MUSKOGEE, Okla. – The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division event on the Arkansas River showed off some modern techniques, but for the most part, time-tested river options dominated. So, if you’re looking for a place where spinnerbaits, frogs and swim jigs are still king, the Arkansas River and Kerr Reservoir could be your answer.
Here’s what the top pros used.
1. Staples power Copeland
Earning the win, Rodney Copeland was right in his comfort zone in this one.
Fishing in Kerr every day, he used a BOOYAH Poppin’ Pad Crasher, a BOOYAH Pad Crasher and a BOOYAH Mobster Swim Jig. He used a 5/16-ounce jig and went with shad colors in cleaner water or sunnier conditions and black and blue in dirtier water or darker conditions.
2. Freeman flips a worm
Finishing second, Devin Freeman bucked a few expectations, staying out of Kerr and using some real old-school savvy.
For Freeman, the bait of the week was a Zoom Mag 2 Worm on a 1/4-ounce Texas rig in red shad.
“It was old-school fishing, very few people flip a worm anymore,” he said. “I’ve fished the whole river my entire life; there’s a lot of times I do flip a beaver or something like that, but whenever it gets tough, especially when you put a bunch of pressure in those areas, they get tougher to catch. It’s something they don’t see very often. The first day, I had six or seven boats in the cut I was fishing, and I was the only one who caught them.”
Freeman supplemented with a drop-shot and a spinnerbait and locked up to Pool 17 in the Verdigris River every day. For his worm, he used a 7-foot, medium-heavy Falcon Cara and 17-pound Seaguar InvizX.
3. Jones locks up AOY
The battle for 7 Brew Angler of the Year in the Southwestern Division was tight this year. Chris Jones entered the final event of the season with the lead in the points and fishing on his home river. Finishing third in the event, he won his second Southwestern Division AOY title, and he got to watch his team partner, Copeland, win the event.
“It was a real hard-fought race. When I saw the schedule had the Arkansas River, it was on my agenda to fish it and win it,” he said. “Me and Rodney spent countless days practicing. I don’t know how many, but it was a lot.”
Winning AOY at 46 isn’t unheard of, and Jones isn’t the oldest AOY of the year, but he did appreciate having a dominant season.
“I feel like I beat a bunch of hammer peers in this group,” he said. “You can’t describe that feeling. To out-fish those guys, at my age – it’s been a young man’s game the last few years. It made me feel good, especially to not be embarrassed on my home waters.
“I wanted to win this tournament, but the second-best thing that could have happened was to have my team partner win,” he added. “It couldn’t have been any better than what happened. I had a great year; the way to cap it off would be to win the Toyota Series Championship.”
As far as the actual fishing, Jones made the run to Kerr every day and fished similarly to Copeland, bouncing between shallow areas. His best bets were a BOOYAH Pad Crasher and a BOOYAH Mobster Swim Jig as well as a 1/2-ounce BOOYAH Covert double Colorado spinnerbait. He trailered his swim jig with a 3.25-inch YUM Craw Chunk and he used a YUM Covert Trailer on his spinnerbait.
4. Thibodaux mixes it up
In the lead after Day 2, Levi Thibodaux couldn’t get it done on the final day, allowing a trio of locals to surge past him. Fishing in Kerr, he bucked the trend of exclusively old-school fishing to a degree.
“In the mornings, I would ‘Scope for my first three hours – I was fishing flatter banks with rocks on them,” he said. “Just ‘Scoping down the bank, then I would go punch and ChatterBait around. Every day, I caught my biggest ones not ‘Scoping, but I would ‘Scope to fill my limit. I don’t think I’ve ever ‘Scoped that shallow – a lot of them were sitting in a foot, a foot and a half.”
His bait of choice was a Bill Lewis Scope-Stik, and he backed it up with a 3/8-ounce ChatterBait and punching a 3-inch Big Bite Baits YoMama in green pumpkin with the tips dyed chartreuse. Naturally, he used Zook rods throughout.
5. Spinnerbait and a swim jig work for Clark
Jeff Clark made the run down to Kerr and cobbled together solid bags every day.
“I grew up on the Arkansas River; I’ve fished Kerr all my life,” he said. “The last couple of years, we’ve had a lot of grass down in Kerr, and it’s dominated. I was running down every day, making a long run and fishing mid-lake. We got all this rain, and it’s been dirtying by the day, but some of the pockets just off the main didn’t blow out. That was the biggest concentration – to find the cleaner water. Every day, there would be new places that were dirty and places that were clean. It was so hard, even with local knowledge.”
On Day 1, the star of the show was a 1/2-ounce BOOYAH Covert Finesse spinnerbait with a Colorado/Oklahoma combo. On Day 2, a 5/16-ounce BOOYAH Mobster Swim Jig in too tall shined.
6. Overnight rains sink Stevens
A big storyline of the event was the rapidly changing conditions, and Walt Stevens was dramatically victimized. Sitting in second after Day 1, Stevens didn’t catch a limit on Day 2 and had to scramble the rest of the way.
“Day 1, I was fishing in Greenleaf – it’s a very popular area,” he said. “I found a stretch that the fish were living in, and better quality. I got there on Day 1, and things started off pretty quick. I probably had 12 pounds by 8:30. Around 10:30, I started flipping isolated wood and made several key culls throughout the rest of the day.
“The night of Day 1, we had a major thunderstorm, and it dumped a ton of rain – when I got to my primary area, there was debris everywhere, and the water had turned to chocolate milk overnight,” Stevens added. “At 9 o’clock, I pulled the plug and went hunting new water. Day 3, I decided to just go fish new water and hunt the cleanest water I could find. It may have been only 6 inches of visibility, but that’s cleaner than no visibility. Anything that looked good in the water, I fished it.”
A ChatterBait in grass worked early for Stevens, as well as a Strike King 2.5, but his best bait for bigger fish was a Zoom Midsize Brush Hog in junebug. For the Brush Hog, he used a 7-3, heavy Kistler Chromium, 20-pound fluoro and a 5/16-ounce Rougarou tungsten weight.
7. Frog-only plan works for Kelm
Coming up from Texas, Seth Kelm had never fished the Arkansas River before, but he ended up fitting in just fine. For Kelm, the name of the game was a frog.
“The entire week, that’s what I did is frog fished,” he said. “I found a flat that had a mixture of peppergrass, milfoil and scattered hydrilla in about a foot of water – I just keyed on that. Honestly, I would have left it, but I knew there were fish there, and every bit of water I found in practice was blown out.”
He used several frogs, including a 6th Sense Vega Frog and a 6th Sense Hush Frog, as well as a Frog Factory Ribbit Top Toad and the OG Stanley Ribbit Top Toad. He used black when it was sunny and white in low light, and he particularly liked the toad when the wind was blowing.
8. Frog also does the heavy lifting for Cooper
Earning his second Top 10 finish in a row, Denton Cooper ran down to Kerr all week and fished super shallow.
“I threw a Toad Thumper Swamper Walkin’ Frog all week, running lily pads and stuff,” he said. “Basically all my fish I weighed in came on that, and I think every day I would upgrade a fish pitching a black and blue Strike King Rage Bug on timber in really shallow water.”
Cooper used a 3/8-ounce weight and 17-pound Seaguar InvizX for his Texas rig, and he used a white frog and ran 65-pound Sufix 832 for that.
9. Hightower sticks to the staples
Only weighing a limit on Day 2, Dale Hightower was a good example of how tough the fishing really was. Still, the Oklahoma pro weighed more than 10 pounds every day, and knocked out his fourth Top 10 with MLF.
His best baits were a War Eagle Spinnerbait and a black and blue Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver.
10. Locking up was the move for Sullivan
One of several pros who locked up the Verdigris with success, Bradley Sullivan bopped around in backwaters every day and hammered them on Day 1.
A 1/2-ounce BOOYAH Covert Finesse with a Colorado/Oklahoma combo and a 6th Sense Divine Swimbait trailer was the primary moving bait, and Sullivan’s best flipping bait was a 1/4-ounce Texas rig with a junebug Zoom UltraVibe Speed Craw. He fished the Speed Craw on a Falcon Cara Amistad and used a Falcon Expert Head Turner for the spinnerbait.
“In the mornings, I was starting in the grass. When the sun came up, they would pull to the wood,” he said. “The first day, I caught my biggest fish on a buzzbait, but that bite went away. Then, I caught them on a spinnerbait and the Speed Craw. They were getting a lot of pressure – there’s not a lot of fish up there, but there’s good quality.”