Lucky Craft’s Kelly Jordon Finishes Sixth
on Lake Guntersville Swindle and Reese catch fish with Lucky Craft LV Series |
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Guntersville, Ala. (May 1, 2007) – Having just finished a tournament on Clarks Hill in Georgia, 108 of the world’s best anglers, including five Lucky Craft pro staff members, traveled to Guntersville, Alabama for the fifth tournament of the season.
After three days of practice on this notorious lake, the weather forecast and a decision made by BASS kept the anglers off the water during what would have been the first day of competition. Instead of the normal four-day tournament schedule, the whole field fished Friday and Saturday, and Saturday’s weigh-in narrowed the field from 108 to 12. Not only did anglers have to work hard to catch a big sack on Lake Guntersville, but they only had three days to do it.
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>>>Kelly Jordon |
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“In practice, I would work spinnerbait stuff until about 10 am,” Jordon explained. “Then I went looking for some bed fish. Those were the two main things I was planning on doing in the tournament. I was able to find several key areas for the spinnerbait bite, and I planned to stick with that in the morning and either continue with that in the afternoon or throw a worm in the same spots.” After a really good practice with a spinnerbait, Jordon wasn’t able to get that bite going on day one (Friday). He made one pass through his number one spinnerbait area and never got a bite, which led him to try something different. “I figured they just weren’t biting the spinnerbait that day, so I ran some other stuff,” Jordon said. “There were actually guys all over the other spots I planned to fish, so I ended up going to the area where I won the tournament here in 2002.”
Jordon couldn’t find any fish on a spinnerbait there either, so he decided to completely forego the spinnerbait plan and attack the lake with a new technique.
“I decided to punt on the whole spinnerbait idea for the day and go sight fishing,” Jordon explained. “That’s how I ended up catching my limit on day one, and I was extremely disappointed because I had such a good practice.” After catching nothing Friday on a spinnerbait, Jordon salvaged his day by sight fishing and brought in 15 pounds, 1 ounce. Not sure whether to attempt the spinnerbait bite again or try something new, Jordon had a big decision to make going into day two. “Yesterday (Saturday), I decided to go back to the area where I started on day one and caught a six pounder on my second cast [with a spinnerbait],” Jordon said. “I was fishing a main lake ridge where the fish were coming off the spawning areas and transitioning out to their summertime locations. I refined the area so well, I could cast to one spot and that’s right where all the fish were located.” Jordon brought in 21 pounds, 15 ounces to be exact, which had him in the top 12 and fishing on the third and final day. Most of Jordon’s fish both Saturday and Sunday came on a spinnerbait, with the exception of one good fish he caught with a worm. After another successful day on Sunday, weighing in 18 pounds, 3 ounces, Jordon finished sixth with a total weight of 55 pounds, 3 ounces. “I’m very pleased,” Jordon said. “It was a great tournament. I kept my top 13-streak alive on this lake at this time of year. I actually finished 13th here last year, just one spot out of the cut, so at least I got to fish on the last day this time around. I really do like Lake Guntersville.” It seems this lake has treated Jordon well, and he hopes he’ll be able to say the same about High Rock Lake. Jordon has never fished the lake he will travel to next for the first Bassmaster Elite Series Major of 2007, but he has heard many good things. “I know it’s a really good cranking lake, and I know it has a lot of structure, which I like to fish. I’ve won two tournaments on lakes I’d never been to before [Lake Wheeler and Lake Guntersville], so I guess I have a good track record on new lakes. I’m sure I’ll have all kinds of stuff tied on, and I’ll be ready to roll.”
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>>>Gerald Swindle |
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“On the first day, I fished the main river with a spinnerbait,” Swindle began. “However, I had rigged up the Lucky Craft LV-100 the night before in case I started missing them [the fish] on the spinnerbait. And sure enough, that is exactly what happened, so I decided to give the LV-100 a try.” After catching 17 pounds, 13 ounces on day one, Swindle knew he had the right bait tied on. On day two, he returned to the same area, still throwing the LV-100 (Chartreuse Shad). “I was fishing real shallow bars where the grass grew to about 3 feet,” Swindle explained. “The fish were inside of the grass on high places. I’d look for clear dirt and get around it where there wasn’t any grass, and that’s where I’d catch them. I would throw the LV-100 in, yo-yo it around and that’s when they’d hit it. It was a fun bite.”
Swindle stuck with the same pattern on day two but couldn’t get the big ones to bite. He weighed in 13 pounds, 4 ounces on Saturday and brought in a two-day total of 31 pounds, 1 ounce. Swindle finished his weekend in 26th place, tied with two other Elite Series anglers. After a couple weeks off, Swindle will also travel to North Carolina and fish on High Rock Lake. He is familiar with this area and likes his chances. “I fished the Classic on High Rock a few years ago and I like the style of the lake,” Swindle concluded. “I feel pretty comfortable, and I think it’s a tournament I might have a good chance to win. To win here in Guntersville, it takes a lot of luck for me because I don’t have the blow out places that some of these guys have. I like High Rock because I can do a lot of jumping and hopping around.”
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>>>Skeet Reese |
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Teammate and fellow Lucky Craft pro staff member Skeet Reese had limited time on the water during practice. After his battery charger went out, he was only able to spend a few hours practicing Monday and Tuesday.
“Wednesday was the one day I was able to go fishing,” Reese said. “It was super windy and cloudy, and I couldn’t go sight fishing like I wanted to. I was able to go for a bit on Monday and in the morning, I caught around 20 pounds using the LV-500. But that bite died around 9 am. I sight-fished for what little time I could on Tuesday morning and then on Wednesday, I ran around trying to find whatever I could but didn’t come up with much at all.” Reese had a decent bag on day one, catching 16 pounds, 12 ounces after running into some bed fish he found in practice. In addition to the bed fish, he was also fishing main lake points and humps. Knowing the fish were shallow, Reese looked for gravel shoals about two feet deep that looked to hold spawning shad.
“I caught two of my fish on day one looking at them and the other three blind casting beds using a dropshot,” Reese explained. “I had a limit of five fish on day one, but today [Saturday], I only brought in three keepers. I caught one on the LV-500 and two on a spinnerbait. I went back to the areas I fished yesterday morning – they didn’t bite there yesterday, but they did today.” Just shy of a limit on day two, Reese brought in three fish weighing 10 pounds, 2 ounces for a two-day total of 26 pounds, 14 ounces, putting him in 53rd place for the tournament.
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>>>Marty Stone |
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According to Lucky Craft angler Marty Stone, his practice was hit or miss. He was never able to get the offshore bite going, but thought he would be able to catch some fish on beds.
“I was sure I could make that happen,” Stone said of catching bed fish. “As it turns out, I went bed fishing on day one, and it turned out to be a disaster.” Stone brought in three fish Friday weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces and admitted he practiced wrong on this lake. However, he learned something from day one that helped him put together a much better bag on day two. “This game is humbling, and it is all about decisions,” Stone explained. “And I made a very bad one. The first day I was close but got spooked and went to fish on the bank. You can’t win a tournament here on the bank. I don’t know exactly why, but the fish moved overnight and it took me a while to adjust to it. “Today I redeemed myself a bit,” Stone continued. “I was spinnerbait fishing and it was an awesome bite. They’d knock 2 feet of slack in the line and I had to hang on. I was fishing it on shallow grass beds on the main lake in 4 to 6 feet of water. I just worked it in the grass and ripped it out. The fish would clobber it when they got it. It was a fun day of fishing today, and I needed that.” Stone finished his week in 72nd but feels like he gained some momentum on day two after he weighed in 16 pounds, 9 ounces. Now, if he can turn the next couple of tournaments around and make some top 20s, he believes he can look back on Lake Guntersville and know that he salvaged something on day two.
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>>>Takahiro Omori |
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“Yesterday [Friday], I caught a little more than 15 pounds cranking the Lucky Craft BDS 4 [shad color/custom],” Omori explained. “I caught six keepers on that one bait but never could get the big bite I needed. In practice, I was catching four to five pounders, but yesterday, they were all about 3 pounds.” Omori brought in 15 pounds, 8 ounces on Friday, fishing main lake points and humps around hydrilla and milfoil in five feet of water. However, on day two, many of Omori’s main spots had locals fishing on them, and he didn’t have many other places to go. “There was a lot of boat traffic today and a lot of locals on my spots,” Omori said. “I tried to find some other areas, but I just ended up having a really bad day. I was running around, just running down the gas. If things aren’t going your way, you have to move around to several other parts of the lake. I tried five or six techniques, but had to move so much that I was never able to slow down. I got into a bad cycle today and couldn’t get out of it. It was just one of those days.” Omori brought in three fish on day two (Saturday) weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce. His two-day total was 22 pounds, 9 ounces, and he finished in 77th.
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