It was a tale of two worlds for Marty Stone this past week. After struggling in practice, the 2005 CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year runner up figured out a late spring pattern and reeled in 20 pounds and 8 ounces of Arkansas bass to grab the 14 th slot.

The North Carolina angler understood what the fish were doing during Wednesday’s competition, but he only caught 7 pounds and 14 ounces of bass and making the cut seemed like an unattainable goal. But he made a move Thursday, capitalizing on what he had learned the day before and catching 12 pounds and 10 ounces and almost making the top 12.

“I didn’t have a great practice, but I figured things out by the first day of the tournament (Wednesday),” Stone said. “I really figured it out on Thursday, had it dialed in and I was catching fish. My instincts are good and I’m around fish all of the time. But it was still probably one of the most frustrating events I’ve ever been to in my life. It sort of summed up my entire year in a way because I have missed key fish at almost every stop along the way.

“It’s the nature of the fish because of the mood there in,” said Stone, talking about why the fish were breaking off Wednesday. “But the way I was fishing today, you don’t want to lose the fish I did. When I look back on it, I think it was a mechanical thing. I straightened out a lot of things over the last couple of years, but I’m frustrated about trying to get that little extra. I want to be in a position where I can start making these cuts and taking it to the next level.”

Gerald Swindle finished right on the heels of his friend and Lucky Craft teammate Marty Stone, gathering 20 pounds and 6 ounces of bass and the 15 th position. The 2004 CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year also made a nice comeback during Thursday’s competition, stringing together 11 pounds and 7 ounces after not catching a fish until four in the afternoon.

“I scrambled towards the end of Thursday, but I tied on a frog lure and caught two just like that,” Swindle said. “Then, I caught my last ones on a big Lucky Craft G-Splash right before I came in.

“I did not have the type of practice I wanted,” Swindle added. “I just couldn’t get the swimming jig bite going. A lot of fish were in the grass and you had to fish them real slowly. It’s something I don’t like to do. I caught at least 35 fish on Wednesday, but only three of them were keepers.” Swindle moved into a solid 13 th place in the E50 Series points battle with the effort.

Takahiro Omori collected 15 pounds and 13 ounces and a solid 26 th-place finish on Lake Dardanelle. Omori had a strong opening day of competition and brought in 10 pounds and 8 ounces of bass. Day two wasn’t as good as Omori caught 5 pounds and 4 ounces.

“I felt like I had another bad tournament,” said the 2004 CITGO Bassmaster Classic champion. “Everybody is going to have a bad tournament now and then. Honestly, after practice I thought I was going to have a good one. This is my type of fishing because I love to go shallow and bring out the cranking lures.

“Unfortunately, I lost two big fish (on Wednesday),” Omori added. “And I only had two keeper bites today. I was throwing the Lucky Craft BDS-4 this week. But I’m already looking forward to the next tournament.”

It was a mixed bag of results for Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese. After a strong first day weigh in with 13 pounds and 2 ounces, Reese looked to be in contention for a second-straight cut. But Thursday’s fishing was a little rougher and the California angler wound up in 29 th place and a total weight of 15 pounds and 5 ounces.

“I had a great day on Wednesday,” Reese said. “I had 10 keeper bites but only landed five of them - that was bad enough. (On Thursday), I wish I understood why I had lost so many fish. I had nine keeper bites today, but only put one in the boat. Losing one to three during a day is just fishing, but to lose that many is a problem.

“You do tend to lose post-spawn fish,” Reese continued. “When the water warms up, their skin tends to soften up and the fish seem to slap at the lures more. I knew I would lose some fish (Thursday), but I felt like I could have caught a limit. And I did everything I needed to do, but it didn’t work out.”

Kelly Jordon ended the second Elite 50 Series tournament of 2005 in 42 nd spot. The Mineola, Texas angler boated 13 pounds and 2 ounces overall and talked about his weekend.

“I had a hard time and never really found anything too solid,” Jordon said. “I caught all of my fish out of one area, but I tried to run a whole lot of other stuff. If I would have put my head down and just stayed in that one area, I believe I would have done a lot better in this tournament. I feel like I would have caught two limits.

“You just never know,” Jordon added. “I only had five bites and caught five fish that weighed 13 pounds. So it was too bad as far as averages go. I never really got around any of the areas where they were biting like crazy. A lot of guys this week came up on schools of fish, but I never got into any of those.”