Guntersville

LUCKY CRAFT PROS

Guntersville, Ala. (Feb. 27, 2005) - What do Takahiro Omori, Skeet Reese, Gerald Swindle have in common? Besides being members of the Lucky Craft pro staff, they are all currently in the top-five of the coveted CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.

After three of six events, Omori is first with 741 points, Reese is second (710), Swindle is third (691) and Stone is fifth (669).

It would seem these pros would be excited about their chances at winning Angler of the Year, yet most of them insist the end of the season is still too far off to be counting the $100,000 CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year prize money.

TAKAHIRO OMORI

"I can't believe it," said Takahiro Omori, who moved into the lead of the Angler of the Year race with the help of a 27th-place finish at Guntersville. "Winning Angler of the Year after winning the Classic would be great, but I can't think about that now. We still have lots of fishing to go and I have to think about the next tournament."

Although Omori brought in solid limits of 16 pounds, 13 ounces and 14 pounds, 3 ounces at Guntersville, he claims fishing was not exactly easy.

"I never found a good concentration of fish like some of these guys that could catch 20 pounds off one hump or ridge," Omori said. "I never had enough bites to put together a solid pattern. So during the tournament, I had to cover lots of water with a lipless crankbait just to get five bites each day. I would catch one here, then run over here and catch another one, then run way over here and catch another one. I was not really on any one place or pattern, just covering lots of water."

GERALD SWINDLE

Gerald Swindle led the Lucky Craft pro team charge at Guntersville finishing ninth with a three-day total of 46 pounds, 14 ounces.

The finish shot him to third in the Angler of the Year standings, but he also brushed aside the thought of a second Angler of the Year title at this point in the season.

"Third in points? It doesn't mean jack to me right now," Swindle said. "I'm going to keep fishing for a win. I want a BASS Tour win bad - I mean real bad. Don't get me wrong, I'd love another Angler of the Year title. But I fished to win all of last season and when the smoke cleared I ended up on top of the standings. If I'm going to win it again, that's the way it's going to have to go down because I'm not getting into a guard-my-spot-in-the-points mode. I want the big 'W,' baby."

The flashy Alabama pro was unusually reserved on day one when he brought just 7 pounds, 15 ounces to the scales. However, he showed out for his hometown crowd on day two when he toted the biggest stringer of the day - 27 pounds, 15 ounces - to the stage to win the Busch Heavyweight award and secure a spot in the top-12.

Since Guntersville is Swindle's home lake, some might guess he tapped a secret spot to catch his fish, but that was not the case.

Ironically, his success came from the riprap on the Highway 431 bridge, which Swindle calls, "the biggest community hole on the lake."

"Everyone's brain got locked onto grass patterns coming into Guntersville because everyone knows that's how tournaments are won here," he said. "I noticed in practice the main stretches of riprap along 431 and down along the Brown's Creek bridge were not being fished - so I decided to incorporate them into my tournament plan."

Swindle worked the riprap with three baits: a Lucky Craft Flat CB MR in ghost minnow, a 3/8-ounce Arkie jig (Texas craw) with a Zoom Critter Craw trailer (green pumpkin) and a hand-made flat-sided wooden crankbait.

"The 27-15 came on the Flat CB MR and the jig," he said. "I was keying on stretches of riprap that had wind blowing on them. The water would slosh against the rock and create a haze in the water and that's where I cranked the Flat CB."

"I used the jig to fish the deeper riprap corners that had current breaking around them," he continued. "I caught four bass on the Flat CB and three on the jig."

SKEET REESE

Skeet Reese is the only one of the Lucky Craft pro staff that is candid about his desire to win Angler of the Year from his current second place standing midway through the season.

"Angler of the Year is my goal every year," Reese said. "If I win it, great. If not, I'll be pretty hacked off; so yeah, I make no bones about it, I want to win Angler of the Year."

Skeet Reese was a tournament headliner on day one at Guntersville when he weighed in 19 pounds, 12 ounces, but his catch of three bass weighing 9 pounds, 3 ounces the next day left him in 36th place.

Reese spent the tournament throwing Lucky Craft's LV-500 and LV-100 in spring craw and chartreuse shad colors on Vanish 14-pound test line.

"When I was fishing four feet or less, I would throw the LV-100," he said. "When I moved out to fish depths of 8 feet I went to the LV-500, which is a bigger bait that runs deeper than the 100."

While day one's cloudy, breezy conditions were good for Reese's bite, day two's bright sun hurt his pattern.

"I knew my day one catch was due to the conditions and that I would have a small window of opportunity on day two before the sun got up," Reese said. "Sure enough, I caught three bass first thing Friday morning and when the sun got up, my bite evaporated. I scrambled around to try to make some other things work, but I could never get anything else going with the sunny conditions."

KELLY JORDON

Kelly Jordon turned in a solid performance at Guntersville as well to move up 16 places in the Angler of the Year standings to 32nd.

He caught 11 pounds, 7 ounces the first day and then turned up the heat on day two with 18 pounds, 4 ounces for a two-day total of 29 pounds, 11 ounces to finish 31st.

Like others, Jordon had difficulty getting enough bites to tell him what he needed to be doing during the tournament. His improvement on day two came primarily from a bait change.

"The first day I fished a Lucky Craft LV-500 in aurora black," he said. "But late the second day, I switched to a Lucky Craft Flat CB MR in firetiger and started whacking them. I wish I had thought about trying the Flat CB the first day."

MIKE AUTEN

Mike Auten checked in 11 pounds, 4 ounces the first day, but blanked the second day to finish 128th.

"I had a top-12 here last year, but the fish were not as schooled up for me this year," Auten said. "I even had a lot more bites in practice this year, and based on last year's experience, I figured where there was one there would be more during the tournament, but that just wasn't the case. When I returned to my areas during the tournament, there were not near as many fish there as I thought."