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 .

FLWFIshIng . COm I apRIL 2018

Bass Fishing Apr 2018 | Page 84

COSTA FLW SERIES | LAKE HAVASU