His other spinning rig was an ES66ML rod and Stella reel with 6-pound-test Duel fluorocarbon. It sported the same jigworm combination. Fukae used his 7-foot rod and 8-pound monofilament when he fished spots littered with flooded timber. The 61⁄2- foot rod and 6-pound fluorocarbon was reserved for spots devoid of timber.
His Approach: During the week before my visit, Fukae had checked deep pockets along the main body of the reservoir, hoping to find groups of big bass. He caught some hefty fish, but no bona fide lunkers, not unusual for anglers at Beaver. Though he never found a cache of lunkers, Fukae continues to think the bulk of Beaver’s big smallmouth and spotted bass inhabit deep, main-lake flats year-round, spawning on long, flat, main-lake points connected to the flats.
Fukae’s thinking parallels that of such knowledgeable Ozark anglers as Guido Hibdon of Gravois Mills, Missouri. It’s Hibdon’s contention that most of Beaver’s big spotted and smallmouth bass behave like those at nearby Table Rock Lake, living year-round on main-lake flats in depths of 25 to 60 feet and feeding on shad. Because these bass are often suspended and roaming, they’re highly elusive, making them difficult for tournament anglers to consistently pinpoint and catch. According to Hibdon, these roaming bass are an ideal quarry for local anglers who are experts with electronics and have time to pursue them for months on end.
In tournaments, Fukae says his daily goal is to catch 20 bass, with the total weight of the five biggest about 11 pounds. He’s calculated that if he can achieve that goal at every tournament, he’ll always be in the running for the Angler-of-the-Year laurels.
April 1 was the third day after a new moon, and Fukae wanted to explore some of the reservoir’s shallow areas, where Beaver Lake bass traditionally spawn. Many of these spots were secondary points inside creeks and hollows. He suspected that the effects of the new moon might have provoked some bass to invade the shallows in preparation for spawning. Most secondary points he fished were relatively flat and composed of gravel and chunk rock. Flooded cedar and hardwood trees embellished many of them, and their topography was often littered with massive boulders, as well.
While he fished the shallow areas, he wore a pair of Swan polarized sunglasses with brownish-yellow lenses to periodically search the underwater terrain, hoping to spot bass. He began looking for them at his first stop of the day, a shallow spot on the main lake about 6 miles east of the Prairie Creek boat ramp. This gravelly area featured a boat dock and flooded timber, but no visible bass.
Fukae twice complained that it wasn’t sunny enough to do a thorough job of spotting fish. Nevertheless, by the end of the day he’d managed to see two dozen of them. Most were seen during the afternoon as water temperatures gradually rose, and several looked to be 3-pounders. It was the first day he’d seen any shallow bass. He enticed two of them to engulf his jigworm.
As he searched and fished, Fukae explained that he likes fishing clear lakes and relishes sight-fishing, but wind, clouds, and low-light conditions can confound this approach. Moreover, it can eat up too much of an angler’s day, causing him to spend too much time looking rather than fishing. And during a tournament, when scores of other anglers are sight-fishing, good areas can become too congested, making the bass wary.
