“I went to Lake Toho [Tohopekaliga] to look for bedding fish on the second day of practice,” Jordon began. “I found quite a few – three big ones and a bunch of others. There were a lot of fish around. I practiced Lake Kissimmee on Monday, Toho on Tuesday and came back down to Kissimmee on Wednesday. I knew I wanted to go back to Toho for the big ones during the tournament.”

That’s exactly what Jordon did, as he caught his fish on a Lake Fork Tackle Baby Fork Craw, the same bait he used to win on Santee Cooper. Catching his two biggest fish on the crawdad, another came on a Texas-rigged Trick Worm. Jordon used mainly 65-pound braid on a seven-foot, medium/heavy rod with a Revo reel. Fishing hard, sandy bottoms where the fish were on beds was key for the Texas resident.

“Some areas I was fishing were shallow and some were about five feet deep,” Jordon added. “It got cloudy and windy on Friday, so I picked up a Frog and caught two big ones with that, too, in the same types of areas. I know the history of this lake and had ideas of where I could find the big fish.”

After weighing in 22 pounds, 14 ounces on day one and 21 pounds, 5 ounces on day two, Jordon was sitting comfortably in first place with a wide margin between him and second place.

“It was really windy today [Saturday], and I didn’t have any big fish to go after,” Jordon admitted. “I guess it was the weather that came through last night, but I’m not sure. No one seemed to be catching them well today.”

According to Jordon, after searching for the big ones on Lake Toho proved fruitless, he headed back down to Kissimmee to scramble and see what he could find. Hindsight is 20-20, and if he had it to do over, he would have stayed further north and hammered down on those big fish.

“I would have tried harder for those big fish had I known then what I know now,” Jordon said, referring to the end result of Saturday’s weigh-in. “I would have used a Texas-rig or a Senko and tried a little harder. I did it a bit, but I didn’t try to really slow it down like you have to do in Florida.”

Even with no fish to weigh-in on Saturday, Jordon had enough weight to make the top 12 and fish again on Sunday. Weighing in 7 pounds, 4 ounces, Jordon finished in ninth place with a total four-day weight of 51 pounds, 7 ounces.

“I went back up to Toho, but it seems that I just ran out of fish,” Jordon admitted. “It just didn’t happen for me this time around.”

Finishing in 22nd was Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese, weighing in a total three-day weight of 37 pounds, 3 ounces. Admitting his week was a constant struggle, Reese was only able to grind it out and hope for the best.

“I was pretty much all over the board,” Reese said. “My two key baits were a spinnerbait and a chatterbait. I would throw them both anywhere and everywhere, from a foot deep to about three feet deep. I was around lily pads, hydrilla and toulies – basically anything I could find in an area that had the wind blowing into it. That was the only thing I found that was a pattern for me.”

Reese didn’t have one key area but did fish one lake all week. Bouncing around Lake Hatchineha, Reese found if he caught a fish in one area he better not go back, because they would no longer be there.

“I really struggled this week,” Reese admitted. “I knew I was never around winning fish. The first day, I caught a six-pounder on a bed, and that saved me. Without that big one, I probably would have only had seven pounds or so, and I probably wouldn’t have made the top-50 cut. I was thankful to get that one.”

Reese brought in 12 pounds, 12 ounces on day one, 10 pounds, 3 ounces on day two and a 14-pound, 4-ounce bag on day three to rebound and move up to 22nd. Surviving Florida makes Reese proud and relieved.

“I’m glad Florida is done,” Reese said. “I feel like I survived both Florida tournaments. Obviously I didn’t make any top-12 cuts, which I would have loved to do, but overall I feel like I survived here. I didn’t hurt myself in the points, and we have nine more left. Anything can happen.”

Reese is looking forward to the next two tournaments, back-to-back events in Texas on Falcon Lake and Lake Amistad. Having never been to Falcon, Reese isn’t sure what to expect, but thinks it will be full of big fish and surprises.

“Falcon sounds like a dream lake with really big fish,” Reese concluded. “Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to weigh in 100 pounds. I don’t know what baits might be a factor there, but I can imagine I might be flipping trees on Falcon, and the Flat CB D-20 could be a possibility there, too. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Alabama resident Gerald Swindle fished a good tournament, especially after rebounding from a small limit of 5 pounds, 13 ounces on day one. Swindle was able to put a good fight and bring in a 14-pound, 12-ounce bag on day two to push him into the top-50 cut. Swindle had to leave suddenly Friday evening and was not able to fish Saturday, putting him in 50th when the tournament concluded on Sunday.

Lucky Craft’s Marty Stone wasn’t able to make a top 50 on Kissimmee, but finished 78th with a two-day total of 15 pounds, 4 ounces. Stone completely changed his philosophy coming into the tournament, hoping to have a better tournament here than in years past.

“This is probably the only tournament on this lake where I’ve weighed in two limits in a row,” Stone said. “And I still don’t have it figured out. I changed my whole game plan this time and actually had a decent practice. I tried something totally different this year.”

Stone was catching fish around lily pads and reeds, knowing some of the other anglers were doing well in those types of areas. However on day one, after not having a bite until 1 p.m. and catching a three-pounder with thirty minutes left to fish, Stone switched it up a bit on day two.

“That fish I caught at the end of the day on Friday gave me my 8 pounds, 8 ounces,” Stone said. “I knew I had to change things up, but I also knew that if you didn’t get that one big kicker fish, you were out of luck.”

Stone was able to catch most of his fish on a Zoom Trick Worm, also using his T-Rig as he usually does in Florida. A chartreuse and white, half-ounce, double-willow Tournament Force spinnerbait from Picasso also came into play for Stone this week. Flipping anywhere and everywhere he could on 17-pound Trilene, Stone admits the bite was ‘weird.’

“On Thursday, I’d have to hop the bait three or four times before I’d get a bite,” Stone said. “Today [Friday], they choked it. I caught a lot of fish to only be able to weigh in a 15-pound total. I’d pick up the line and it would explode, and that’s what is really frustrating. When they are biting like that and I’m not able to get the big bites, it frustrates me. Sooner or later I’m going to figure this place out and win one here.”

Still focused on having a much better start than last year, Stone is ready to leave Florida behind and move on to Texas.

“We are going to have two really good tournaments in Texas,” Stone concluded. “I’m geared up and ready.”

Takahiro Omori is understandably ready to leave Florida, and in his words, he’d be okay if he never had to come back. After a tough tournament on the Harris Chain of Lakes, Omori struggled again on Kissimmee, bringing in one fish for 12 ounces on day one. Confused, yet still in good spirits, Omori joked about his great practice and rough tournament.

“I had the best practice I’ve ever had on Lake Kissimmee,” Omori said. “I was fishing around lily pads with a chatterbait. I was catching four and five pounders, and on Monday, I caught 26 pounds. I did the exact same thing during the tournament, but couldn’t get any bites.”

Omori wasn’t able to explain what happened to his pattern when the tournament rolled around. Trying without luck to catch fish on the chatterbait on day one, Omori decided to switch to something other than the chatterbait. But it was too late.

“If you build up to a tournament with one great pattern, you have nothing to fall back on,” Omori said. “I screwed up. The pattern with the chatterbait was great until the tournament, and it just disappeared. I don’t know why. I ended up catching the one fish I weighed in on Thursday on a Senko.”

Omori rebounded on day two with an 8-pound, 2-ounce bag, putting him in 100th where he finished the tournament. Fishing Lake Toho on day two, Omori caught all his fish on a Senko around a spawning pocket.

“I did learn one thing this week,” Omori said. “Stay away from Kissimmee with a chatterbait.

Another angler looking forward to leaving Florida is Bass Pro Shops pro staff member, Rick Clunn. After an 8-pound, 1-ounce bag on day one, Clunn knew he’d have to step it up to make the top 50. Clunn was throwing the Lucky Craft RC 1.5, in Green Copper Shad, through lily pads all week.

“I caught a few big fish on the first day of practice,” Clunn said. “I just couldn’t catch them on day one. I only had two bites. Friday was better, and I caught one about five pounds and another about four, but with this caliber of anglers, you have to catch those big fish every day to do well out here.”

Clunn was able to rally back on day two with 12 pounds, 2 ounces to make the top-50 cut and fish on Saturday. He continued with the RC bite, cranking it through the lily pad stems on Lake Hatchineha.

“I was able to find an area where I could come right through the middle of the stems,” Clunn said. “If I could get the RC to kick off the pad stem, that’s when the fish would hit. All my fish this week came on the RC 1.5.”

After finishing 41st with a three-day total of 28 pounds, 9 ounces, Clunn wouldn’t do anything different.

“I was getting good, key bites,” Clunn said. “It was just a matter of getting those big ones. I was getting 15 to 20 bites a day, just hoping to get the big one.”