Tournament Standings
		Pl.		Team Lucky Craft
		07		Kelly Jordon
		22		Skeet Reese
		23		Casey Ashley
		73		Takahiro Omori
		105		Gerald Swindle

COLUMBIA, S.C. (May 20, 2008) - Six Lucky Craft pros traveled to South Carolina this past weekend for the sixth BASS Elite Series regular season tournament of 2008. Lake Murray hosted 109 of the world's best anglers, all competing for that coveted trophy and cash prize.

Jordon, like several other of his competitors, knew what to expect going into this tournament, but he was one of the few able to capitalize on the knowledge.

"I knew it was going to be a Blueback herring lake," Jordon began. "The water is warming up and the fish are getting on points and ridges. The Blueback (herring) get up on those types of locations and spawn, and the bass follow them. That generally means a great topwater bite, but for some reason that didn't materialize this week like it should have."

According to Jordon, topwaters were effective the first day of practice, and he was able to find some fish that day with a Lucky Craft Gunfish. However, the main pattern was a one, two, three punch - a Lucky Craft Sammy or Gunfish to start off the morning, switching to a soft plastic jerkbait at midday and backing that up with a jig, shaky head or a dropshot. "There are three main things you can do on Blueback herring lakes like this," Jordon said. "Since the herring bite is done by 10 a.m., you have to have something to back it up. You're lucky if you catch one after 10:30 or 11 a.m. That herring bite just dies off. Bass in these types of lakes, this time of year, don't act the same as normal bass. They get what they want from the herring, and then they're done feeding. They won't bite anything. You can see them, but you can't catch them. That makes it really tough."

With the odds against him, Jordon was able to catch 17 pounds, 13 ounces on day one and 12 pounds, 5 ounces on day two to catapult him well into the top 50. His key bait, after locating some fish with topwater lures, was a soft plastic jerkbait.

"I was fishing main lake points, ridges and shallow bars," Jordon explained. "It sounds obvious, and it is, but the real key was to find those types of areas that had bass on them - there were plenty of points and ridges without any fish. I was able to find a school of 5-pounders in practice, and went to them the first morning. That was what gave me my first bag of more than 17 pounds."

With certainty, Jordon made the top 50 and fished Saturday, but was only able to bring in 13 pounds, 10 ounces; a good bag in some places, but he wasn't sure if it would hold up for the top-12 cut Saturday afternoon. However, it was enough, and Jordon fished Sunday doing the same thing he'd stuck with all week to bring in a 17-pound, 12-ounce bag. He finished his week in ninth with a four-day total of 61 pounds, 8 ounces.

"There should be a topwater bite on Wheeler, but it might be more of a Carolina Rig or Texas Rig tournament," Jordon said. "I hope to catch them on a crankbait, specifically the Lucky Craft Flat CB D-20. There will be fish on ledges and drops, I just don't know how deep they'll actually be, but I intend to find out."

"I was running a bunch of shallow, flat points looking for schools of fish," Reese said. "There were a lot more fish here than in Clarks Hill. On the calm days, I'd get on the trolling motor and just go from point, to point, to point. I wouldn't even fish for them; if there was a school there, I'd just mark it and keep on moving. Those are the exact locations I ran in the tournament, but every day was a bit different for me."

With no wind on Saturday, Reese had to slow down, and he caught every fish he weighed on a dropshot. The two days before, he had a little more wind and was able to mix it up a little, but not much.

"I caught one on a Lucky Craft Sammy 100 (MS American Shad) on Friday, but most of my fish came on a swimbait and dropshot," Reese said. "I tried a lot of different things, but they didn't seem to look at much. I couldn't get them to go after very many things."

Reese, as well as many other anglers, knows the conditions will be different at the next several tournaments. Lake Wheeler will fish a lot different, according to the California resident.

"I don't expect great fishing on Lake Wheeler," Reese admitted. "You can catch 10 pounds a day there and do really well. Twelve pounds is huge. We will surely see a lot of 7- to 9-pound limits. Right now, I don't know what will be key, but I think the crankbait bite might be good. If I'm able to fish ledges, the Lucky Craft Flat CB D-20 could be a really good bait to use out there."

"Practice went really well, to say the least," Ashley said. "The first day, I probably had 30 bites on top. I could have had 25 or 26 pounds that day. The second day of practice was much like today [Saturday] - real slick, high pressure and high skies. I never got bit on top that day in practice, and I knew if it slicked off in the tournament, the topwater bite would leave me again. I think the fishing pressure really took a toll on these fish, too."

Ashley's topwater pattern didn't pan out in his three tournament days on the water. With only two bites on the Lucky Craft Gunfish 115 (MS American Shad) on Saturday, Ashley switched to a dropshot and a shaky head.

"Most of my fish throughout the week came on a jig, but I couldn't even get bit on that today [Saturday]," Ashley said. "I only had seven bites today, and one of them wasn't a keeper. It was a really tough day."

The South Carolina native fished all over the lake, from the dam to Dreary Island. He fished both sides of the lake and used nearly 30 gallons of gas a day. Obviously disappointed at not making the top 12 after such a hard-fought battle, Ashley still admits he can't complain.

"After coming out here on Monday, the first day of practice, I thought I would have a really good chance to do well out here," Ashley said. "But this place is nothing like Clarks Hill in my opinion. It looks big on a map, but once you put all these guys out here, they're all going to find the same areas and fish, and that's what killed the bite this week."

According to Lucky Craft's Takahiro Omori, it was a tough tournament. Much like teammate Stone, Omori had trouble with the post-spawn fish.

"The Lucky Craft Sammy was key in practice, but they just wouldn't bite it in the tournament," Omori said. "The topwater bite just disappeared. I think a lot of people were doing the same thing, jumping from point to point, and I guess that put so much pressure on these fish. They just quit biting."

Omori was fishing major creek points with baits he hadn't planned on using including a Senko and a Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 97 in MS American Shad.

"I didn't catch fish on anything I had planned on using," Omori said. "It got really tough out there, so I was picking up different things and trying them. Nothing else was working."

Omori finished 73rd with a two-day total of 20 pounds, 2 ounces, and is looking forward to resting, putting this one behind him and moving on to Lake Wheeler.

"I've fished many tournaments on Wheeler," Omori said. "I just fished an FLW Series tournament there in March and did pretty good. This will be very different kind of fishing, so I just plan to go home now, refresh my mind and keep a positive attitude. I'm looking forward to going to Alabama."

"I probably could have had 18 or 19 pounds a day the first two days of practice," Swindle said. "It seemed like the Gunfish bite was on, and I was going to throw that all day, everyday. I knew after about 10 a.m. I wouldn't get many bites on top, but I also knew when I would get a bite, it would be a big one. That's what I was counting on. I stuck with it, but I've never seen anything like this. The day of the tournament, that bite just absolutely quit."

Swindle never had another topwater bite once the tournament rolled around, even after such a strong presence in practice. He had to scramble to find fish Thursday and Friday. Swindle brought in four fish weighing 3 pounds, 5 ounces on Thursday and a 6-pound, 5-ounce bag on Friday to end his tournament in 105th.

"I knew I would need to catch 20 pounds or more on Friday to have a chance on the top 50, so I tried to fish big that morning and make something happen," Swindle said. "I caught stripers all day long, but couldn't get the bass to bite. I had to get out my spinning rod and was finally able to catch five small ones. I was still stressing about catching the big ones, so I was never able to get comfortable and stay in any one spot for too long."

Swindle fished mostly main lake points, burning $148 worth of gas in one day. He was jumping from point to point to find the fish he needed, but it never materialized.

"I've had a couple bad tournaments this year," Swindle said. "Maybe it's going to turn around for me, but I haven't had any breaks yet. When it's going good, fishing can be as easy as putting my clothes on. But when I'm not catching them, it can be the most difficult thing I do. Hopefully it'll get better."

Bass Pro Shops angler, Rick Clunn, finished his week in 88th with a two-day total of 18 pounds, 3 ounces. He admitted he didn't find the right pattern in practice and couldn't figure out how to catch the big ones. He did, however, try out the Lucky Craft RC 2.5 Wake bait, and was very pleased.

"I was catching my fish on the RC Wake [2.5]," Clunn said. "I love the bait - it's fabulous when you're fishing shallow. I don't know why I wasn't catching bigger fish with it. I must not have been in the right water, because usually you're going to catch the big ones with it. It's just that type of bait, and that's the frustrating part for me."

Clunn was fishing around the state park in outside flooded green grass. He would throw the RC Wake bait in the lane and come out fast, then stop the bait on the edges. That's where he would get the majority of his bites.

Clunn wasn't sure how he felt about Lake Wheeler but hoped it was going to be a deep crankbait lake. He would like a chance to throw the RC DD baits on ledges while fishing in Alabama.