FLW BASS TOURNAMENT

Triumph an encore for Airey

NWA Democrat-Gazette/BEN GOFF -- 04/26/15 Matt Arey, FLW pro from Shelby, N.C., holds up one of his bass during weigh-in on the final day of the Walmart FLW Tour at Beaver Lake at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers on Sunday Apr. 26, 2015. Arey won the event for the second year in a row with a four-day total of 55 lbs. 6 oz.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/BEN GOFF -- 04/26/15 Matt Arey, FLW pro from Shelby, N.C., holds up one of his bass during weigh-in on the final day of the Walmart FLW Tour at Beaver Lake at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers on Sunday Apr. 26, 2015. Arey won the event for the second year in a row with a four-day total of 55 lbs. 6 oz.

ROGERS -- In a replay of the 2014 tournament, Matt Arey of Shelby, N.C., outdueled Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., Sunday to become the first angler to win back-to-back FLW Tour titles on Beaver Lake.

Like last year, Morgan and Arey were in first and second place, respectively, entering the final round of the tournament. Arey caught five bass weighing 17 pounds, 13 ounces for a combined, four-day total weight of 55-6 to win $125,000. He is the only angler to win the Beaver Lake tournament in consecutive years, and is one of three to win it more than once. Clark Wendlandt and Andre Moore are the other two.

Morgan, who led after the second and third days, caught five bass that weighed 9-8. His four-day total of 48-10 dropped him to third place ($25,000) behind Tracy Adams of Wilksboro, N.C., who caught five bass weighing 15-3 for a cumulative 49-12 that was worth $30,000.

"I've had an unbelievable day that I'll never repeat," Arey said. "Some things happened out there that just don't happen."

One thing that doesn't usually happen is catching big bass with a muskellunge fishing technique. Arey said he's been watching a lot of muskie fishing videos lately and knows that Muskies are notorious for following lures and biting at the boat. Anglers that give up too quickly won't catch fish. Arey remembered that when his first and biggest bass of the day came out to play. It was a 5-pounder that came out from under a boat dock and followed Arey's swimbait to the boat.

Arey's cameraman had stepped onto the casting deck to shoot video. Knowing the bass would spook if it saw them, Arey fell to his knees and ordered his cameraman to do the same. The fish, a 5-pound largemouth, bit with only a few feet of line in the water.

"As a rookie I would have stayed standing up, and that fish would have turned around and gone back under the dock," Arey said. "Most times when you're out of line, most people pick it up. I kept it in the water and kept pulling it down the side of the boat, and she ate it."

Because muskies are known for late strikes, experienced muskie anglers pull the lure in a figure-eight pattern once before lifting it from the water. That's often when the strike occurs, and Arey said he would have done the figure-eight if the bass didn't bite when it did.

"I would have tried, no doubt," Arey said. "I would have had to come back because there was nothing else I could do. If I would have stopped, that fish wouldn't have ate it because it would have just killed the action."

The homemade, 5 1/4-inch swimbait was Arey's primary lure, but he also used a watermelon/red Lunkerstick soft jerkbait. He said he caught about 20 fish with those lures. Except for two fish he caught near Rocky Branch on Saturday, he said he caught all of his fish from Prairie Creek to about 8 miles up the White River.

Morgan said he has no regrets because he did the best he could do under the circumstances. Arey caught bigger fish, and he had the inexplicable quirky incident that often creates momentum and decides the outcomes of tournaments.

"It just takes some good fortune," Morgan said. "Somebody's going to catch a big one or two, and that's going to win every time."

Morgan said he knew he was in trouble at 2 p.m., when he had only a couple of small fish in his livewell. Check-in was at 2:50 p.m.

"I told my cameraman, 'It's done. I've got to go make some money,'" Morgan said. "I picked up my shaky head and caught a couple of pretty nice fish and ended up third. I would have been, like, 10th, so I made 10 grand extra and salvaged a good payday."

Sports on 04/27/2015

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