ON TOUR
COSTA FLW SERIES
COSTA FLW SERIES | LAKE HAVASU
LAKE HAVASU CITY, ARIZ.
By Jody White
PHOTOS BY MATT PACE
WINNING ANGLER
shaun bailey Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
Winning Weight: 49-05( 15 fish)
details: Feb. 8-10, 2018
Presented by Ranger Boats
Hosted by Lake Havasu City Convention & Visitors Bureau
Western Divison
shaun Bailey has been close to the top quite a few times in FLW competition on Lake Havasu, including a pair of fourthplace finishes, but until this season he wasn’ t able to close the deal on a win. Finally, the local pro got it done when the Western Division returned to Arizona in February.
Bailey followed an offshore script that he’ s previously used successfully for a number of high finishes on the Colorado River reservoir, and it resulted in three consecutive bags of more than 15 pounds each.
Bailey, who primarily targeted brush piles in 15 to 22 feet of water, weighed 15 largemouths from the multispecies fishery. Havasu has tons of artificial“ habitats,” or man-made fish cribs, planted as part of the Lake Havasu Fisheries Improvement Partnership, and they’ re popular fishing targets in major tournaments. Yet Bailey avoided them because they are hard to exploit and aren’ t as productive these days as the brush piles planted in recent years.
Bailey fished slowly, and only targeted a handful of brush piles each day. Because of his confidence in his spots, the Havasu guide was willing to sit on certain piles for what seemed like ages in an effort to fool a big one.
Bailey picked apart his brush piles with a finesse Carolina rig – or mojo rig – as well as a couple crankbaits.
“ That’ s been my bread and butter here for years,” says Bailey of his finesse rig.
“ Everyone likes to drop-shot here, and I never drop-shot. I throw a little mini-Carolina rig with a Roboworm on it and fish the same stuff as everybody else. I think I get a few more bites.”
Fishing with a 1 / 8- to 1 / 4- ounce bullet sinker on his rig, Bailey varied between a 4 1 / 2-inch Roboworm Curly Tail Worm or a 4 1 / 2-inch Roboworm Straight Tail Worm, both in oxblood light red flake. His crankbaits included the Evergreen CR-8 and CR-16 in fire craw and olive craw, as well as a shallower-running Evergreen Spin Craft crankbait.
HAIR MAKES WAVES
Several top 10 anglers relied on the SPRO Phat Fly and small marabou jigs, and they fished them a variety of ways. Chris Kinley( fourth) washed his with the current in the river as though nymphing for trout. David Valdivia( second) essentially dead-sticked his. Tom Leedom( sixth) used a technique popular among Upper Midwest smallmouth anglers and swam his back to the boat.
Though hair didn’ t win, it’ s just another sign that there’ s something special about clear water and the natural movement of a tiny, fuzzy jig.
WINNING CO-ANGLER
Jason akins Apple Valley, Calif.
Winning Weight: 32-14( 9 fish)
Winning program:
Jason Akins blanked on day one, but rallied back hard while fishing behind Shaun Bailey and David Valdivia on days two and three. He did it all by dragging a brown and green 3 / 8- ounce jig and fishing a 3 / 16-ounce drop-shot with brown and green Roboworm Straight Tail Worms.
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FLWFIshIng. COm I apRIL 2018