Takahiro Omori also opened the season with a strong tournament. The Emory, Texas resident was pleased with his effort, wrapping up the 30th position after reeling in 61 pounds and 13 ounces of overall weight.

For Omori, he’s focused on a larger picture of success.

“I’ve had a good start to the year and my season,” said Omori, the 2004 CITGO Bassmaster Classic champion. “I had never fished here before, but I knew I needed to have a good tournament. The first tournament of the year always sets the pace for the rest of the season. I especially didn’t want to bomb this tournament.”

Omori started out strong on Thursday, bagging five largemouth at 26 pounds and 3 ounces. Day two was more of a struggle with 14 pounds and 11 ounces, but it was enough to make the top-50 cut. On day three, Omori again broke the 20-pound barrier when he landed 20 pounds and 15 ounces.

There were a variety of ways to fish Amistad – cranking through cover, sight fishing, throwing a jerkbait or throwing a top water selection. For Omori, the menu was a little too crowded, however.

“This lake was very confusing for me because I could go as far down as 25-feet deep or go sight fishing,” Omori said. “You can fish off-color water or you can fish clear water. Mainly, I caught several fish using a Pointer 100 in Ghost Minnow. That’s my favorite bait, so it worked well. I was able to really use it especially when the wind was blowing.”

Omori is ready for next week’s tournament on Sam Rayburn as well – which is near his home lake.

“As for Rayburn, I have finished in the top two the last three times I’ve fished there,” Omori said. “It fishes just like Lake Fork – my home lake – so I’m really excited about that tournament.”

Texas resident Kelly Jordon captured the 56th spot, which wasn’t where he wanted to be this weekend. The Mineola, Texas resident collected 35 pounds and 14 ounces of weight this weekend, including 19 pounds and 15 ounces to open on Thursday.

In tournament fishing, timing can mean everything.

“It was tough out there,” Jordon said. “Execution on my part was bad. It’s a crying shame because I love this type of fishing. The wind kind of got me yesterday (Thursday). I was a late draw, Van Dam beat me to the area I was going to start and caught 30 pounds out of there. It was just a tough deal all the way around.

“Today (Saturday), I had the bites pretty well, but I didn’t capitalize,” Jordon continued. “I caught them on a (Lucky Craft) D20 – a deep running crankbait - really well in an American Shad color. I threw a Pointer 128 in Ghost Minnow a little bit as well. With the conditions yesterday, I mostly sight fished.

Jordon also had a strong opinion about Lake Amistad.

“This is an awesome lake,” Jordon said. “It’s so good if you catch 16 pounds, you don’t feel like you know how to fish. I had 20 yesterday (Thursday) and thought that was a poor performance as well. It’s an amazing fishery. It’s unfortunate a front hit right on this first day. It’s an exciting place to fish and the landscape is beautiful.”

Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese had what could best be described as a bittersweet tournament. The Northern California pro went in with a game plan and it worked to perfection, landing him enough bites and fish to make the top-50 cut.

But what he didn’t count on was the bitterness. Reese talked about the mistake that landed him the 57th slot with 35 pounds, 5 ounces of overall weight and 16 pounds and 1 ounce on day two.

“I was two minutes late and it cost me two pounds, along with making the cut and $10,000,” Reese said. “Not to mention the points it cost me. What happened was I had a fish about eight pounds and I could get it to come look at the bait. But I couldn’t get it to bite and I felt I needed that one fish to have a shot at making the cut. I already knew I was borderline, but I was getting greedy and I should never have cut it that close. I thought five minutes would have been enough to get in, but it took six. I ran as fast as I could and as straight as I could – I got in and it was two minutes late. At that point, I took myself out of making that top-50 cut.”

“I had a problem with losing fish, but things that we’re uncontrollable – that’s part of fishing,” Reese continued. “But to be late like that, it cost me what it cost me because of my own mistake. It really frustrates me and it’s hard to live with those types of mistakes.”

Reese had a definite game plan going into the event. It was something he found hard to waver from.

“For me, I was banking on bed fish all week and the fish that had moved up into pockets,” Reese said. “Through practice, I think I marked 53 bed fish – but I only think I caught one of them.

“These fish are weird – I think they were really affected by some of the cold fronts that moved through,” Reese continued. “My starting fish, Pete Ponds beat me to and it was a 10-pounder. I did catch my second fish, which was a five pounder, on my first cast. I go to my third fish, which was a seven or eight pounder, but it was gone. I think I checked 25 or 30 of my waypoints, but every one of those fish had left. I don’t think they were catching them, I think the fish pulled out of the areas because the water temps dropped and wind directions changed.”

Reese was clued into this through practice, “What I found in practice was that whatever direction the wind was blowing into, it had the warmest water on the lake. By afternoon, the windy pockets would be 65 to 67 degrees, but the calm pockets would be 59. I think a lot of guys keyed in on that as well.

“I never moved out and tried to catch pre-spawn fish, which a lot of the guys were doing by throwing jerk and swim baits,” Reese continued. “I stuck with my game plan and it almost worked, to the extent I would have made the cut. It wasn’t a top-12 type tournament as I would have liked, but it almost worked. I knew if I would have gotten to Saturday, I would have had something. There were more fish that started to move up Friday afternoon. I went out for a couple of hours this morning, and those fish had indeed moved up. By sticking with the sight fishing, there was potential to catch 25 to 30 pounds. I felt like I had a top-25 finish out there, which would have been good points.”

Lucky Craft’s Marty Stone did not end up where he wanted too. With only 27 pounds and 6 ounces of overall weight, the Linden, N.C., resident wound up in the 86th spot. He summed up his week this way.

“I missed the deal in this tournament,” Stone said. “It’s still one of the greatest lakes I’ve ever been on, but I had some opportunities and didn’t capitalize on them. I still could have taken a tough tournament and made a good one out of it, but I lost a 10-pounder and couldn’t make another one bite. If you do this long enough, you’ll have a tournament like this. You just deal with it and leave it here.

“I’ve got 10 more events this year to make up ground, but I hate coming to toting contests when you’re not doing the toting,” Stone added. “When you’re on, you feel like you’re on top of the world. When you’re not, it’s a hard pill to swallow. But its just part of the sport.”

Coming into the tournament, Stone had already caught more fish than he had in long time. He credited a lot of that to the venue.

“The first day of practice down here was unbelievable,” said Stone, the 2005 CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year runner up. “I can honestly say it probably was one of the four days in my life where I’ve caught more than 100 fish. I got tired of catching them and my hands were bleeding the first day because I was taking so many off the hook. I wasn’t around the big fish like so many of the other guys were. It didn’t matter where you were, or what you did, you were going to get a bite.”

Stone did have some Lucky Craft success though.

“I could throw the Slender Pointer 112 and the Slender Pointer 97 and I literally got tired of taking them off the hook,” Stone said. “Every time you threw, if you didn’t catch one, you would have three fish following the bait back. This place is set up for jerk bait fishing like no other lake we’ve been on. It’s because of the clear water and the trees. Some of the deeper trees will come up fairly close to the surface, and draw these fish out of here because of the clear water. They can all see the bait. This is one of the most divergent largemouth fisheries I’ve ever been on.

“The colors I liked the most were Chartreuse Shad and Ghost Minnow,” Stone added. “You needed something translucent. My rule of thumb here was, when the wind was blowing I went with the Chartreuse Shad. When the wind was fairly calm, I went with the Ghost Minnow. The calmer the water was the clearer I went.”

Joe Thomas had a frustrating tournament as well, catching 26 pounds and 13 ounces of bass and taking home the 89th position for his two days of competition.

“When I had the bites, I know I could have finished in the top 20,” Thomas said. “I had two to three key bites everyday – and have blown every one of them. Looking back on it, I don’t know what I did wrong. Maybe it was some bad breaks or just poor execution on my part – either way it hurts pretty bad. The pattern I was on was a top-25 pattern if I had put them into the boat. I caught fish everyday on a Slender Pointer 112 in MS American Shad – a couple of my better fish the first day came on it.

“I think maybe I would have gone back and used braided line,” Thomas continued. “The way the fish were biting, they were coming up out of the bush and grabbing it. There might have been less stretch in the line if I would have used braided. It was such a fast deal.

“I think probably short of El Salto, this is probably the best fishery I’ve ever been on. I didn’t show it here, but if you look – there are some tremendous weights coming in and it should be one of the lakes that remain great for a long time if they take care of the resource. I think a lot of it’s ‘secret’ potential is that it’s a lake where the water level has been so low for so long. It has just filled back up the last couple of years. When the lake gets low, and there aren’t that many boat ramps to begin with, it keeps people off the lake. I was told 10 years ago, before the grass came, that it wasn’t that great of lake and only filled with skinny bass.”