Local favorite Roy Hawk wins Toyota Series Western Division Presented by Tackle Warehouse at Lake Havasu

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – Pro Roy Hawk of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, sparked his professional bass-fishing career with a win on Lake Havasu in 2007. He used the winnings to launch a tournament journey that took him across the country as he competed at the highest levels of the sport, including five years on the Bass Pro Tour . In the 17 years since, the Lake Havasu City native has won three more times, but never again on his home lake.

Until Saturday. Hawk sacked 18 pounds even on the third and final day of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats event on Lake Havasu. That brought his three-day total to 56-10, enough to edge Cristian Melton by 1-3 and top the 55-angler field in the second stop for the Western Division Presented by Tackle Warehouse.

For the win, Hawk earned $55,859, including a $35,000 Phoenix Bonus. Just as gratifying to him was the reception he got from the sizable contingent of family and friends in attendance at the weigh-in.

“Amazing feeling to be here in front of my friends and family,” Hawk said. “These wins, they don’t come easy, and I’m very thankful.”

Hawk, who chose to take a step back from national competition this year in part because he wanted to be able to fish more events on his home waters, leaned on his voluminous bank of Havasu knowledge to earn the win. With the Toyota Series veering from the historic February/March timing of its Havasu visit, his knowledge of traditional postspawn haunts proved particularly valuable.

“I’ve got a million waypoints marked on this lake, all the pieces of structure,” Hawk said. “Going down a bank, I can see on my graph, on my Lowrance units, I can see exactly where the next cast is going to be. Whether it be a brushpile, (artificial) habitat, I have tons of these things marked, and I spent years marking that stuff.”

Hawk spent all three days in the bowl-shaped portion of the Colorado River reservoir. He flitted between a mixture of deep and shallow offshore spots, focusing on inside grass lines when fishing shallow and brushpiles or artificial habitat when deep.

“I’d fish inside grass and then outside fish habitat, structure out there — a little bit of both, kind of going in and out,” he explained. “Every once in a while, you’d get bit out, then I’d run a bunch of out stuff, get no more bites, go back in, get a bite in, then no more bites. So, I was in and out a lot.”

While Hawk knew where to look for prime bass cover thanks to his encyclopedia of waypoints, he used Lowrance ActiveTarget to make precise presentations — particularly when plying the grass.

“I wasn’t looking at fish, I was looking at structure so I could see where my next cast would be,” he said. “And grass — I was looking at where billows of grass were, and where there were clean spots. So, the ActiveTarget helped out a lot with that.” 

Regardless of the area, Hawk triggered most of his bites with a variety of crankbaits. He rotated between six or seven plugs of varying action and depth, throwing them on his Taipan Roy Hawk Signature Series crankbait rods, which he paired with Daiwa reels spooled with Daiwa fluorocarbon. He also mixed in a Yamamoto Speed Senko.

The fact that he earned the win cranking — his favorite technique — made it even more memorable for Hawk … and helped calm his nerves. With the wind picking up and the fish starting to feel the effects of pressure, the bite got a bit tougher on Day 3, and Hawk had to grind to fill his limit. He only caught six keepers all day.

Fortunately for Hawk, they were six of the right ones, enabling him to withstand Melton’s final-day charge and celebrate another victory on the shores of his home lake, 17 years after his first.

“It’s hard not to be nervous, but I just had a good feeling about it,” Hawk said. “I love throwing crankbaits, so to be in that position and knowing that the fish are biting it, I felt really good about it. I really wanted to get it done, for sure. But I leave that up to the Lord. My job is just to go out there and cast and focus and do whatever comes next, and he’ll handle the result.”

The Top 10 pros on Lake Havasu finished:

1st:        Roy Hawk, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 15 bass, 56-10, $55,859 (including $35,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus)
2nd:       Cristian Melton, Menifee, Calif., 15 bass, 55-7, $8,217
3rd:       Mark Lassagne, Dixon, Calif., 15 bass, 51-1, $6,168
4th:        Kyle Grover, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., 15 bass, 50-10, $5,140
5th:        Michael Caruso, Peoria, Ariz., 15 bass, 49-0, $4,626
6th:        Greg Miser, Santee, Calif., 15 bass, 48-5, $4,112
7th:        Zach Verbrugge, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 15 bass, 47-1, $3,598
8th:        Shane Edgar, Glendale, Ariz., 15 bass, 46-9, $3,084
9th:        Justin Kerr, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 13 bass, 46-9, $3,070
10th:     Austin Bonjour, Templeton, Calif., 15 bass, 46-3, $2,056

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Pro Justin Kerr of Lake Havasu City earned Thursday’s $500 Berkley Big Bass Award on Day 1 with a largemouth weighing in at 6 pounds, 6 ounces. The Day 2 $500 Berkley Big Bass Award on Friday was split by pros Ken Mah of Elk Grove, California, and Cristian Melton of Menifee, California, as each brought a bass weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces to the scale.

Larry Rogers of Riverside, California, won the Strike King Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 44 pounds, 14 ounces. Rogers took home the top co-angler prize package worth $33,500, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard motor.

The Top 10 Strike King co-anglers on Lake Havasu finished:

1st:        Larry Rogers, Riverside, Calif., 15 bass, 44-14, Phoenix 518 Pro boat w/115-hp Mercury outboard
2nd:       Blaine Christiansen, San Jose, Calif., 15 bass, 41-13, $2,744
3rd:       George Fedor, Yucaipa, Calif., 14 bass, 41-6, $2,195
4th:        Kirk Marshall, Discovery Bay, Calif., 13 bass, 38-6, $1,921
5th:        Tracy Patton, Oakdale, Calif., 13 bass, 35-14, $1,796
6th:        Colton Underwood-Garside, Riverside, Calif., 13 bass, 35-10, $1,372
7th:        Joe Balistreri, Menifee, Calif., 13 bass, 35-9, $1,098
8th:        Scott Bern, San Rafael, Calif., 15 bass, 35-6, $960
9th:        Chad Roorda, Palm Desert, Calif., 13 bass, 34-14, $823
10th:     Mike Alvarez, Clovis, Calif., 14 bass, 34-12, $686

Thursday’s $150 Berkley Big Bass co-angler award was split by co-anglers Derek Andersen of Meadow Vista, California, and Ken Whalen of Lompoc, California, as each weighed a bass totaling 5 pounds, 5 ounces, while the Day 2 $150 co-angler award on Friday went to Jeremy Montenegro of Auburn, California, who weighed in a bass totaling 5 pounds, 2 ounces.

The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at Lake Havasu was hosted by Go Lake Havasu. It was the second of three regular-season tournaments for the Toyota Series Western Division Presented by Tackle Warehouse. The next event for the Toyota Series Western Division Presented by Tackle Warehouse anglers will be the Toyota Series at the California Delta, June 5-7, in Oakley, California. For a complete schedule of events, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The 2024 Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats consists of six divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern, Southwestern and the Western Division Presented by Tackle Warehouse – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International and Wild Card divisions. Anglers who fish in any of the six divisions or the Wild Card division and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning up to $235,000 and a qualification to REDCREST 2025. The winning Strike King co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard. The 2024 Toyota Series Championship will be held Nov. 7-9 on Wheeler Lake in Huntsville, Alabama, and is hosted by the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Madison County Commission, and the Huntsville Sports Commission.

Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Toyota Series include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, FX Custom Rods, General Tire, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, WIX Filters, YETI.

For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Toyota Series updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.