ROGERS, Ark. (May 19, 2007) - Pro Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces Saturday to capture the lead in a top-10 field that includes some of the greatest anglers in the world. Yelas now holds a 2-pound, 7-ounce edge over his closest competitor, Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., heading into the final day of competition in the FLW Tour Open bass fishing tournament on Beaver Lake. If he holds on for the win, Yelas will pocket $150,000.
"Today was very similar to the first two days," said Yelas, who posted a record third consecutive FLW Tour top-10 finish at Beaver Lake. "I have a spot that I start on that produced another limit for me. That's the third day in a row that I've started there, and me and my partner pulled nine fish off of that spot, so I guess that's pretty good. You would think there'd be another five in there tomorrow, but you never know."
Yelas said he caught his limit by 8 a.m. using a 6-inch swimbait and spent the rest of the day fishing dead stickups with shad-imitating baits.
"I think I have a good shot of catching another 10 to 12 pounds of fish," Yelas said. "I caught maybe eight or nine keepers today. The fish are around - I just have to get them to bite." Morgan, who has won more than $604,000 in FLW Outdoors events without an FLW Tour victory, caught five fish weighing 9 pounds, 6 ounces to advance to the final day of competition as the No. 2 seed. "It was a terrible day for me," Morgan said. "I lost pretty much every good one I had on, including two that jumped off in the last 30 minutes.
"My schoolers never really showed up this morning," Morgan added. "I just had to grind it out. It was just pretty uneventful." Morgan said he caught his keepers on a 1/8-ounce War Eagle Shakey Head jighead with a watermelon candy Zoom finesse worm. Morgan also employed a Cotton Cordell Red Fin-type bait for topwater schooling fish.
"Tomorrow I'm going to one area I'm really catching them in, and I'm just going to milk it," Morgan said. "If they're schooling in the morning, I'll have a real good shot to beat Jay. If his don't school, he'll have a hard time beating me." Rounding out the top 10 pros are Chad Morgenthaler of Coulterville, Ill. (five bass, 7-3); Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va. (five bass, 6-0); Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla. (four bass, 5-15); J.R. Beehler of Bella Vista, Ark. (four bass, 5-10); Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C. (four bass, 4-13); Ray Scheide of Russellville, Ark. (four bass, 4-13); Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn. (four bass, 4-5) and Alfred Williams of Jackson, Miss. (zero bass, 0-0). Overall there were 40 bass weighing 59 pounds, 14 ounces caught in the Pro Division Saturday. The catch included four five-bass limits.
J.R. Grubb of Hamburg, Ark., won the Co-angler Division and $30,000 Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces followed by Chris Koester of Rogers, Ark., in second place with five bass weighing 11-11 worth $10,000. Grubb opened the tournament in 26th place Thursday with five bass weighing 5-10 while fishing with Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif. On Friday he jumped into second place on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 9-4 while fishing with Jimmy Milsaps of Canton, Ga. He wrapped up his win while fishing with Morgan.
"I'm satisfied with what I had," said Grubb, who is fishing his second season as a co-angler on the FLW Tour. "I had my limit by 10 a.m. and I backed off to let Andy get his fifth fish."
Grubb said he caught his fish using two topwater baits, a white Zara Spook Jr. and a Bomber Long A, which he swam back to the boat.
"I also caught fish on a silver rainbow Fluke, and that's just what it was - a fluke," Grubb said. "I hadn't thrown a Fluke all week, but I had one tied on and I tried it. I had it rigged on 8-pound test line with a 1/8-ounce weighted hook. I'd just dead-stick it by letting it die and then just popping it up."
Koester led co-anglers into the final day of competition, but came up 2 ounces short of the win.
"I'm a little bit sick," said Koester, who caught all of his fish on a swimbait. "There were a lot of ups and downs today. I caught four fish in the first hour, and I thought I was off to the races. Then the bite died. We spent the rest of the day trying to get bit, and I could not catch another keeper."
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers are Arch Cornett of Huntsville, Ala. (five bass, 6-13, $9,000); Dino Caporuscio of Coto de Caza, Calif. (three bass, 5-8, $8,000); Sammy Orr of Maryville, Tenn. (five bass, 5-7, $7,000); Mark Myers of Cedar Falls, Iowa (five bass, 4-15, $6,000); Spencer Shuffield of Bismarck, Ark. (two bass, 3-8, $5,000); James Green of Lincoln, Ala. (two bass, 3-4, $4,000); Andrew Lemle of Perrysburg, Ohio (two bass, 2-8, $3,000) and Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. (two bass, 2-7, $2,000).
Overall there were 36 bass weighing 57 pounds, 14 ounces caught in the Co-angler Division Saturday. The catch included five five-bass limits.
In addition to all the fishing excitement Saturday, Major General Raymond Carpenter presided over enlistment ceremonies for two Arkansans during pretournament festivities at the John Q. Hammons Center. Alicia Goodin, 23, of Fort Smith and Matthew Freeman, 24, of Pea Ridge were sworn in to the Arkansas Army National Guard in front of an appreciative crowd that numbered into the thousands. The soldiers received a standing ovation for their commitment.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 Sunday morning from Prairie Creek Marina located at 1 Prairie Creek Marina Drive in Rogers, Ark., followed by a 4 p.m. weigh-in at the John Q. Hammons Center located at 3303 Pinnacle Hills Pkwy. in Rogers.
In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field competes Thursday and Friday for 10 slots in Saturday's competition based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared Saturday, and co-angler competition concludes following Saturday's weigh-in with the winner determined by the day's heaviest catch. The top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from Saturday and Sunday.