywhere they fish. Like anglers in the
Carolinas and eastern Tennessee in particular, Ozark anglers
hone their skills and launch their tournament careers on a
What time of year is it, and what are the water con-
ditions? Those are the first two questions Lawyer asks
himself regardless of where he is fishing, and how he
answers them determines his approach.
“Is it prespawn, spawn or postspawn? How high
and dirty is the water, and what’s the temperature?
You answer all the questions about the fishery and
start from there,” says Lawyer. “It sounds pretty basic,
but I think that a lot of fishermen skip the details and
just start fishing where it looks good to them.”
Similarly, Sykora devises a strategy by first checking the
Internet to learn as much as he can about a lake and current
fishing conditions, including reviewing any results to see what
it took to win the most recent tournament. He pays special
attention to how much weight it took to place in the top 10,
and tries to approximate the average winning weights in
practice.
“I’m not really that interested in how an event was won,
but what the threshold was for doing well in it,” admits
Sykora, who grew up fishing Lake of the Ozarks. “After that, I
start dialing in my mapping and phone apps, looking for
things that suit my way of fishing based on the patterns that
might be in play.”
Among the common traits that Lawyer and Sykora share
are their mastery of electronics and an understanding of
where bass are likely to
be based on season,
forage and bottom con-
tours. In a way, much of
their know-how comes
The first angler from the Ozark region to make a splash on the
national tournament scene was Forrest L. Wood of Flippin, Ark.
In November 1969, Wood and fellow team members Bill Dance,
Bob Ponds (father of current FLW Tour pro Pete Ponds) and Bobby
Murray won the Lake Eufaula Team Championship with a combined
total of 120 pounds, 6 ounces over three days. Held in November,
the Team Championship was the 13th tournament conducted by the
fledgling Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.). Soon after he won the B.A.S.S.
New York Invitational in 1979, Wood gave up competitive fishing to run his growing
company: Ranger Boats.
OZARK
pioneer
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FLWFISHING.COM I APRIL 2017