Lucky Craft’s Gerald Swindle Finishes Week in Super Six

Little Rock, Ark. (August 29, 2006) – Anglers competed this past week at the last of three Major tournaments this year, the Bassmaster Legends presented by Goodyear. Fishing was tough and bringing in limits was even tougher as 55 of the best Elite Series pros competed for a first place prize of $250,000.

The Bassmaster Legends tournament was the third and final of its kind this year, preceded by the Bassmaster Memorial in Fort Worth, Texas and the Bassmaster American in Charlotte, N.C. This week’s tournament honored a true legend in professional bass fishing, BASS founder, Ray Scott. Anglers fished the Arkansas River Thursday and Friday, having paid no entry fee and with no Angler of the Year points on the line. Anglers were allowed to lock up two or down two, making it not only a fishing tournament, but a race with time as well.

After two days of fishing, the field of 55 was paired down to the top 12, fishing a six-hole course on Saturday, located between Burns Park upriver and the Interstate 440 bridge downriver. On Saturday, the field was again shaved down to the ‘super six,’ who would have the opportunity to fish the same course on Sunday for a chance at the big money prize.

When the dust settled, Lucky Craft pro Gerald Swindle found himself in the ‘super six’ fishing for the quarter-of-a-million dollars. Swindle’s practice went well, but rain Wednesday cooled things down and completely changed things up.

“I had my best bites in practice flipping wood in the backwater areas,” Swindle explained. “The first night before the tournament, we got a cool rain and the water temperature got down to about 65 degrees, which was about 14 degrees cooler than the night before. The first day of the tournament, I went out and started fishing trees and never had a bite. I got to a piece of grass, where I had not been catching them before and caught a keeper. I realized the pattern completely changed and from then on, I qualified in the grass, flipping a 4 inch tube.”

Swindle caught them well on Thursday, as he was one of only five anglers to bring in double digits the first day. Swindle continued to impress on Friday as one of only five anglers to bring in a limit. With a two-day combined weight of 21 pounds, 12 ounces, Swindle was in first place going into Saturday. Weights were cleared Friday afternoon and the top 12 started from scratch on the six-hole course, which had been off-limits until the third day of competition.

Swindle found quickly the pattern was not the same as it had been the two days prior.

“I came into the six hole course Saturday thinking I would continue to catch them in the grass,” Swindle said. “But the pattern was not the same. We didn’t have the backwaters here with the depth I needed, so I switched it up and started fishing big, heavier mats and caught a lot of shorts.”

Things were tough on the six-hole course. As the nail-biting weigh-in continued, Swindle was the last to make it on stage, creating an atmosphere of anticipation among family and fans. Swindle brought in two fish weighing 3 pounds, 9 ounces – just enough to put him in the ‘super six.’

However, fishing wasn’t any easier on Sunday, as Swindle struggled to bring in one fish.

“Today I feel like I never had the opportunity to catch much at all,” he said. “I caught some shorts, but never had any other keeper bites, other than the one I brought in today.”

Swindle weighed in that one fish, totaling 2 pounds, 1 ounce, putting him in sixth place overall, a very honorable finish for such a tough fishery. Lucky Craft came into play for Swindle on Sunday, as the only keeper bite he had and the only fish he weighed in came on a Lucky Craft Gunfish 95 in American Shad.

The next and final tournament on the schedule for the Elite Series pros is Table Rock Lake in Missouri. As the last tournament of the season approaches and knowing he is already locked into the Classic, Swindle is looking for the win.

“I’m going for the win at Table Rock,” Swindle concluded. “You can’t get too gung-ho on the first day on this lake. You want to go out and catch eight to 10 pounds and stay in the game. I think it’s going to be key to dropshot out there, because we’re going to be looking at water that is 40 – 60 feet deep. It’s going to be really deep, really slow and really hot.”

Just narrowly missing the cut to 12 was Marty Stone, who was not even a pound outside the cut. Fifteenth was a very respectable finish for Stone, as he completed his 100th tournament as a professional fisherman.

Practice proved tough for the North Carolina resident, as he tried to decide which pool to fish and how many locks to navigate through.

“I fished three of the five pools we could go to, Pine Bluff, Brody Pool, and the Little Rock pool near the launch site,” Stone said. “I had bites in every one of them, but you only had 3 hours to fish in Pine Bluff and 6 hours in Brody because of the lock schedule. If you didn’t lock at all, you had all day to fish.”

 

It was decision-making time for Stone, as he had to make up his mind about where he would spend the first day of the tournament.
“I chose to fish in Brody on the first day because I thought it had the potential for some bigger fish,” Stone explained. “Yesterday (Thursday) I had a four-pounder down there and today I had one that weighed about three pounds. The fish there were the right size, I just couldn’t get many bites or add much weight together.”

According to Stone, fishing was tough because the water temperature was really high. In the early morning, it was already in the 90s.

“It was like fishing in a microwave,” Stone said. “When the water is so hot, the fish will feed really early and really late in the afternoon, but not in the middle of the day. When water temperature is in the upper 90s, a bass’ metabolism basically shuts down. They will get very inactive and also go over deep water and suspend. They are very hard to catch when they are over deep water, as there is no structure to fish around.”

Lucky Craft baits were working well for Stone on this tough fishery as well. Stone weighed in 6 pounds, 4 ounces on Thursday and his biggest fish came on the Lucky Craft RC 2.5 in purple shad.

“Early in the morning, the fish would bite the RC 2.5 and later in the day, they would bite the 1.5,” Stone said. “The big fish I caught on the 2.5 is the one that will get me paid at this tournament.”

Stone has heard rumors Table Rock, the final stop on this year’s tour, will be a very deep-water tournament. No one has ever mistaken Stone for a deep-water fisherman and this tournament will be no different.

“I’ll be looking for fish in two to five feet,” Stone said. “When the rumor is deep water, you can sneak up from behind, find a pattern on the bank and win the tournament.”

Stone would have to win Table Rock to make it to the 2007 Classic and even then, he might still be a few places short, but that won’t deter him from working hard.

“My goal is to make the top ten and finish the year strong. My fishing in the beginning of the year is what will keep me out of the Classic, but I turned it around and I am ready to finish strong and get ready next year.”

A few pounds behind Stone, in 21st, sat Lucky Craft’s Kelly Jordon. Practice was slow, but he thought he found a couple areas that looked pretty good. Jordon was excited to begin the tournament and see what he could accomplish.

“I was fishing two locks down on Thursday, in Pine Bluff,” Jordon began. “I only had three hours to fish everyday, because I had to lock twice to get to my spot. I had one stretch where I thought I could catch a 15-pound limit in 30 minutes. But when I got there, the fish weren’t there and that was very disappointing.”

Jordon had to scramble around a bit after finding his spot void of fish. Friday was almost a repeat of Thursday, as Jordon just couldn’t seem to get the big 15-inch fish to bite.

“I caught a lot of nice 14-inchers, but the limit here is 15,” Jordon said. “The fish I found would have been really nice keepers anywhere else we go. I was able to catch one flipping and stayed with it the majority of the day, just hoping I could get a couple more of the bigger bites, but it just didn’t happen for me today.”

After having to scramble to bring in a total of 9 pounds, 6 ounces, Jordon was happy with his finish and glad he found the fish he did.

“This is a river and the fish move a lot,” he explained. “You have that in mind going into the tournament and you hope you can find where they move to, but I wasn’t able to do that. I would have liked to have brought in more weight than I did, but my hat is definitely off to the guys who were able to catch them this week.”

Jordon will also travel to Missouri in a few weeks to compete on Table Rock Lake for the last tournament of the season. Like many other Elite Series anglers, he has never fished the lake this time of year and isn’t quite sure what to expect.

“I heard Table Rock can be really tough this time of year,” Jordon concluded. “It depends on the weather. I also heard the fish go really deep, so I think we’ll see a lot of dropshotting. That’s not my favorite thing to do though. I would love for it to be rainy and cloudy all four days of the tournament. I would be throwing the Lucky Craft Sammy and Gunfish the whole time if that were the case.”

 

Also in the top 25 was Lucky Craft’s Takahiro Omori, finishing his week Friday with a two-day weight of 8 pounds, 3 ounces. Not quite sure what was so tough about the river, Omori believes it just wasn’t the best time of year to catch the big fish.

“I wish I knew why it was so tough,” Omori said. “I thought I could catch two or three a day, but that didn’t happen. Once you lock through to get to your spot, you only have three to five hours to fish depending on where you are fishing. And those few hours of fishing are right in the middle of the day.”

Lucky Craft came into play again this week, as Omori was throwing all the baits in the Lucky Craft BDS Series in Chartreuse Black.

“I was fishing lay downs and stumps throwing a crankbait the whole time. I caught two yesterday and one today on the BDS Series baits. They were the only keeper bites I had Thursday and Friday.”

After the last tournament on the Potomac River, Omori thought he had lost his chance to make it into the 2007 Classic. However, he found out he was wrong as he currently sits in 38th. The top 36 go to the Classic, giving Omori a chance as he goes into the last tournament.

“I thought I was out, but it looks like I still have a chance,” he said. “I’m going to put everything I have into Table Rock and see what happens. The key this time of year is fishing deep, but that’s not my favorite way to fish. I’ll try it in practice, but I bet I end up fishing shallow. I have to finish in the top 25 to make the Classic, so I’m going to take all my chances.”

>>>Skeet Reese

According to Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese, it was a really frustrating week. Thinking he had found a good pattern in practice, but watching it disappear during the tournament really frustrated the California native.

“I thought I had found a good pattern in practice and thought I’d be able to do a lot better than I did,” Reese began. “I was running shoreline, channel swings and rock with the Lucky Craft Gunfish in Laser Clear Ghost. I would throw it from start to finish, all day long.”

Reese was fishing the Lucky Craft topwater long after most guys would have put it down, as some of his best bites came in the middle of the day. He did have his hooks cut off, a common practice during pre-fishing, so Reese didn’t catch any keepers during practice, hoping they would be there to bite tomorrow. With the game plan of fishing with one rod all day long, Reese was sure he could go back and catch a good stringer during the tournament.

 

“The first day of practice, I had three or four keeper bites with my hooks cut off,” Reese explained. “The second day, I probably had six or seven keeper bites. For some reason the fish were still eating the topwater well into the afternoon.”

Reese isn’t sure what happened though, as he went into the first day of the tournament and couldn’t get the fish to take hold.

“The first day of the tournament is what killed me,” Reese said. “I had five keeper bites and only got one in the boat. Most of the fish were blowing up on the bait, but not getting a hold of it. I think the reason behind that has to do with the fishes’ sight. In the morning, there are lower light conditions and the fish can see the bait better. They are also keyed in on feeding during that time of day. In the afternoon, it’s more of a reaction bite. They come up and hit the bait, but they don’t necessarily always have their mouth open. It was quite a frustrating day for me.”

Reese has also never fished Table Rock this time of year and knows it will be very different from years past, as the water temperature will be much hotter.

 

“We are usually on Table Rock during pre-spawn with cold water,” he said. “It’s going to be just the opposite this year. I think the majority of the guys will fish the lower end of the lake and there will probably be a lot of finesse fishing out deep. There is a good possibility we can get on a good pattern with the Lucky Craft Sammy or Gunfish first thing in the morning or if we have some cloud cover.”

One thing Reese is happy about is the fact he doesn’t have to worry about going to Table Rock and wondering if he can make it to the Classic. He is already locked in and that is a big weight off his shoulders. He will have to decide between fishing for the win or staying conservative with the chance to move up in Angler of the Year points.

“I know I can go to Table Rock and not have to worry about whether I’m going to make it to the Classic and from that standpoint, things are good,” Reese said. “I will have to make a decision on what my goal will be, but I won’t be able to make it until after practice. We’ll just have to see how things go.”

 

Provided by Cox Group

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