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Three Lucky Craft Anglers Finish in
Top 20
at Bassmaster Memorial
Reese misses top 6
cut by mere ounces
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2007
Bassmaster Memorial - Standings
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07th
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Skeet
Reese
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13th
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Kelly
Jordon
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18th
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Takahiro
Omori
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35th
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Gerald
Swindle
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Syracuse,
N.Y. (August 2, 2007) – The second Major of the 2007 Bassmaster Elite Series season
wrapped up this week as anglers took to the waters of Lake Oneida and
Onondaga Lake. As Majors go, the top 52 qualifying anglers competed over a
four-day period with no points involved. It’s an all-or-nothing shoot out
for bragging rights, not to mention a $250,000 first-place prize.
The first two days of
competition took place on Brewerton’s Lake
Oneida, while anglers making the
cuts and fishing on Saturday and Sunday fished a six-hole course on Onondaga Lake.
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>>>Skeet Reese
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Lucky Craft’s
Skeet Reese was one of the few and proud to make it to day three and fish Onondaga Lake. It didn’t come easy however,
as a rough first day on Lake
Oneida led to a
12-pound, 12-ounce bag putting him in 32nd.
“I found one school of
smallmouth on day one, and I caught the five I weighed in on a dropshot,”
Reese began. “I was fishing in about 10 or 11 feet of water. I saw
something that afternoon that made me re-think what I was doing a little
bit. Thursday afternoon, all the fish in my live well spit up crawdads,
which got me thinking about fishing a jig. That’s just what I did on day
two [Friday].”
Reese switched to a brown,
1/2-ounce football jig with a Berkley Gulp trailer on day two, and his
tournament changed direction.
“I started wacking the
smallmouth with the jig, and it was a lot of fun,” Reese continued. “I left
that spot and went to another where I caught a 3-pound smallmouth on a Lucky Craft
Gunfish 115 [Chartreuse Shad].”
Switching it up again to a
new bait, Reese decided to try largemouth fishing, which proved to be the
deciding factor in a big jump on day two. After catching three largemouth
and two smallmouth on Friday, Reese weighed in 17 pounds, 7 ounces and moved
from 32nd to 4th. He sat in great position, making the top 12 cut and
moving from Lake Oneida to fish Onondaga Lake.
According to the California native,
he caught fish everywhere he went on Saturday, but was never able to find
the one kicker fish he needed.
“I jacked the mess out of
fish today,” said Reese, running on adrenaline after a busy day of fishing.
“I caught fish after fish after fish, but never had that big bite – if you
can say an 18-pound bag is small.”
The six-hole course started
slowly for Reese, as he only caught four fish in hole number one, and his batteries
went dead in hole number two. With a new battery and four holes to go,
Reese was finally beginning to see what the key might be to catching these Onondaga Lake fish.
“On the third hole, I pulled
on to a spot that had an old wreck or rock pile mixed with the grass,”
Reese explained. “I was catching fish there on every single cast using a
Senko. I’d throw it out and wack, I’d catch one. Every single cast… It was
fun.”
Staying shallow most of the
day, in 2 – 4 feet
of water, Reese was throwing the Senko on 12-pound Trilene fluorocarbon
with a 2/O hook. He only had one thing to say about Onondaga Lake.
“They told us this lake was
polluted,” Reese said. “They were right, it’s polluted with fish. The fish
population out here per acre is ridiculous.”
Reese had a great day on
Onondaga, weighing in 18
pounds, 5 ounces, his biggest bag all week, for a
three-day total of 48
pounds, 8 ounces. After a close weigh-in, the field
was pared down from 12 to six, and Reese missed the cut by a mere 2 ounces.
“I just couldn’t find Moby
Dick,” Reese said, disappointed he didn’t make the cut, but happy with his
week. “Obviously I wasn’t around the big ones, and my hats off to the guys
who caught them today. I really did have a good week, and I wish there were
points on the line because I did well. But now I’ll just take my check and
go home to see my family.”
The next stop for the season
is the Potomac River, and Reese’s anxieties are high as it’s back to the
Angler of the Year race and points are on the line once again.
“The real tournaments get
going again in a couple weeks,” Reese concluded. “I’ll be a basket case
until I figure out how it is all going to pan out. Historically, I’ve done
well there, but I’m not counting on anything. If I can leave there with a
top 20 finish, I’ll be pleased.”
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>>>Kelly Jordon
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Practice was
good for Lucky Craft’s Kelly Jordon, and he caught a lot of fish doing
several different things. According to the Texas resident, the smallmouth
were offshore, the largemouth were up near the bank, and he was working
both patterns.
“The best baits to catch the
smallmouth seemed to be the Lucky Craft
G-Splash [Chartreuse Shad]and a gold-colored
Sammy,” Jordon began.
“I had some really big fish in practice.”
Jordon had a couple key
drop-offs he decided to fish, and it worked out on day one. He weighed in 15 pounds, 15 ounces and was in
2nd after day one. However, something went awry on day two, and Jordon
still isn’t sure what happened.
“Today I lost some fish and
had some miss my baits,” he explained. “I caught one largemouth on a Sammyand most of my other largemouth on a
Senko fishing shallow. My smallmouths came on a Senko, spinnerbait and a G-Splash. My spots were just overrun with
little ones today, and it was a little frustrating.”
Jordon ran around a lot on
Friday trying to make something of the day, but couldn’t seem to get the
big bites he needed. He caught fish near 5 pounds on Thursday,
but didn’t even have a 3-pounder bite on day two.
“I don’t know what happened,”
Jordon said. “I caught them really well in practice when the weather was
like it was today [Friday] – cloudy and rainy. Yesterday it was sunny and I
caught them pretty well and pretty early. I had my limit by 10:30 and we
didn’t launch until 8:00. I just don’t really know, but it is frustrating,
because I really wanted to fish Onondaga Lake.”
After a difficult day, Jordon
weighed in 11 pounds,
14 ounces
and was only 1 ounce
away from making the top 12 cut; a difficult pill to swallow for Jordon.
Finishing in 13th, Jordon now turns his sights away a little further south,
ready to defend his title as Capital Clash champion.
“I feel good about it [the
Potomac River],” Jordon concluded. “I’m looking forward to going there and
defending my title – that’s always fun. All I have to do is catch the five
biggest fish a day… We’ll see what happens.”
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>>>Takahiro Omori
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Lucky Craft’s
Takahiro Omori wanted to fish for largemouth this week, but had a hard time
finding them in practice so he decided to switch it up in the tournament.
“I was fishing in about 10 feet of water, on
outside edges of weeds on mainlake points and humps,” explained Omori, who
had a great first day on Lake Oneida. “When they would eat it, they would
eat it good. I caught some of my fish on the Lucky Craft
Pointer 100 [Sunfish], and the rest swimming a jig in the
same types of areas.”
Omori moved around a lot on
day one, trying close to 10 different places and working hard all day. It
paid off, as he weighed in a 14-pound, 9-ounce bag, putting him in 11th.
However, on day two, it was a different story because, according to Omori,
all the fish he found in practice were gone.
“It was a tough day today
[Friday],” Omori said. “I was struggling all day. I was fishing different
areas, and I think fishing pressure might have had something to do with the
difficulty, but I’m not sure.”
Catching all smallmouth all
week, Omori feels like he had a successful tournament overall. After
weighing in 12 pounds,
12 ounces
on day two, he finished his week with a total of 27 pounds, 5 ounces in 18th. Like
teammate Jordon, Omori is ready to tackle the Potomac River.
“It fits my style of fishing
better,” Omori concluded. “I’m looking forward to getting back to shallow
cranking and shallow flipping and pitching. I have a really open mind, and
I am looking forward to catching bigger fish. Hopefully I will have a good
tournament.”
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>>>Gerald Swindle
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Lake Oneida
was shaping up to be interesting according to Lucky Craft’s Gerald Swindle
who, during the second day of practice, seemed to be dialed in and was
having really nice bites.
“I looked deep the first day
trying to catch them jerking, but I couldn’t catch them like I did last
year,” Swindle began. “I started moving around and found some bigger smallmouth
scattered across the shallow flats where the rocks were brown on the
bottom. In that area, I was using a spinnerbait and the Lucky Craft
Gunfish. If I had
wind, I could burn the spinnerbait and catch them, and if it was really
calm, they’d bite the Gunfish.”
Swindle believed he was on a
good pattern and thought it would hold up during the tournament. However,
when day one rolled around, he couldn’t seem to catch the big ones he
needed on the spinnerbait.
“It was too windy for the
topwater for most of the day,” Swindle said. “That evening [Thursday] it
slicked off, and I thought I’d be able to use it, but they just wouldn’t
bite it.”
Weighing in 11 pounds, 11 ounces on
Thursday, Swindle knew he would have to make a change on day two.
“I caught a limit on Friday
with the Slender Pointer
112 [Ghost Sunfish],”
Swindle continued. “From there, I moved into trying to catch largemouth
thinking I had to catch 15
pounds or so to make the cut. I spent the last half
of the day flipping for largemouth in heavy grass mats and weeds. I caught
one 3 pounder on a frog, and that was the only fish that helped me.”
Working the jerkbait really
fast for the reaction bite, Swindle was fishing shorelines in really
shallow water, keying in on finding brown rocks in the grass. He wondered,
however, if his decision to switch from smallmouth to largemouth might have
been a mistake.
“Could I have stayed out and
maybe caught 2- or 3-pound smallmouth and gained a little more than a pound
to put me in the money?” Swindle asked. “Maybe, but I just really felt like
I needed to be fishing for those largemouth, so that’s what I did. To have
practice work out so well for me, and then have the fish quit biting in the
tournament with no explanation is weird.”
Swindle weighed in 13 pounds, 11 ounces on day two
for total two-day weight of 25 pounds, ounces, putting him in 35th for
the week. He would have liked the opportunity to fish Onondaga
Lake but learned a lot about Lake Oneida and hopes to use the
information next time around.
“I’m going to stay here for a
few extra days and practice on Lake
Oneida, trying to
figure it out,” Swindle said. “We’ll be back next year, and I’d like to be
doing a different interview after that tournament, saying I’m glad to have
won. If you have a weakness in your fishing armor, you have to stay and
work it out.”
Moving forward, Swindle will
travel to Maryland and fish the Potomac River in a couple weeks, and much
like some of his teammates, he is also looking forward to a different style
of fishing.
“Since we have been up north,
the smallmouth have seemed to be the ones biting all around me,” Swindle
concluded. “I like the Potomac – it’s
strictly largemouth fishing in the grass. You know exactly what to expect
going in and know what the game plan looks like. I’ve had some decent cuts
there and made the top 10 a
few times. I’d like to return and do it again.”
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