Lucky Craft Anglers Capture the Big Ones on Clear Lake

Lake County, California (April 3, 2007) – Some now call it the best lake in the country, and with more than 1300 fish caught and more than 5800 pounds weighed in during the four day tournament, it would be hard to disagree.

Clear Lake, the largest natural lake entirely in California, played host to the third Bassmaster Elite Series tournament. With more than 100 miles of shoreline, Clear Lake is 19 miles long and eight miles wide at the widest point. Elite Series anglers battled the big ones on this lake and several Lucky Craft pro staff members came out on top.

Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese had another great tournament, finishing in second and was also the first angler on Sunday to break the all time heavy weight record with a total of 117 pounds, 6 ounces.

Reese has been very successful over the past several tournaments with three top 12s in as many tournaments and a second place finish at the Bassmaster Classic in February. Pleased with all the top finishes, Reese still admits, “second place sucks.”

“I’d like to think I’m due to win one, but you never know what’s going to happen,” Reese said. “I was happy to see Aaron (Martens) win at the Delta because he’s had a lot close calls too. I figured if he could pull one out, then there was hope for me.”

Reese had big bags all week, weighing in more than 25 pounds daily and bringing in a huge, 35-pound bag on day three. According to Reese, he only had two main baits the whole week – a swimbait and a new prototype from Lucky Craft, the Slim Shad D-9 (Ghost Minnow).

Lucky Craft has a great new bait coming out and that was one of my main baits this week,” Reese said. “I had the prototype with me in Clear Lake after working a writer’s conference at Lake Amistad a few weeks ago. I threw it there and caught several fish in a matter of minutes, so I knew it was a good bait.

“On Clear Lake, I pulled up to a spot in practice and decided to see how it would work,” Reese continued. “My very first cast, I caught a six-pounder, and it continued to work for me all week. It’s hard to really explain the action, but it pulls really hard and dives deep instantly. You can fish it as a crankbait or a jerkbait. I’m definitely very impressed with it.”

The new bait from Lucky Craft is scheduled to come out at ICAST this year in Las Vegas, Nev.

Reese had a great week overall, weighing in the biggest bag he has ever brought in during a tournament (35 pounds, 7 ounces on day three) and moving into first in the Angler of the Year points standings.

“I’m pleased, I guess,” Reese concluded. “I’m hoping something good comes out of all these solid finishes. If it’s Angler of the Year, I’ll take seconds all year long. That’s still my number one goal in fishing. Hopefully I’ll be in that position at the end of the season. There are still a lot of tournaments left and anything is possible, so I just hope to continue fishing well and keep myself in contention until the end of the season.”

Even numbers made a great combination this week, and finishing in fourth place behind teammate Reese was Lucky Craft’s Gerald Swindle, who became a member of the bass century club for the first time.

“All I wanted to do was catch 100 pounds of bass in four days,” Swindle said. “This week is probably the pinnacle of my career.”

With huge bags on Friday and Saturday, it was the Purolator Big Bass on day four that gave Swindle the final push over the edge and into the record books. After a 28-pound bag on day two and a 29-pound bag on day three, Swindle brought in a 10 pound, 6 ounce bass on Sunday and said it was the highest high he’s ever had in his tournament career.

“I saw it (the fish) Sunday morning around a wall, and I finally got it to bite, I jerked and it didn’t move – it doesn’t get any better than that,” Swindle explained. “It was a great moment for me and I’m glad I sat down in the boat for a while and let it sink in.”

Swindle threw some Lucky Craft during the tournament, the Slender Pointer 127 (Hitch color), but couldn’t get the jerkbait bite going. According to Swindle, it was a slow tournament, so switching to a swimbait seemed to be the ticket to success.

“I was throwing the six-inch swimbait with a 3/16-ounce Tru-Tungsten worm weight in front of it so when I threw it, it kept the weight low and I would just slow roll it in,” Swindle said.

After Swindle’s last tournament on the California Delta, he was ready for redemption, and that is just what he found this week – and he did it with a completely new fishing style.

“To come to a tournament like this and catch this kind of weight is awesome,” Swindle said. “Especially using a bait I’m not too familiar with. This tournament has given me confidence in my strengths and adaptability and proves I really am a junk fisherman. I’ve never caught anything on a swimbait, but yet I tied it on and caught 105 pounds. That helps me as a fisherman to know I had the versatility to get outside the box, tie on something I’m not comfortable with and learn it as I go.”

According to Swindle it was nice to rally back and accomplish one of his main career goals – catching more than 100 pounds in a tournament. When all was said and done, Swindle weighed in 105 pounds, 8 ounces.

“This tournament put me in a great frame of mine,” Swindle concluded. “I accomplished a goal and, from a fishing perspective, it was a lot of fun.”

Keeping on pace with the even numbers game was Lucky Craft’s Kelly Jordon, finishing his tournament in sixth and also catching more than 100 total pounds. After what seemed to be a frustrating few tournaments, Jordon, much like Swindle, rallied back to a nice finish, catching most of his fish on a swimbait with some Lucky Craft lures in the mix.

“I was really looking forward to coming here and I had a lot of fun,” Jordon began. “I finally caught some and that feels good and breaking the hundred pound barrier again was pretty awesome. I found most of my fish on the Real California 130 Premium (Chartreuse Shad). In practice, I was really able to find some good areas because I could tell where the fish were located with the Real California. They would come out and look at it, and some would actually take it. I knew if they were in the area, they would check it out, and if I didn’t see any, they weren’t there.”

In the tournament, the weather changed from windy to calm, so Jordon had to switch it up to catch those fish he found in practice.

“I couldn’t get them to hit it (Real California) when the wind changed, so I had to use a soft plastic swimbait,” Jordon continued. “That’s what I caught most of my fish on until today (Sunday). Today, I switched to a bigger swimbait trying to catch a giant stringer.”

Jordon was comfortable this tournament, really feeling like he was fishing well. Even with a couple frustrating days during the tournament, Jordon weighed in sixth with a total of 102 pounds, 10 ounces.

“Day one and day three were frustrating, but today was good and I had a killer second day,” said Jordon, who weighed in a whopping 32-pound bag on Thursday. “The only thing that makes me cringe a bit is that I couldn’t back it up on day three. I tried, but the fish really changed and that’s what happens this time of year. One day the fish will be sunning, one day they’ll eat and the next day, they won’t eat at all. That’s basically what happened to me.

“But I was really happy to be in the top 12,” Jordon concluded, “and I was excited about the century club again. We got to fish an awesome lake and catch a lot of big fish, which is what we all love to do.”

Making the cut to 50 and finishing in 21st was Lucky Craft’s Takahiro Omori, who caught a lot of bass this week and said he had never seen anything like it before.

“I had so much fun this week,” Omori said. “I probably caught 150 bass all week, including practice. Over my 15 years in the United States, I’ve fished more than 250 tournaments and never seen anything quite like this. This is only my second time on Clear Lake, but we need to come here more often. I agree with the other guys right now – this is, at least this week, the best lake in the country, no doubt.”

Omori had a plan to start off with, but had to switch it up a bit once he actually saw what worked and what didn’t.

“I started with pre-spawn fish,” Omori explained, “but the first day of the tournament, I caught most of my fish fishing around boat docks using mainly a Senko. I decided to try sight fishing on day two and screwed up, and only brought in 19 pounds, 6 ounces. It sounds funny that 19 pounds is a bad day, but it’s true. Most of the big females were still in the deep water or around the docks. It was the smaller males that were on the beds.”

Omori said he was amazed by this tournament and believes it is, “one of a kind.” Two days with bags weighing in at more than 20 pounds led Omori to a total weight of 71 pounds, 1 ounce. He plans to keep pressing on and fishing hard as the next tournament on Clarks Hill approaches.

“I’m going to keep pushing since I really expected more out of myself for the first few tournaments of the season, but it’s not too bad,” Omori concluded. “I’m going to keep pushing. I had two bad tournaments on Clarks Hill, one in March and one in May, so maybe April will be different.”

Lucky Craft’s Marty Stone didn’t have a bad practice and thought he could catch 18 to 20 pounds a day, but wasn’t quite able to accomplish it. It shows how phenomenal the weights were on Clear Lake, as Stone weighed in a total of 35 pounds, 1 ounce and finished 89th. On many of the other lakes fished throughout the season, 35 pounds would be a pretty good week.

According to Stone, he was never able to get the big bites he needed to have a good tournament.

“I don’t know if you call it bad luck or what, but I only had one big bite the whole tournament, and I lost him today,” Stone said. “I’ll leave this state thinking I’ve dug myself another hole, but the thing is, I’m fishing pretty clean and pretty good. If I had to do it over, I’d probably do it the same way. The difference between good runs and bad runs is getting the big bite every now and getting the fish in the boat. I just haven’t had many opportunities. I’ll be glad to go somewhere soon where 17 pounds actually means something.”

After weighing in 18 pounds, 2 ounces on day one and 16 pounds, 15 ounces on day two, Stone is frustrated about the start to his season and hopes to see it turn around before the first Major on High Rock Lake.

“To take these types of beatings is really frustrating,” Stone admitted. “The thing that bothers me more than anything else is the first Major tournament is in my home state and I’m not helping myself make that one. I have to be in the top 40 to qualify, so I have two more tournaments to catch up. Two top tens would do me wonders. I am looking forward to some time off before our next tournament. I’m ready to go home and recoup.”