Pattern of the Week: Beaver Lake, AR

FLWOutdoors.com

The pattern used to win last weekend’s FLW Tour event on Beaver Lake, AR – an upland reservoir – was remarkable for two reasons. Winner Matt Arey: a) specifically avoided clear water; and b) fished a jig the entire time.

Do jigs work on Beaver? Sure. They catch bass. But this time of year on Beaver, anglers are typically focused on fishing clear water with jerkbaits, crankbaits (mostly Storm Wiggle Warts, killer this time of year on upland reservoirs) and shakey heads, with maybe a swimbait on a jighead too.

Also, conventional wisdom is that upland reservoir bass that are used to clear water hate dirty water. Not true, as this win and a few others have proved. Info from FLWOutdoors.com:

> “I was looking for something that was going to be consistent no matter the weather,” Arey said. “I knew the clear-water guys would struggle when the weather changed. I looked for places where big female largemouths would be moving up to stage or even pulling up to spawn.”

> Arey gravitated toward dirty to in-between water, focusing on the Prairie Creek community hole and the first four miles of the White River upstream from the Highway 12 bridge.

> Arey found consistency on transitional areas near the backs of spawning pockets. He found bass staging on underwater rock shelves formed where small bluffs transitioned to a flatter bottom. On the final two days, Arey believes four or five of his keepers were actually spawning on the shelves.

> All of his fish were caught by hopping a 1/2- or 3/8-ounce green pumpkin ball-head jig rigged with a Wackem Crazy Baits twin-tail trailer through the rocks. The “clicking” sound created by the jig tapping the rocks was the perfect attraction….

> “Those fish were really, really dialed in on crawfish. I had crawfish pinchers all over my boat. I’ve never been on a good jig bite here, but my best bait was that little ball-head jig.

> “What I always try to do during practice is adjust my cadence to see what the fish want. So many people get caught up just dragging a jig or swimming it. I tried different cadences, and that [hopping retrieve] was the one. About 80 percent of my bites were on the fall. The others were there when I picked up on it after the cast.”

Category: AR, FLW Tour, Pattern Details, Pattern of the Week, Upland Reservoir