“The lake went off limits at midnight last Sunday and I have been fine tuning my pre-practice plans, deciding the way I want to practice when we go back down there,” said Arey, who qualified for the Forrest Wood cup three times as a co-angler, finishing in the top 10 all three times – 10th in 2005, 1st in 2006 and 8th in 2007.

The Shelby, N.C., angler weighed in five bass at 11 pounds, 15 ounces, on Alabama’s Lake Logan Martin in August 2006 for the Co-angler title and a check for $25,000. He finished 42^nd last year in his only previous appearance in the pro division at the FLW Championship on Arkansas’ Lake Ouachita.

Arey practiced on Lake Lanier for five days in late July before the cut-off.

“I started with a half-day that Monday and fished all the way through Friday and then left,” he said. “That lake is one of a kind on weekends, probably the roughest place I’ve ever been to because of boat traffic.”

His only other experience on Lake Lanier was as a co-angler in an FLW Series tournament in March 2006 when he caught one fish and finished far down in the pack.

“That was a pre-spawn deal and the fishing then was not conducive at all to what is going on now,” he said.

“I think it is going to be similar to the Forrest Wood Cup on Lanier in 2010, with spotted bass the dominant catch. Largemouth bass will be a wild card. I just don’t think you can catch the largemouths you need to win four days in a row.”

Arey said he believes consistently weighing in 13 to 13 1/2 pounds a day will provide an angler a good shot at winning the Cup.

“It’s a blueback herring lake with a lot of timber in it. Right now a lot of the fish are out in the 50- to 80-foot range, suspended in the trees. They are roaming with the bluebacks and small threadfins. When you find a school you bust them up, but if you leave and come back later you might get a bite.”

One big difference from 2010, he noted, is that the lake is down 7 1/2 feet from the level then.

“There are more brushpiles in that lake than you can imagine, but those brushpiles are normally 15 to 25 feet deep and now they are a lot shallower, so there is not the much stuff out there in 30 feet of water where the fish are,” he said.

“I think you are going to need a lot of places and you’ll probably need to hit 25 or 30 places a day to get five decent bites. But it’s going to make it hard to find enough places to build a milk run for the tournament.”

The angler who knows how to catch suspended fish will be the top man in the tournament, Arey said, with the drop shot, jig and other suspended fish baits key.

“The other wild card is the sporadic schooling activity. Last week in practice a school of 3- to 5-pound spots would come up. If you can catch one you are doing good and if you get lucky and have that happen two or three times a day and then you can fill out your limit doing other stuff you will be doing really well.”

Arey is hoping to cap off what he considers his best year on the FLW Majors Tour, although he admits it has also been one of the most frustrating.

While he qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup, he did not make a top 10 all year long.

“I missed making the top 20 several times by anywhere from 4 ounces to 12 ounces, but I’m really happy with my year overall. I’ve been pretty consistent all year.”

 

2012 Forrest Wood Cup

Aug. 9-12, 2012

Lake Lanier

Laurel Park

www.flwoutdoors.com