ROGERS - Jason Christie of Park Hill, Okla., caught small bass Sunday, but they were big enough to win the FLW Wal-Mart Open and $125,000 at Beaver Lake.
Christie said he knew he didn’t need a repeat of Saturday’s 20-pound weigh-in to win the tournament, and he was right. He finished Sunday with five bass that weighed 14 pounds, 1 ounce for a four-day total of 61-8, giving him a 3.5 pound winning margin over Shawn Murphy of Nicholasville, Ky., who also caught five bass that weighed 14-1 for a four-day total of 58-3. Murphy won $35,000.
Bryant’s Scott Suggs finished fifth with a 55-5 total, good for $20,000. Mark Rose of West Memphis was sixth with a 53-5 total, earning $17,000.
Christie said he was eager when he started fishing Sunday, but concern set in when he caught only three small spotted bass in his main areas.
“The schools I had, even if I didn’t catch a big weight, I still expected to put five in the live well,” Christie said. “When I left with just three ‘spots,’ that was like not having any because they were little bitty. I just went fishing after that.”
Late in the day, Christie went to a spot that he hadn’t fished all week, and it produced the two fish that put him over the top.
“It’s like all athletics. When you’re playing good, you have confidence in yourself. It seems like you make good decisions,” Christie said. “I wasn’t doing good at 10 o’clock, but I never lost confidence. Something told me to fish that spot, and there was a little window in there where I caught them.”
Christie used a Yumrella Flash Mob Jr., a compact umbrella rig with 3/16-ounce Yum Money Head jig heads and a variety of swimbaits, including the Yum Mud Minnow.
“Everything I used, the colors resemble a baby bass, a green back with kind of a clear belly,” Christie said, adding that he caught his fish between 4-8 feet.
He caught his big fish Friday and Saturday in Kelly Creek, but he said the fishing conditions were actually better Sunday.
“Today, the wind was blowing in,” said Christie, describing Saturday’s early morning water conditions as slick, calm and dirty. “I think a group of pre-spawners had moved up overnight, and I was lucky enough to pick that as my starting spot.”
Christie’s victory continues a streak of productive performances. He also finished fourth at the FLW Tour event at Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama in March, and he finished seventh at the Bassmaster Classic in February. He said he’s earned about $200,000 since the beginning of the year.
Suggs started the day in fifth place and finished in fifth place. The big smallmouth bass he caught all week were absent, so he scrambled to catch a mixed bag of smallmouths, largemouths and spotted bass.
“I thought coming in here that 55 pounds would be enough to win it, but Beaver Lake has gone crazy,” Suggs said. “I really thought today would be the day to catch the smallmouth, but today and the first day set up a whole lot alike and I struggled both days.”
Knowing he needed a big day, Rose said he “called an audible” to try to improve his weight. He caught one big fish that weighed about 5 pounds, but his other four didn’t provide much help.
“I knew I was going to have to try to hit a home run, so I went out and tried to do something big,” Rose said. “I thought I was going to crush them after that, but I went down the lake and didn’t catch anything else for three hours.”
Sports, Pages 13 on 04/15/2013