Three Lucky Craft Anglers Finish in Top 20
at Bassmaster Memorial Reese misses top 6 cut by mere ounces
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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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“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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“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 Sammy and 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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“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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“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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