Skeet capped the West Coast tour of the Elite Series with a second-place finish on the California Delta providing a challenging test.

Unseasonably cold weather put a damper on expected big bags at the Delta. Bass were in pre-spawn mode, with a variety of baits thrown by anglers in this tournament.

Skeet’s runner-up finish in the Delta was, in his words, “devastating.” He missed winning by two ounces and thought he had it won until champion John Crews plunked more than 20 pounds on the scale…

“I was really excited because I thought it would set up perfectly for my new S.K.T. Crankbait, especially with the new colors of Magic Craw and Delta Craw that I designed. Typically this time of year they’re biting crankbaits pretty well, but the water temperatures still are cold and the fish weren’t active or chasing.”

“I cranked and cranked and cranked and couldn’t make it happen. I wound up flipping with creature baits and Chatterbaits around the grass.”

“It was devastating (to lose). I fished well the last day, made good adjustments and got the bites. I lost a few fish I know would have culled my smallest fish.”

“What was disheartening was when I got back to check-in at the tanks and started talking, and thought I’d won. I was pretty sure I had (Greg) Hackney and Ike (Mike Iaconeli) beat, and Crews said he thought he had about 17 pounds or so. I figured even if he had 18 or 19 I still had him beat. So I thought I had it won. Everyone did. My wife was freaking out and everyone wound up thinking I had it won.”

“I’m standing there on stage and John weighs in before me, and I hear 20 pounds and something ounces, and I was like, ‘Oh, ----.’ That threw a major wrench into everything and I was trying to comprehend it. People were trying to talk to me and I’m just out of it… I didn’t like the sound of that 20-pound thing.”

“I had no idea how big of a lead I had on him going into the day. I’m trying to do the math, trying to figure it out and they said I needed 19 pounds and 13 ounces to win. I knew that was a lot of weight and thought I had about 19 pounds.”

“I knew it would be really, really close. I saw the scale say 19-11 and it just crushed me. Crushed me. That wasn’t a fun moment.

Reese has experienced bitter disappointment before, notably at the 2007 Bassmaster Classic and the 2009 “post-season” for the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year award. But another close call didn’t take away the sting. “Second sucks,” he said. “I’ve had enough of them and it never gets easy. I fished well and made good decisions. I lost some fish and any one of them wins it. I look at it as timing. He caught a 5-pounder on his last flip.” “But I don’t like getting beat on these big fish heroics. I look at my career and tournaments I could have won by someone not catching one in last 20 minutes, and I could have had an amazing track record. But I don’t.” “I fished the way I needed to fish, wanted to fish and had to fish. I made good decisions and did everything right. I put myself into position to win. If get beat by someone with a last-second fish or whatever, then it was their time to win. I know if I keep positioning myself like that then I’ll get a win again.”

“I mostly just fished around out there. I never got on a strong cranking bite, which I thought was going to be the deal but it never happened for me."

“I pretty much flipped a Lake Fork Tackle jig and only caught a few fish. It was really disappointing for me. The tournament was won out of the other area I had practiced in but I made the wrong turn. I caught a little on the first day and broke off a big one."

“It was real tough. I tried the LV’s and cranking, and there wasn’t anything working on that.”

“It’s a pretty short recap because I didn’t catch much of anything at all in the Delta. It was pretty tough for me. The first day I only had two fish (from) flipping a Beaver on some matted grass.”

“The second day I found a couple of little ol’ reed islands with small fish in them. I used a 3/8-ths ounce weight with a Beaver but didn’t do too well.”

“I just couldn’t figure them out.”

“I don’t have much to talk about, really. I went to pre-fish in December and wasn’t familiar with the area, and it was cold. When we got back for the tournament it was still cold.”

“I had one area that I thought could catch a couple of good ones on a B.D.S. 4 in Spring Craw. But when tournament started they didn’t bite. I don’t know what happened. I had a 5-pounder the second day, though.”