Matt Arey on Fishing as a Co-angler
I called Matt Arey today a touring FLW Pro who advanced through the co-angler ranks winning the FLW Forrest Wood Cup as a co-angler in 2007 which then qualified him for the FLW Tour as a Pro. I wanted to learn from his experiences on the trail as a co-angler.
He is a great guy and family man and has always supported the upcoming fishing community by doing seminars at highschools, colleges, and events like casting for kids. Recently he attended a fishing meeting at Gardner-Webb’s fishing club, and was featured in the Gaston Gazette where they profiled him and the Gardner-Webb fishing team. I found this article through BaitDeals website, check them out they have some great deals on fishing tackle from across the web.
I told him about me potentially fishing all of the FLW Everstarts and Tour Events as a co-angler and he told me I might just want to fish the tour events as a co-angler and then fish as many other tournaments as a boater as possible. The touring pros on the FLW Tour are the best in the country and I would learn the most from them. But I need on the water boater experience to keep my decision making strong and to learn from my mistakes instead of strictly relying on someone else to put me on fish.
So Matt’s advice in a nutshell; fish the tour as a Co-angler for 3 years, while fishing the Everstarts and BFLs as a boater. If I do well on the Everstarts and BFLs move up to the Tour when I am ready.
He said that he would help me find practice partners for the tour events, invite me to dinners, and possibly help me find housing with some of the guys on tour. If you want to learn more about Matt Arey check out his personal website or his FLW bio page: http://www.flwoutdoors.com/community/profile/home.cfm?uid=1374
http://www.rackandreeloutfitters.com/
Photo Courteous of FLW Outdoors
Alabama Rig!!!
The hottest lure on the market right now is by far the Alabama rig, with 6 pros all in the top ten catching multiple bass at the same time at the same tournament turned a lot of heads. Now a rig that used to make people laugh and say that’s just nonsense is going to be in ever anglers tackle box by Christmas.
The Alabama Rig is essentially 5 wires connected to a head leading to where the fishing line is connected. This allows multiple baits to be used at the same time which imitates a school of shad causing major reaction strikes when fish are waiting to forage for schools of shad. Which is a perfect
bait for fall time or ledge fishing.
With the rise of any great bait, lure, or technique companies and individuals are able to profit. The last great lure to hit the market in swarms was the Chatterbait made by Z-Man, which were hard to
replicate however Boo-yah was able to come out with a nice blade bait replica. With the Alabama Rig almost anyone could make it as long as they have swivels, spinnerbait wire, lead, and a molded for the head portion of the rig. If you check Ebay right now you will see lots of lures that say they are Alabama Rig Like where guys are replicating the rig and charging upwards of $35 dollars with real A-Rigs selling for over $45 since the Alabama Rig Company has a waiting list of over 5 weeks.
Working at Bass Pro Shops I have seen several guy coming in to sell there imitation rigs at a pricy $29-$40 each. Well today I finally broke down and bought two to test the waters. I tested the rig with Buckeye Lures swimbait heads, and Wave shad baits.
My take on the A-rig… It is gorgeous. Never have I seen a set up that imitates a school of shad like the Alabama rig. You would think that the wire would detract from the appeal of the rig but it seems like the bass don’t mind and I sure couldn’t see the wire very well with the school of shad swimming by in front of me.
Post Season Planning Phase
At the end of any sporting season athletes begin to prepare for next years season, fishing is no different. This past year has been a busy year for me, I spent numerous days fishing and prefishing for major college tournaments in addition to practice for local tournaments. During the year I am often asked how long a fishing season lasts, and my usual answer is something along the lines of “Never, because it is a year round sport and something can always be learned from fishing in various conditions.”
So what am I doing between now and January? I am preparing for next years tournaments. Recently all of the FLW Tour and Everstart Tournament schedules were released, along with the BASS opens schedules, and dates for local tournaments near my house been released also.
I have compiled a spreadsheet for all costs associated with fishing all 27 tournaments which would put me on the road for 162 days and traveling around 37,277 miles between January 16th-October 17th. Now that I have calculated all of my expenses and figured out my schedule I am looking for a title sponsor, and major sponsors for next years season. I will be posting next years schedule soon.
FLW College National Championship
Kentucky Lake Tournament
Two weeks prior to the tournament the water raised six feet and warmed to the 60 degree mark. All of the bass started to pull into the backs of creeks and into the brush. The weekend before the tournament the water began to drop two feet a day. Causing a total water drop of eight feet at the start of the tournament, then a big storm south of Kentucky Lake caused the water to rise two feet over the course of the tournament.
The previous week all of the fish had been in spawn mood and were in three feet of water or less. With all the changing water conditions the fish spread out during the tournament everywhere from shallow water to deep main lake points. The start of the tournament on April 7th had wind blowing in excess of 40 mph from the south and caused rolling five footers on the main lake. Joe and Tyler boated over 40 fish on the first day of the tournament just none of them measured the coveted 15 inch mark on Kentucky Lake causing the team to zero on day one. On the second day of the tournament Tyler and I both missed several fish over the 4lb mark on crankbaits and senkos. I was able to boat one fish over the 15inch mark on the second day.
FLW National Championship Practice
Kentucky Lake is one of the best known bass tournament lakes in the world. It is famous for high water conditions in the spring, allowing anglers to flip bushes and picnic tables, and is famous for its deep water ledge fishing in the summer. April 7th-9th FLW College Fishing National Championship was held there and UNC Charlotte qualified for the action. Myself and Tyler Teer qualified with a top 5 finish at Lake Erie to advance to the regionals at Jordon Lake, NC where they took home second and a berth in to the 2011 National Championship.
I met up with Bink Desaro, another Fetha Styx Pro Staff member and a touring FLW pro at Bass Pro Shops and talked about the strategy for fishing Kentucky Lake prior to practicing for the event. After heading good advice from Bink, Tyler Teer and I left Charlotte during our spring break to spend a week pre-fishing Kentucky Lake. During the course of the week, numerous spots were found with rocks, gravel, stumps, sandy banks, and bushes all over the lake. I marked over 400 waypoints, and giant bass and small bass were caught allowing us to find the migration route of the bass. Primarily using wiggle warts, jigs and sweet beavers. The best day of practice would have netted the duo 32lbs on five fish! The largest fish boated would have been a 20lb freshwater drum also known as a gaspergoo in the south.
Smith Mountain Lake
Smith Mountain
Smith Mountain Lake is a mountain reservoir located near Roanoke, Virginia with water clarity up to 20 feet in depth in some areas and zero feet in others where muddy rivers flow into the reservoir.
On the weekend of March 20th:
I began practicing for the FLW College Northern Qualifier the week before the tournament warm weather heated up the waters from cold 40’s into the upper 50’s causing the large females to move into the back of the pockets. I capitalized on this by throwing square billed crankbaits and jigs in the very back of pockets. Practice went extremely well boating over 20 pounds of bass two days in a row. The difficult decision was whether to fish on the eastern side of the lake or the western side since fishing was great on both sides. The outlook for the following weekend was looking extremely well.
On March 27th:
The day of the tournament the weather changed for the worse — a massive cold front blew in dropping the water temperature to 49 degrees. Half an inch of rain fell the night before the tournament and during the tournament snow, sleet, and hail fell from the skies. The fish were still in the same areas, they just shut down and suspended in the middle of the creeks about 8-10 feet down. Using a variety of crankbaits and Fetha Styx Homewater 704 casting rods Kinchen and Teer were able to scrap together 3 fish for 8lbs. This put them into 13th place just outside the top five positions needed to advance to the FLW Regional Championship.
Oakley Big Bass Classic-Lake Norman
At the Oakley Big Bass Classic on Lake Norman this year I struggled to boat a fish large enough to get me into one of the hourly payouts. I thought I had the tournament won when I hooked into an 8lb striper on topwater first thing on day one but unfortunately it was the wrong species of bass. Throughout the two day tournament I caught plenty of fish in the 2lb-2.5lb range but none of them were quiet large enough to cash a check. Below is a prewrite up I wrote for Fetha Styx Fishing Rods while I was fishing on the college trails. To see this post at Fetha Styx click HERE.
Bass Rats Represented at Oakley Big Bass Classic on Lake Norman
I spent the past weekend practicing for the Jamie McMurray Carolina Oakley Big Bass Classic this upcoming Saturday and Sunday on Lake Norman.
Three of our members are fishing in the tournament this weekend. Myself, Adam Waters, and Shane Lehew will be testing our luck on Lake Norman — the home body of water for all of us. The winner walks away with a fully-equipped Nitro Z-8 with a 200hp Mercury engine valued at $33,000, along with hourly weigh-ins both days.
The name of the game for this tournament is strictly big bass. The weather forecast is going to be warm and sunny with highs in the 80′s. We have all spent time on the water this weekend pre-fishing and have found that 80% of the bass on Lake Norman have already spawned out and fry are everywhere along with empty beds littering the banks. Bluegill/bream are taking over the empty beds and starting to make beds in the shallow pocket areas. A good portion of the fish are in a post spawn pattern and are eating everything from crankbaits to jigs but they are thin from the stress of spawning and missing the added weight of carrying around eggs.
Joe Kinchen caught 40 post spawn fish in the 1.5-3lb range on Sunday but was unable to locate any bedding bass. Shane and Adam were fishing in a different section of the lake and caught 12lbs in a J & J fishing trail tournament on Sunday, fishing only for bedding bass. This tournament will be won with a 6-7lb bass caught off of one of the few remaining beds on Lake Norman. These boys all plan on strictly targeting bedding bass to win the tournament.
Maybe Andy Montgomery could give us some advice on where to target our efforts this weekend!
Joe Kinchen
Stay tuned for updates from this weekend’s Oakley Big Bass Classic!
More information on the Jamie McMurray Classic here.
Fetha Styx Fishing Rods
Hey everybody, this article profiles one of my sponsors-Fetha Styx. I wrote this for Fetha Styx Fishing Rods while I was fishing on the college trails. To find this at Fetha Styx click HERE.
Fetha Styx Announces Partnership with UNC Charlotte Bass Fishing Team
Fetha Styx Fishing Rods has partnered with one of the top collegiate fishing teams in the United States, UNC Charlotte. In 2010, FLW Outdoor Magazine ranked UNC Charlotte third in the nation. UNC Charlotte achieves a top-ten finish or higher in almost all competitions entered across the country.
Last year, the team finished second at the Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship on Lake Lewisville in Lewisville, Texas, and followed that up with a second place finish at the 2010 FLW Northern Regional — giving the team a berth into the 2011 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
The club hosts local tournaments bi-weekly and attends invitationals put on by other schools like NC State, Murray State, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Auburn.
The club also hosts two invitationals a year where colleges from nearby states come to UNC Charlotte and compete. Schools that usually attend include: NC State, Clemson, East Carolina, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill, Virginia Tech, Radford University, West Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and UNC Wilmington. Trophies and prize packages of goods are awarded for 1st-3rd place.
UNC Charlotte helped to establish an Adopt-A-Ramp program in North Carolina that follows similar guidelines to the Adopt-A-Highway program. The forms, requirements, and guidelines were developed with the assistance and help of many of their members. UNC Charlotte was the first group to adopt a ramp. For more information and photos of the Adopt-A-Ramp program, visit the North Carolina Public Access Foundation website.
Through our efforts, all of the college fishing teams in North Carolina have adopted a ramp, and several bass fishing clubs in the state have followed suit.
The following UNC Charlotte fishing team members have joined the Fetha Styx Pro Staff: Joe Kinchen, Eric Self, Tyler Beam, Eric Norris, Jake Whitaker, Adam Waters, Jon Bennett, Tyler Teer, Joshua Jolly, and Thomas McGukin. Fetha Styx has granted discount programs for the rest of the team and looks forward to adding more members to the Pro Staff in the future.
2011 Major Tournament Schedule:
3/27 — Smith Mountain Lake, VA — FLW Regional Qualifier
4/7-4/10 — Kentucky Lake, KY — National Championship
5/21-5/22 — Alabama River, AL — College B.A.S.S. East Super Regional
5/24-5/27 — Lake Lewisville, TX — Collegiate Bass National Championship
6/25 — Lake Champlain, NY — FLW Regional Qualifier
6/27 — Kentucky Lake, KY — Pepsi Collegiate Bass Fishing Open
7/30 — 1000 Islands, NY — FLW Regional Qualifier
8/20 — Lake Erie, NY — FLW Regional Qualifier
November — TBD — FLW Regional Championship
Check out the links to the three different college trails below:
FLW College Fishing
College Bass
Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series
