Lucky Craft Anglers Beat the Heat on Lake Dardanelle

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (August 29, 2007) – Fifty of the world’s best anglers converged on Russellville, Arkansas this week for the last BASS Major tournament, the Bassmaster Legends. Honoring Ray Scott, BASS founder, the Bassmaster Legends is the last of its kind, as 2008 will bring a new series of tournaments to the Elite Series, and it will not include the Majors.

Times were rough and the fishing wasn’t easy this week on popular Lake Dardanelle. Temperatures were in the upper 90s and low 100s during practice, and there wasn’t much relief during the tournament. Four Lucky Craft anglers did their best to beat the heat and fight for the $250,000 and bragging rights for a job well done at the final Major tournament.

Lucky Craft’s Gerald Swindle had a good week on Lake Dardanelle, narrowly missing the top-12 cut, finishing 14th. Swindle had five-fish limits Thursday and Friday, but in addition to the fishing, he had something else weighing him down – the heat.

“I believe we experienced something new this week,” Swindle began, joking. “ It was the first ever Betty Crocker bake-off tournament; we were all fishing in an oven. This extreme heat is killer and makes it really hard to focus out there, not to mention hard to catch fish. Fishing upriver where there is a current and some sand seemed to be my best pattern. Those sand bars seemed to have the coolest water; the sand stays cool underwater while the water flows over it. I had two sand bars I found where I could catch fish on a big Lucky Craft G-Splash (MS American Shad) in about a foot of water.”

Swindle decided to fish upriver above Horse Head Creek. With the current running and the cool sand, the fish advanced to shallow waters along steep banks. He’d catch them on top if the fish were shallow, and if they moved deeper, he could get them to bite the Lucky Craft BDS 3 (Chartreuse Shad).

“When the fish would move to a little deeper water, I’d catch them on the BDS 3, using 20-pound line,” added Swindle. “When I was fishing the BDS 3 in the shallow water, it would just grind in the mud and the fish would trap it on the sand. Sometimes you can lose them like that but it’s the only thing I could get to go. I caught all my fish yesterday off those two sandbars and I probably caught like 60 all together.”

It was a good Lucky Craft weekend for Swindle, as all the fish he weighed in came on two Lucky Craft baits. Bringing in a 12-pound bag on Thursday and 12 pounds, 7 ounces Friday put Swindle just ounces outside the top 12. He was disappointed not to have the chance to fish the six-hole course Saturday, but proud to have had a successful tournament with Lucky Craft baits. Swindle now has his sights set on the last tournament of the year, on Lake Tohopekaliga (Toho) in Kissimmee, Florida.

“I’m pretty psyched up for Toho,” Swindle said. “I learned some stuff on the Potomac River about flipping grass, so I’m going to carry it to Toho and make it work. I really want to put myself in a position to win down there. I really need to suck it up and go for broke, and I’m not going to Toho scared. If I don’t make it, oh well - I’m not going for points, I just want to catch them.”

Finishing in 15th just behind Swindle was Lucky Craft teammate Kelly Jordon, with a two-day total weight of 24 pounds, 3 ounces. Practice started slowly for Jordon as he flipped grass but never really found the key area he needed.

“ I was kind of struggling a little bit in practice,” Jordon said. “Some guys caught fish flipping but had to be real confident, fish hard and just hope to get by. I don’t like to fish that way. When I’m fishing grass, I like to find an area where I know the fish will be and bear down on them, knowing why they are there. On Lake Dardanelle, you just kind of run into them by chance.”

Not wanting to flip and catch fish on luck alone, Jordon decided to play the current and use the banks and eddies to catch his keepers. According to Jordon, a hard current will force the fish to a particular spot helping an angler pinpoint a good location to pitch to, and that is one pattern he was able to find in practice.

However, as day one rolled around, he was catching fish, but not the 15-inch keepers he needed to make the cut.

“Yesterday [Wednesday] in practice, I had spots where I could pitch in there twenty times and catch twenty in a row,” Jordon explained. “But I didn’t have that during the two days of the tournament. Fortunately, I was able to pick through them and get enough bites, but it was really disappointing because I thought I’d be able to catch them much better than I did.”

Jordon was pitching a Texas-rigged trick worm with a 3/16-ounce Tungsten weight, and would back it up with the RC 1.5 and the BDS 3. While the baits worked for him and he was able to get a check, Jordon admits it is always disappointing to be on the edge of the cut, barely missing the top 12. However, one major factor had Jordon smiling this weekend – he is now officially a member of the millionaire club.

Looking ahead, Jordon is excited about fishing Lake Toho, knowing he has been on both sides of the scale when fishing in the Florida lake.

“I’ve done well in Florida, and I’ve done bad in Florida,” Jordon concluded. “I hope there’s stuff to flip, and I hope they get a lot of rain to make the water come up. If not, it could be a pitiful tournament. I have a spot in the Classic secured already, so I’m going to go out there and swing at it hard and try to make something happen. I have won a tournament every year except one for the past six years, and I haven’t won yet this year. I would definitely like to do that in Florida – it’s my last chance.”

Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese finished 18th this week, weighing in 10 pounds, 11 ounces on day one and 13 pounds, 6 ounces on day two. After fishing several areas during practice, trying for keepers upriver and then moving back down the lake to find some flipping bites, Reese ran into some trouble on the first day of the tournament.

“On day one, I went up to my grass area, but found the lake had been pulled down about a foot, which really affected the fish in my area,” Reese said. “I never had a bite where I thought I was really going to catch them. I decided to run upriver and fish some areas I found in practice, and that is where I caught my limit. I only caught five keepers all day, two on a RC 1.5 and the rest flipping.”

Reese was fishing mostly rock and wood, using the current to his advantage. After only catching five keepers on day one, he had a little more luck on Friday, catching 12 to 15 keepers. The RC 1.5 was his go-to bait on day two, as he found the fish would bite when he cranked fast.

“A lot of the fish were shallow and would hit the bait after I had only had time to crank it maybe twice,” Reese explained. “They were literally sitting in about 6 inches of water.”

Admitting he made better decisions and stayed in more productive water, Reese said everything worked right for him on day two. Instead of running around a lot, he was able to pick out a few key areas and get more quality fish. With a decent tournament behind him, Reese admits his sights are already set on Lake Toho. No points were assessed in the Bassmaster Legends tournament, and Reese has one final tournament to secure his dream – Angler of the Year.

“There are a lot of words I could use to describe how I feel about Lake Toho,” Reese said. “I’ll be wound up tight because of the fear of the unknown. There is extreme anxiety and tension while I wait for that week to begin. Until I actually get there, I will be a wreck, but once I start fishing and am able to get on the water, I’ll formulate a game plan and settle down. It all comes down to this.”

Lucky Craft’s Takahiro Omori was a man of few words Friday afternoon as he explained how he looked for crankbait fish everywhere but couldn’t find them.

“I spent 13 hours on the water from sun up to sun down [in practice] trying to find the fish I would need to do well here,” Omori began. “This is the last Major, and I wanted to find and catch a good stringer here. I just couldn’t find anything.”

Omori had trouble understanding the reasons he couldn’t find the crankbait fish, because according to the Texas resident, he can normally catch fish cranking shallow on Lake Dardanelle.

“This time of year is normally great for me on this lake,” Omori said. “I’m not sure why it turned out the way it did. I ended up catching most of my fish yesterday flipping milfoil, and only caught six keepers all day [Thursday].”

After bringing in five keepers for a total of 11 pounds, 8 ounces on day one, Omori knew he would have to step it up to make the cut on Friday. However, after struggling to catch keepers, day two yielded an 8-pound, 11-ounce bag putting Omori in 30th place for the weekend.

According to Omori, it wasn’t catching fish that was the problem; it was the 15-inch keepers that eluded him this weekend.

“I would catch about 25 fish a day, but nothing I could keep or that would have helped me move up in the standings,” Omori said. “Most of my fish on Thursday and Friday came flipping, and I also caught fish on a frog. I would keep moving around and trying to find new water and bigger fish, but it was just one of those tournaments for me. It was pretty frustrating.”

Omori’s goal going into the last tournament of the season on Lake Toho is to finish in the top 75 and make it to the Classic.

“I think I’m in 27th or 28th in the points right now, so a top 75 should put me in the Classic for next year,” Omori concluded. “At this point in the season, all I’m asking for is to make the Classic. I have fished Lake Toho only once in September, but I think the key will still be finding some schooling fish, flipping fish, and I might even be able to catch some on the top.”

Bass Pro Shops angler, Rick Clunn finished in 22nd this week with a total weight of 23 pounds, 7 ounces, and all his fish came on the Lucky Craft RC 1.5 DD and RC 2.5 DD, his signature baits.

“The fish have been sitting in shallow creek bends dropping from about 2 feet to 8 feet in depth,” Clunn explained. “I would work a lot of different groups and eventually find one where I could just grind them out. I was throwing the ghost shad color in both baits. I don’t know if it made a huge difference, but it was a shad color bait. You have to throw what you have confidence in, and that’s what I did.”

With four main areas to fish, Clunn would make 60 casts in one area and catch 43 fish, but much like Lucky Craft’s Omori encountered, the fish weren’t quite big enough to keep. Out of 43 fish caught during one day of the tournament, Clunn only had three keepers.

Clunn was cranking the 1.5 DD and 2.5 DD along the deep ledges during practice, found the pattern and stuck with it both days of the tournament. Thursday, Clunn weighed four fish for 10 pounds, 2 ounces and a five-fish limit of 13 pounds, 5 ounces on Friday.