Auten said he expected it to be a tough tournament going into practice. "Any time you are around Florida Strain Large Mouths and there are fronts coming through, you know it could be tough." Since a Lucky Craft Flat CB MR crankbait won last year's tournament on the Harris Chain, Mike elected to start his practice period using the same bait and concentrated on finding fish in the eel grass and hydrilla out off the bank. Mike caught fish on a CB 100 in Mad Craw, a Flat CB MR in Mad Craw, and a Fat CB BDS 3 in Fall Craw during day one of practice. This fit into his style of fishing perfectly since he is known as a Power fisherman and cranking is his favorite technique.

Since the weather on day one of practice had been warm Auten decided that he should look for fish on beds during his second day of practice. "I located a few canals with good fish spawning in them, but so did a number of the other fisherman. I knew that the only way I'd be able to get these fish was if I got an early draw on day one of the tournament."

Day three of practice saw Auten switch back to his cranking pattern. Mike found an isolated patch of hydrilla in a cove that was protected from the expected north winds and had three good bites there. Two of the bites were on Lucky Craft's LV-500 MAX rattle bait. The other came on the Fat CB BDS 3. "I felt good about this area and believed that I could get the bites I needed here," Auten commented.

Auten's strategy for the tournament was if he got an early draw on the first day of the tournament he would go after the bed fish that he found, but if he got a late draw he would go to his crankbait fish. When Mike's draw on day one turned out to be boat number 113 to leave, he headed to his offshore area. Unfortunately the fish just didn't seem to want the crankbait any more. Auten ended up switching to a lightly weighted Texas Rigged Worm, fished it slowly and managed to catch a small limit that weighed 9-11 on day one, which left him in the middle of the pack.
On day two, Auten once again concentrated on fishing slowly. He was able to follow the fish as they moved around in the grass bed he was fishing and came in with a limit that weighed 17-10. Mike's hefty day two limit put him in 23rd place in the overall standings, a great come back from day one. "I went from power fishing, to fishing slower than I can ever remember" Auten said of day two's results. "My batteries were fully charged two hours after the tournament, that should tell you how slow I was fishing."

Tournament fishing is all about decisions and adapting to what the fish want. In this tournament changing tactics in a good area was the key to Auten's success.

In practice, Swindle said that he did not even look for bed fish. He spent all his time the first two days fishing with a Fire Tiger colored Lucky Craft Flat CB MR, and an LVR D-10 in Chrome Blue. He fished around the outside edge of the Kissimmee Grass and Eel Grass in Big Lake Harris. Although he found fish using this pattern he did not feel that he was getting enough bites to do well in the tournament.

On the third day of practice, Swindle changed tactics, and went to flipping a worm into the pockets on the edge of the Kissimmee Grass. " I went back to the same areas that I found with the Lucky Craft crank baits and just slowed down and flipped all the pockets," he commented on his last day of practice. At this same time Swindle started to come down with a very serious sinus infection that plagued him all the way through the tournament. "I felt horrible, I couldn't sleep, and I just did not have any energy," said Swindle of his illness.

The first day of the tournament saw Gerald weigh in a small limit that put him in 69th place. Day two was a little better. Gerald came in with another limit that moved him into 59th in the final standings. "I wish I could have done better, but I felt so bad that I am happy that I finished as well as I did," Swindle commented on his performance.

The next Citgo Bass Master Tour event will take Swindle into his own back yard, Smith Lake in North Central Alabama, where he is one of the favorites and expected to do well. "I'm excited. I know it will be a tough tournament but I think that my local knowledge of the lake might really help me."

Going into the Citgo Bass Master Tour event on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Leesburg, Florida, Kelly Jordon was excited. "I knew it could be a tough tournament, but the weather was so much better than last year that I thought we might finally see what the Harris Chain was really like," said Jordon. In 2003 the weather at this event was unseasonably cold. This year's weather forecast was much more like normal Central Florida weather should be.

During the three-day practice period Kelly started out using last years winning pattern, throwing a crankbait at the outside edge of the grass. "I just didn't feel like I was getting the bites I needed on the Flat CB MR," said Kelly.

"I knew that with all the stable weather that the fish should be trying to move up for the spawn." Kelly said that he found fish around the canals that were moving up, and found some that were already spawning. "I knew that the only way I could get to the spawners I found was to get an early draw on day one of the tournament. Alton Jones and Jay Yelas had both found the same fish I did. I knew it could turn into a boat race to get to them," said Jordon.

After looking around the canals, Jordon moved back out to the main lake and found two more spots that he thought would produce. One of the spots had an isolated patch of Hydrilla. The second spot was a good patch of Eel Grass that lay just outside the Kissimmee Grass. Kelly figured that to get bites on either of these two areas he would have to fish slowly.

On day one of the tournament Jordon drew boat number 80, so he decided not to go after the spawning fish that he found since other competitors would likely already be on them. Instead, Jordon fished a worm slowly around his Eel Grass area and was able to catch a small limit. With about ten minutes left on day one he went to his other area and caught an eight-pound bass on his second cast with a spinner bait. That one fish turned an average stringer into a good stringer.

Day two of the tournament Jordon went back to the spot where he caught the eight pound fish the day before. He was able to catch four more good keepers and lost about ten others including a four-pound fish.
"It was a real strange bite. The fish just did not seem to get a hold of the bait very well," said Jordon.

During the official practice period Thomas tried the same technique that he had used in the 2003 event, casting a spinner bait to the inside edge of the Kissimmee Grass. "The fish just didn't seem to be in a chasing mood," said Thomas of the spinner bait pattern. With the spinner bait pattern not working Joe went with his back-up plan, casting a crankbait to the outside edge of the grass. Thomas caught several three pound plus fish on a Mat Tiger colored Lucky Craft CB-200 crankbait. "The crankbait was the only way that I was getting good bites," said Thomas.

During the tournament, however, Joe's fish moved. On day one he caught two small keepers. On day two of the tournament he did not catch any keepers and ended up in 156th place overall.

Thomas said that he felt discouraged for not making the proper adjustments during the tournament. "My major downfall in this tournament was not being flexible. I stayed with the crankbait pattern when I should have changed to something else," said Thomas of his finish. "It was hard to handle such a bad finish in the first tournament of the year, now I have to play catch up."

During the first day of the practice period Skeet tried last years winning pattern of casting the Flat CB MR in Mad Craw to the outside edges of the grass, but just did not get the bites that he had expected. "The water was too warm for that," he said. On the remaining two day of practice he started flipping a worm on the inside edge of the Kissimmee Grass, in the same areas where he caught fish last year.

Team Lucky Craft Member; Marty Stone won the 2004 Citgo Bass Master Top 150 Tour event this past weekend on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Leesburg, Florida. This is the second year in a row that a Team Lucky Craft member has won this event. Lucky Craft Pro Team Member, Skeet Reese won this same tournament in 2003 using a Mad Craw colored Flat CB MR.

Stone won the tournament by paying attention to what the fish were doing and constantly adjusting to what the fish wanted. The first two days of the tournament he flipped and pitched a worm into the pockets on the outside edge of the Kissimmee Grass. The worm was rigged with a 1/4 oz. tungsten worm weight, and fished on 12-pound line. "On the third day of the tournament I was struggling and just had a small limit. But since it had gotten cloudy I thought this might have pulled the bigger fish up off the bottom and with 30 minutes left I picked up a spinnerbait and caught a fish that weighed 4.6 lbs. This is the fish that got me into the final day." He was able to hold on during the fourth and final day to win the tournament.

Marty credits the Lucky Craft Flat CB MR for helping him find his winning fish. "During the first two days of practice I fished the Mad Craw colored Flat CB MR on the outside edge of the Kissimmee Grass, and that bait showed me the quality of the fish that were in the areas that I was fishing." On the last day of practice with the weather still warming, Marty thought that the fish he had found on the outside edges would probably start to move up into the grass and hug the bottom in preparation of spawning. This is what made him change to the flipping and spinnerbaiting techniques that eventually helped him win the tournament.

"I really did not feel like I was on all that much in practice, I thought that I had found enough fish that I could weigh in a limit each day but that was all" Stone said of his practice period.

After the first day of the tournament, Marty was in 7th Place with 19-09. Alton Jones was leading with 27-00. On day two, Marty brought another limit that weighed 14-00, for a total of 33-09. This left him in 9th overall behind new leader, Jason Quinn who had 39-15. Day three saw Stone move up to 5th in the overall standings after boating another limit that weighing in at 12-06 to give him a total of 45-15. Day three also saw defending Bass Masters Classic champ Mike Iaconelli in the lead with 49-13. Day 4, however, belonged to Stone who brought in the biggest limit of the day at 15-13, which moved him into the top spot.
"I just made the right decisions at the right times," Stone said of his win. Stone also now leads the Citgo Bass Master Angler of the Year Race, going into the season's second tournament on Smith Lake in Alabama.