Amazingly, Bolivars biggest fish on day one, was 2 pounds, 1 ounce, and he followed it up with a four-bass catch weighing 5 pounds, 13 ounces on day two.

Even though the fishing was tough at the Three Rivers, Bolivar actually liked it.

"I enjoyed that tournament because it was very technical," said Bolivar. "You had to manage time for locking up and down and have a fishing plan in every pool to maximize your time. Plus, the object was just to catch five keeper bass - not 25 pounds of bass. I like tournaments like that, especially when there is $1 million dollars on the line. Those kinds of tournaments are really anyone's ball game. It's not about who has the best local information for finding secret offshore spots - it's about who can go down a bank and fish the best."

Bolivar headed down the Ohio River both days but got mentally "spun out" on day one when he headed straight for his best spot and found day-one tournament leader Dave Lefebre "loading the boat" on it.

"That's the way it goes," Bolivar said. "He had a better boat number than me and simply got to it first. It was a one-cast, current-break type spot and I knew pulling in and trying to fish against him on it was foolish. But I should not have let it affect me mentally like it did. There were plenty of other fish to catch down there in the Ohio. When I saw Lefebre catching all those fish off that one spot it made me panicky, I got jacked up and started running around too much."

On day two, Bolivar got his head back on straight and just went fishing like he "should have done the first day."

"I threw the spot Lefebre was on out the window and just went fishing like I should have all along," Bolivar said. "I caught all four of my fish on places I did not even practice on - which was the way to fish there. You had to fish for the day, not what you found in practice."

Bolivar's success on day two came on a Zoom Super Fluke Jr., and a Lucky Craft 0.5 crankbait in tomato shad color. He threw the crankbait on a new Lucky Craft Fat Mini Magic Cranking Stick.

"The Fat Mini Magic is an awesome rod for the micro to mid-size crankbaits, like the Fat Mini's or RC 0.5 all the way up to the RC 2.5," Bolivar said. "It has the perfect action for firing those smaller crankbaits back under trees or around docks."

Brent Ehrler caught three bass on day one weighing 3 pounds, 11 ounces and one bass on day two for a two-day total of 5 pounds, 4 ounces, putting him in 53rd place overall.

Ehrler committed to the Allegheny River, fishing two and three locks up. Two of his keepers came on a small 3/8-ounce mop top jig and the other two came on a Flea Flicker flick shake rigged with a Fat Dover worm.

"I was very ill-prepared for that event," Ehrler said. "I didn't even have a good map of the rivers and the only history I knew about was the Classic, which was won off bridge pilings. What I did not realize was how much more current we had as compared to the Classic. That heavier current seemed to make those fish more bank-related than piling related."

Ehrler eventually dialed into the on-again-off-again mayfly hatch and says he got too stymied in one area.

"Looking back on it, I wish I had covered a lot more water during the event," Ehrler said. "I kind of got hunkered down in a couple of little areas and that was not the way to fish there - it seemed the more new water you covered each day, the better you did.

"Also, I wish I had investigated that last pool on the Allegheny," he added. "There were only four guys who went four locks up and they all had limits the first day. I fished every pool we were allowed to fish except for that one and I'm disappointed in myself with that oversight.

Gagliardi exhibited the humor in his day-two catch by holding up his two so-called ‘monsters' for the cameras.

His grand two-day total of 2 pounds, 10 ounces put him in 69th place overall.

Consistent with Gagliardi's post-tournament comments, he offered no excuses for his performance.

"It's really my fault," Gagliardi explained. "I had six, maybe seven keeper bites that first day and I only got one of them in the boat. I lost two and had three or four others blow up on it and I missed them - you simply can't do that in a super-tough tournament."

Gagliardi chose to fish two locks up on the Allegheny and mostly used a tiny 1/8-ounce buzzbait cast under over-hanging trees where a large mayfly hatch was going on.

"One thing I need to learn more about is mayfly hatches," Gagliardi commented. "There was a strong mayfly hatch going on up there the first day, but it was not near as good the second day and consequently the fishing was not as good. I'm not sure what controls when those flies hatch but it's probably an integral part of when those little smallmouths feed."

"If I had to do it over, I don't know what I would do different," he added. "When you get the bites and don't execute, it's hard to blame it on not being in the right area."