Once again, high rising muddy water had professional tournament angler Mark Pack from Mineola, Texas, in the driver’s seat at the 2009 Wal-Mart FLW Open on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas.  Numerous fans and anglers had picked Pack as the winner on their Fantasy Fishing team.  In reality, the odds were on their side.  Pack had won it the year before while fishing in the same high, rising muddy water conditions.  Winning it again seemed like a sure bet.

“Unlike last year,” Pack continued, “that was more of a post spawn bite, this year more bass had just spawned or moved off their beds”.  Pack had his limit of bass in just 23 minutes on day one of the tournament, compared to taking five hours on day two.

Pack fished in areas between Horseshoe Bend and Hickory Creek, focusing on shallow points or grass flats.  Unfortunately, another boat was sitting on one of his best spots both days of the tournament.  For the majority of the tournament, Pack had little boat traffic or other competitors around him.

Pack revealed a couple keys to his successful finish.  First, current in the areas he fished in; in fact, there was more moving current the first day of the tournament which made catching bass better and second, the presents of shad.  “I look for blue herons as I run down the lake after the spawn,” Pack continued, “the bass will be where the shad are; I learned this guiding for bass on Lake Fork in Texas”.  “The same pattern will catch bass at any highland lake like Table Rock, just find shallow pea gravel points and the blue herons,” explained Pack.

The main lures Pack used during the Beaver Lake tournament were a (www.lftlures.com) 4-inch or 5-inch Lake Fork Trophy Lure (www.lftlures.com) Hyper Freak in green pumpkin Texas rigged with a ½-ounce LFT Tungsten Mega Weight on 20-pound test Parallelium Fluorohybrid FH fishing line (Fluorohybrid FH is a co-extruded hybrid of an advanced coplymer inner core with an outer layer of premium fluorocarbon.), an unnamed homemade jig with a LFT Hyper Worm in black neon trailer, and a Chatterbait with a Magic Shad in orange/chartreuse trailer over flood grass.

Looking back at the tournament, Pack was pleased with the results.  “By finishing in 21st place, I moved up 20 spots and into the 40th place of the overall standing,” Pack said.  This gives him a solid chance of making it to his third FLW Cup Championship.  As for Beaver Lake, he can only hope for lots of rain to fall…next spring of course.