Touey Crushes on Day 2, Widens Havasu Lead
LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – Patrick Touey lead on Day 1 with over 20 pounds, and he turned on the afterburner on Day 2. Crushing 26 pounds, 5 ounces to set himself up for the win on the final day of the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Western Division event on Lake Havasu, Touey boasts a 47-15 total after two days of fishing. With just the Top 25 on the water on the final day, Touey will have plenty of room to work and a big lead of 12-12 over second-place Klayton Belden.
Touey got off to a quick start in the morning of Day 2, catching a 5-pounder in the first hour. Conditions quickly proved to be different than the first day of competition and he soon found himself amid a three-hour lull.
“Today we didn’t have the sun, my big thing yesterday was shade lines. So, I was running all the steep pockets I was in (yesterday) this morning. The fish weren’t biting. I wasn’t seeing followers, so that’s when I made the adjustment. I found like three spots, one where I caught that 5-pounder, and two coves right around from it. Once I pulled back in there again, I caught two in a row and missed one. So, I knew there were fish in that area. I just started filtering those areas and they started biting.”
Touey’s game plan in those areas involves covering tons of water very slowly with a swimbait. He reported needing to get his lure as far away from his boat as possible, with sometimes agonizing “3- to 4-minute-long casts,” so fish could follow and track his lure. Fish that included a 9-pound, 7-ounce goliath Havasu Largemouth.
“I watched her swirl on it, then I hit her. And right when I hit her, I knew it was bigger than anything I’ve caught all week. She buttoned me over and I was like ‘get the net.’ She came up, I knew she was a good one and I grinded her to the net.”
Touey is relatively confident that tomorrow’s weather won’t affect his fish a whole lot, noting that the high wind and partly cloudy skies have his fish locked in a prespawn pattern, it’s just a matter of the characteristics of his area.
“I’m still fishing more staging stuff, but flatter banks with cages and stuff in the middle,” said Touey. “I’m fishing for fish out in the very center.”
Touey is locked into his big bait pattern and intends to keep after it with the swimbait on Day 3.
“I tried today, when I wasn’t getting bit, with a worm and stuff,” said Touey. “We’ll see how it goes (on Day 3), we’ll see what the weather does. If we catch a couple, we will be doing alright.”
Top 10 Pros
1. Patrick Touey – 47 – 15 (10)
2. Klayton Belden – 35 – 03 (10)
3. Mike Williams – 34 – 01 (10)
4. Cody Spetz – 32 – 15 (10)
5. Tai Au – 32 – 12 (10)
6. Kyle Grover – 32 – 11 (10)
7. Mark Williams – 31 – 11 (7)
8. Patrick Whitaker – 31 – 07 (8)
9. Jason Crone – 30 – 11 (10)
10. Justin Hicks – 30 – 06 (9)
Reidhead Tops Volatile Co-Angler Leaderboard
Day 2 of competition was once again rough and tough on the field of Strike King co-anglers. A new leader found himself on top of the group, as Jordan Reidhead rebounded from a two-fish effort on Day 1 with a bag of four fish for 12-10 on Day 2. His two-day total of 18-9 gives him just a 13-ounce cushion over second-place John Bitting.
Reidhead committed to staying positive and keeping things in front of him on Day 2. He says that’s the only way he was able to focus and rebound after a challenging first day.
“I just tried to keep my line in the water, you know, just keep going … another thing that happened today, is my hat flew off … and I just said ‘keep going’ just keep the positive vibes going. It was just a fun, awesome day of fishing.”
Reidhead was thrilled about his pairing prior to Day 2, knowing that he would spend the day with local angler, and standout co-angler, Jesse Parks.
“I was so excited to get to fish with him and get to learn,” said Reidhead. “He’s a guy who’s had a lot of success as co-angler, and it was a fun day of fishing with him.”
Reidhead feels incredibly fortunate to be in this position on Day 2, especially because he almost didn’t come to this event at all. Reidhead almost had to withdraw due to family commitments and mentioned he was all but ready to pull his name off the list as late as Monday morning.
“It means a lot man, going into championship day,” said Reidhead. “I actually worked this week and drove up early Thursday morning from Mesa, Arizona, so to be here for championship day is awesome.”
Another reason for his hesitation prior to the event was that he isn’t the only one in his family chasing a title this Saturday. His two young sons are chasing titles of their own tomorrow, only of a different variety.
“I usually coach them, but we’ve got good assistant coaches who stepped up,” said Reidhead. “So, for my family to support me, and encourage me to come out here fishing, means a lot. Tomorrow, Owen is playing for a U-9 flag football championship and Deacon is playing for a U-7 one. Go Knights and go Eagles!”
Top 10 Strike King Co-anglers
1. Jordan Reidhead – 18 – 09 (6)
2. John Bitting – 17 – 12 (5)
3. Zack Eggleston – 15 – 15 (6)
4. Colby Huntze – 15 – 09 (5)
5. Joshua Cutler – 14 – 11 (6)
6. Ken Hromada – 14 – 11 (6)
7. Teddy Snyder – 14 – 09 (6)
8. James Poff – 13 – 07 (4)
9. Jonathan Green – 13 – 02 (4)
10. Paul Buccola – 12 – 14 (3)