Del Rio, Texas (March 16, 2007) – Lake Amistad was the first regular season Elite Series tournament stop of the year, and this is not a lake for the faint of heart. Weights are usually high and it can take 100 pounds or more to come home a winner.

Fans were out in full force for four days at Diablo East Marina as pros weighed in after fishing on one of the most popular bass lakes in the country. Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese had another great finish, after narrowly missing a Classic victory in Birmingham just weeks earlier.

Practice started slowly for Reese, as he fished pockets and bluff walls but really found no pattern. He caught a couple five pounders on a Lucky Craft Pointer 128 (Chartreuse Shad), but the bite fell off and the rest of the fish on the first day of practice were barely keepers. Reese changed location on day two of practice trying to figure out the lake, but only caught about 12 pounds.

“It wasn’t looking good after the second day of practice,” Reese said. “But at the end of the day, I found an area that looked pretty cool and it seemed like it would be a great location if the fish would move in. It was a big open bay with a nice, deep channel going into it. It was unlike anything I’d seen on the lake.”

Reese decided to head to the new location on day three, starting at the mouth of the area and working back. Pulling over to one side of the pocket, he caught a couple five pounders back to back on a spinnerbait. Crossing to the other side of the pocket, Reese had a school of five to seven pounders chase the Pointer 128.

“The fish were basically fighting over it (the Pointer),” Reese explained. “It was the best thing I had seen all week in practice so that is where I decided to start my tournament.”

Poor practices seem to equal successful tournaments for Reese, as the same thing happened at this year’s Bassmaster Classic. Right now, Reese says he’ll take it.

On the first day of the tournament, Reese went to the area he found on the last day of practice, figuring he would catch the fish on his first pass through and be finished in that area in an hour. However, after his first pass through he never had a bite.

“That didn’t look good,” Reese said. “I decided to make another pass through with the Pointer 128 (Chartreuse Shad) and fished a little bit slower the second time. I caught a couple three pounders, before I jacked a seven pounder right in front of the ESPN camera boat.”

After the exciting TV highlight, Reese left the area and went to look for bed fish he saw in practice.

“I ran all the way across the lake to an area where I remembered seeing some bed fish,” Reese said. “The wind was blowing hard so I couldn’t see if anyone had found them. I pitched in there and as soon as I did, I caught the male and he was almost four pounds. So I culled out one fish, re-rigged and two pitches later, I caught the female – and she was about six or seven pounds.”

Needless to say, Reese was very glad no one found those bed fish before he could get back to them. After a successful day one, Reese had a 25 pound, 2 ounce bag, putting him in good placement going into day two of competition.

Reese didn’t find much in his area on day two, so he decided to go pre-fishing again and see what happened. Catching a limit working across a flat with the Pointer 128, Reese was able to bring in just over 21 pounds on day two, but admitted he struggled a bit.

“Towards the end of day two (Friday), I went back to my starting area and found another bed fish,” Reese said. “I had about an hour left to fish and caught a five-pound female. I only caught about nine or 10 keepers all day.”

Saturday was about the same story for Reese, who brought in 20 pound, 5 ounces. He didn’t think he had enough for the cut, but to his surprise, Reese made it to the top 12.

“I thought I would need 23 to 25 pounds to make the cut,” Reese added. “But I made it, which really surprised me and I realized I had nothing to lose going into Sunday.”

Reese finished his tournament in ninth place with a total four-day weight of 86 pounds, 5 ounces. After two good tournaments in a row, Reese hopes to keep the momentum going as the seasoncontinues.

“It’s nice to know I had a much better finish here than I did last year,” Reese said. “The Angler of the Year title is my number one goal in the sport of bass fishing, but you never know if it will happen. Ifeel like I’ve reached a different level of competitive fishing now and have raised my game. Part of it is maturity, but I do feel like I understand who I am as an angler better now and really understand how I fish.”

Fishing a good tournament and making the cut to day three was Lucky Craft’s Gerald Swindle, who, like Reese, didn’t have a very good practice.

“Monday through Wednesday was just not very good,” Swindle began. “In fact, I probably only had 16 pounds on the first day of practice. I looked in some of the general areas where I caught them last year, but it just didn’t work.”

“I had been fishing across a flat with a jerkbait and could see a ditch running through the middle,” Swindle said. “I threw the LVR D-10 (Rainbow Trout) across the ditch and caught a two and a half pounder over 20 feet of water. That was the last day of practice, but I didn’t mark the spot, because I wasn’t sure it would end up being any good. I had to go through 20 pockets to figure out where it was.”

Swindle ended day one with 21 pounds, 12 ounces, and ended up catching all his fish on the Slender Pointer 127 (Ghost Brown). The second day of competition, he went to the same location.

“I fought it on day two, and the first two fish I caught actually came on a seven inch Senko,” Swindle said. “I caught a limit but had two that were barely keepers, so I spent the next three hours (noon – 3:00 pm) on the trolling motor looking for bed fish. I found one four pounder 15 minutes before check-in. That gave me another 20 pounds, but I still knew I wasn’t catching them like I should.”

Swindle was drawn like a magnet back to the same spot on day three and caught a limit, but again struggled with bringing in the big weights. Swindle caught a 16-pound bag on day three, ending his tournament in 33rd with a total weight of 58 pounds, 1 ounce.

“I think my struggles had to do with the area I was in,” Swindle explained. “I really think I just fished it out. I fished a winning tournament on a 30th place hole. If I could change one thing, I would fish a completely different area.”

Swindle said he would normally be very disappointed with this finish, but that is not the case this time around.

“I’m in no way satisfied with 33rd place, but I really feel like I fished a really good tournament,” Swindle included. “I just wasn’t around the right fish.”

Finishing in 63rd on Amistad was Lucky Craft’s Takahiro Omori, who also had a good practice, catching 20 to 25 pounds every day.

“I tried a couple different things,” Omori explained. “I looked for beds, threw a lipless crankbait and flipped bushes. I found several techniques that worked well for me in practice, so I was pretty confident.”

Omori was fishing a lake point in the back of a creek on day one of the tournament. With the weather cloudy and windy, Omori was able to catch a 26-pound, 4-ounce bag and was in 15th after the first day.

“I caught a seven pounder and a three pounder on a deep-diving crankbait,” Omori said. “I went to another spot and caught a seven pounder, so obviously I had a good Thursday. I thought I was in good position because this was just the first day on Lake Amistad. I didn’t get overconfident though, because I was just doing my job, and you have to catch big weights to win on this lake.”

Friday was a different story for Omori, who only had one fish at 9:00 am.

“I had a lot of boat traffic and there were a lot of locals out fishing,” Omori said. “I think that may have spooked the fish I was on the day before. I figured they weren’t biting the way I caught them Thursday, so I had to switch it up a bit.”

Omori began throwing a lipless crankbait and a Senko, looking for beds as he went. He also flipped bushes a bit, but had nothing going on all day long.

“The weather was a little different on Friday, but even in practice, I caught fish well on sunny days,” Omori said. “I just don’t understand it, but I guess that’s all part of the mystery of fishing. At the end of the day, I only had four fish and it really shocked me. I mean, we were on Lake Amistad. All I needed to do on Friday was catch ten pounds to fish on day three, but I screwed up the first tournament of the year. I was expecting much more.”

Finishing in 63rd place with a total of 32 pounds, 14 ounces, Omori is mad about his first tournament, but plans to use it as motivation, much like teammate Stone.

“I have to be calm approaching each new tournament and forget about this one,” Omori said. “You can’t control the past – it’s already over – so I’m just going to forget about it and move forward.”

Omori is excited about the next tournament, which is scheduled for March 22 – 25 on the California Delta.

“I’m excited about going to California,” Omori concluded. “It’s another good fishery and I don’t get to see the West Coast very much. I love to fish those lakes, and the Delta is another one of the best bass lakes in the country. I hope to have a better tournament there.”

Rounding out the Lucky Craft pro staff was Kelly Jordon, finishing the tournament in 78th with a total weight of 29 pounds, 2 ounces. Jordon was also successful in practice, finding eight and nine pounders using the Lucky Craft Pointer 100 DD (Pearl Ayu).

“I was fishing some drains off of a big flat in about 18 to 35 feet of water,” Jordon explained. “It was really calm and sunny and the fish were biting really well for me with the weather like that, especially when fishing deep. I caught them on the 100 DD and the Flat CB D-20 (Aurora Green Perch).”

Jordon’s fish in practice were located in a very specific area – either on the points of little drains in about 21 to 30 feet of water or on the backs of flats where it dropped from 18 to 25 feet very quickly. Jordon backed off those fish in practice and planned to go back to them on day one of competition.

“I didn’t care what else happened because I knew the tournament was going to be won out deep,” Jordon said. “I made up my mind I wasn’t going to fish the bank unless I was just absolutely scrambling. I went all in on the deep stuff.”

Fishing about three miles from the nearest shoreline, Jordon felt like he was in the middle of the ocean. He only shared the area with one other angler, but during the tournament, the bite changed and the waves rolled in.

“All the fish got small on me and the waves were huge,” Jordon explained. “I wasn’t able to get any good bites. I probably caught 20 keepers, but I wasn’t able to position on the deeper stuff because of the wind and the cranking fish got really small. We had a big weather system come in and I wasn’t able to attack it right.”

Jordon brought in five fish weighing 13 pounds, 10 ounces on day one and decided to give those fish one more chance to bite on day two.

“The second day I gave the fish until 10:00 am, and I still didn’t have much so I punted and switched spots,” Jordon said. “I thought the fish had all moved in, but they didn’t. I ended up fishing shallow after all using the Slender Pointer 127, but only caught two and three pounders on day two.”

Finishing his week on Friday in 78th with a total weight of 29 pounds, 2 ounces was very disappointing for the Texas resident, who loves to catch the big ones.

“It’s really disappointing because so many big fish were caught here,” Jordon said. “Maybe I should have had a better plan, but I’m kind of hard headed and really try to win the tournaments. I don’t fish for points much at all. I thought it would be won out deep and if I could get the right bites, I would have a chance. I should have given the fish longer on the second day.”

Jordon knows how great the fisheries are in California and can’t wait to go out west and fish for redemption.

“I am looking forward to California,” Jordon concluded. “The Delta has giant bass and a lot of them will be spawning or close to it. I think the Real California Premium 130 will be the bait to try out there. I like to throw big baits to catch the big ones.”