Tai Au Averages 20lbs a Day to Win Lake Havasu FLW Opener

Glendale’s Tai Au Leads Wire-to-Wire, Wins Toyota Series Tournament at Lake Havasu

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (March 14, 2020) – General Tire pro Tai Au of Glendale, Arizona, brought five bass to the scale Saturday totaling 16 pounds, 15 ounces to win the three-day Toyota Series at Lake Havasuevent in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Au won the event by a 1-pound, 12-ounce margin after bringing a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 61-3 to the scale. For his win, Au earned a payout of $26,589 in the opening tournament of the 2020 Toyota Series Western Division season.

“I’ve dreamt about this moment for a long time,” Au said on stage. “I’ve been close so many times. This is my 15th top-10, and for a while there I thought it just was never going to happen; it wasn’t in the cards for me. I woke up this morning at midnight, just getting teary-eyed thinking about it. I’ve got a lot of friends supporting me, and I want to thank them for that.”

Au opened the tournament Thursday with the biggest limit of the week. Four of the five keepers he weighed in he caught while sight-fishing. Day one was by far the best day of the event. Sunny skies in the morning made bed-fishing easy. Plus, there were tons of unpressured bass on beds to be caught. That changed when afternoon and evening rains on Thursday dirtied parts of the lake and were followed up with post-frontal weather on Friday, which really challenged many anglers. Au threw everything he had at them and had to do much of the same today. 

“As far as numbers-wise, I did all I could today,” Au said. “I went out there and ran the same stuff and caught a whole lot more today than I did the first and second day.

“I just went junk-fishing. I checked a few of my beds. They weren’t there. I did catch one on a bed. That was a 2½-pound male that was on the same bed with my 7-pounder that I caught, so I went back and caught it today to put it in my livewell just to cull it out later. I caught one of my nicer ones on a white Evergreen Jack Hammer tipped with a Sight Flash colored Zako Paddle Tail trailer using 20lb Sugoi fluorocarbon  where he alternated between the original Zako in clear water then switching to the Zako Paddle tail in the dirtier water. I caught one flipping a Green Pumpkin Flappin’ Hog. I weighed two on a Green Pumpkin Senko, and about five or six on Baby Bass colored  Daiwa Neko Fat. with 8lb Sugio Fluoro“.

Au spent his time in areas where he saw the best quality fish on beds in practice. Knowing there were good ones around gave him the confidence to stay in those areas. From there, his strategy was to fish whatever looked good in front of him, cycling through all the baits he knew he could get bit with, but he focused mostly on tules, which is “where the largemouth are.” 

“Deep tules, shallow tules, it didn’t matter as long as there were tules nearby I was catching them,” Au said.

“It was just a matter of running into them and making the right cast. I felt like I made a million casts out there. I left it all out there. I know for a fact I couldn’t have done anything else.”

The top 10 pros on Lake Havasu finished:

            1^st:       Tai Au of Glendale, Ariz., 15 bass, 61-3, $26,589

            2^nd:      Jordan Collom of Temecula, Calif., 15 bass, 59-7, $10,303

            3^rd:       Todd Kline of San Clemente, Calif., 15 bass, 57-5, $7,977

            4^th:       Michael Caruso of Peoria, Ariz., 15 bass, 56-13, $6,647

            5^th:       Kyle Grover of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., 15 bass, 55-0, $5,982

            6^th:       Tanner Austin of Shingle Springs, Calif., 15 bass, 54-13, $5,318

            7^th:       Kevin Hugo of Canyon Lake, Calif., 14 bass, 53-10, $5,653

            8^th:       Clayton Eslick of Gilroy, Calif., 14 bass, 49-2, $3,988

            9^th:       Kevin Caruso of Glendale, Ariz., 15 bass, 48-15, $3,824

            10^th:     Lane Olson of Tigard, Ore., 15 bass, 47-9, $2,659

A complete list of results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Hugo took home an extra $1,000 as the highest finishing FLW PHOENIX BONUS member. Boaters are eligible to win up to an extra $35,000 per event in each Toyota Series tournament if all requirements are met. More information on the FLW PHOENIX BONUS contingency program can be found at PhoenixBassBoats.com.

Delaney Dwyer of Scottsdale, Arizona, brought a 7-pound, 12-ounce largemouth bass to the scale Thursday – the largest fish weighed by a boater in the event – to earn the day’s Big Bass award of $76.

Jack Farrage of Discovery Bay, California, won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 43 pounds, 3 ounces. For his win, Farrage took home the top prize package of a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor, worth $33,500.

The top 10 co-anglers on Lake Havasu finished:

            1^st:       Jack Farage of Discovery Bay, Calif., 15 bass, 43-3, $33,500

            2^nd:      Ty Faber of Pagosa Springs, Colo., 15 bass, 43-2, $3,438

            3^rd:       James Hollingshead of Clarkston, Wash., 13 bass, 37-5, $2,950

            4^th:       Kevin Gross of Claremont, Calif., 12 bass, 35-15, $2,457

            5^th:       Zack Eggleston of Goleta, Calif., 15 bass, 34-9, $2,063

            6^th:       Jacob Traba of Pacifica, Calif., 12 bass, 33-15, $1,719

            7^th:       James Poff of Apple Valley, Calif., 13 bass, 32-6, $1,375

            8^th:       Clint Messner of North Bend, Ore., 12 bass, 31-13, $1,203

            9^th:       Aaron Seay of El Cajon, Calif., 12 bass, 29-11, $1,031

            10^th:     Mark Bowman of San Dimas, Calif., 10 bass, 27-7, $860

Co-angler Gabriel Diaz of Nuevo, California, brought the largest bass of the tournament on the co-angler side to the scale on Friday, weighing 6 pounds, 8 ounces to win the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $50.

The Toyota Series at Lake Okeechobee was hosted by the Lake Havasu City Convention & Visitors Bureau. It was the first of three regular-season tournaments in 2020 for Western Division anglers. For a complete schedule, visit FLWFishing.com.

The Toyota Series consists of eight divisions – Central, Eastern, Northern, Plains, Southeastern, Southern, Southwestern and Western – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International division. Anglers who fish all three qualifiers in any of the eight divisions and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning $200,000 cash, plus lucrative contingency bonuses. The winning co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard. The 2020 Toyota Series Championship is being held Nov. 5-7 on Lake Cumberland in Burnside, Kentucky, and is hosted by the Somerset Tourist & Convention Commission and the Burnside Tourism Commission.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Toyota Series on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

About FLW

FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, FLW and its partners conduct more than 290 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Zimbabwe.

FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show while Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. Acquired by Major League Fishing in late 2019, FLW is expanding its programming in 2020 to the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel as well as on-demand at MyOutdoorTV (MOTV).

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