Stockton, Calif. (March 28, 2007) – It had been several years since the Elite Series had been to the west coast, but this past weekend, more than 100 anglers weighed in after spending several days on the California Delta.

Located between Sacramento and Stockton, the California Delta has approximately 1,000 miles of shoreline and consists of mainly canals, most only 100 yards wide. This unique body of water led to difficult tournaments for many, but after a rocky start, Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese finally figured out how to handle the Delta.

“This week started out pretty slow for me,” Reese began. “I was only catching about 15 pounds a day, which didn’t put me where I wanted to be. I didn’t fish to the best of my ability the first two days. I ran around a little too spastic and didn’t fish slow enough to really take advantage of the fish around me.”

“Yesterday (Saturday) I was able to catch a pretty decent bag and rally back into the top 12,” Reese said. “I was absolutely shocked, because I thought I would need 23 or 24 pounds to have a chance to fish on Sunday. Seeing the weights down a bit on day three gave me the opportunity to fish today (Sunday).”

All Reese’s fish on Saturday came on soft plastics he fished very slowly. However, Sunday changed completely and Reese switched to some Lucky Craft products that led him to his fourth place finish.

“I went to the area I caught my fish yesterday (Saturday) and caught a couple small keepers on the LV-500 (Mad Craw),” Reese explained. “Then I switched to the SKT Mini DR in the same color and caught a three and a half pounder. I caught a limit in there, but still needed the bigger fish.”

S.K.T.Mini MR Length: 2" Weight: 3/8oz	S.K.T. Mini DR Length: 2" Weight: 3/8oz

Reese decided to move to an area he knew historically had big fish, but he hadn’t fished it at all during the week. Taking a gamble, Reese decided to try it out, as he knew he needed some kicker fish to really move up the leaderboard.

“I got over there and made one pass through, caught nothing, got to the very end and then boom – I caught a four pounder on the SKT Mini DR,” Reese said. “I turned around and went back through and caught a four, a five and a six, all on the SKT. The whole deal to the bait was fishing it on braided spiderwire (20-pound test). I could throw it right into the tules with the spiderwire, which is something most people don’t do with a crankbait. I would throw it in and if it would get hung up, I could rip it out because of the braid and keep on reeling. I was also fishing on my SR 705 Lamiglas glass rod which was important as well because when the fish did eat it, I had enough flex to play the fish out.”

While Reese was having fun with the SKT Mini DR, he managed to weigh-in 23 pounds, 4 ounces on day four, giving him a four-day total of 74 pounds, 6 ounces.

“The more I fish the SKT, the more I see just how versatile it really is,” Reese said. “It comes through grass so easily – the bill just cuts right through it. I’ve been fishing it on heavier line, so the deepest I’m getting the bait to go is four or five feet, but it can go deeper on lighter line.”

With another great finish behind him, Reese is excited to fish Clear Lake, home water for the California native.

“I did have another great tournament here and it’s great to have two top 12s in a row,” Reese concluded. “We still have nine more to go, but it is a great start to the season. I’m excited, but nervous to fish Clear Lake, because of the hometown jinx. I do have a good track record there and I’d be stoked to get another top 12 at home.”

Making the cut to 50 and finishing his tournament on day three was Lucky Craft’s Takahiro Omori. After having some big fish in practice, the weather switched up a bit and really made things difficult for the Japanese angler.

“I had two seven pounders and an eight pounder one day in practice,” Omori said. “But when the winds came in last Wednesday, everything got muddy and I never caught another fish in that spot.”

After his main area was destroyed by the wind on Wednesday, Omori had to fish his back-up area in the tournament, cranking the outside edges of milfoil and hydrilla with the Lucky Craft BDS 4 (Spring Craw).

“It was key to have a bait that could run at the very top of the grass,” Omori said. “During the high tide, the fish would bite very well because they had more room. At low tide, they wouldn’t bite at all. The grass grows to around eight feet off the bottom, so the fish were in about five feet of water. The BDS 4 ran four to five feet down and at high tide, when the fish are on top of the grass looking for something to eat, they would bite really strong.”

With two tournaments under his belt this year, Omori said he had expected more, but realizes it is still early in the year. He enjoyed this tournament despite the adversity he faced and is looking forward to fishing Clear Lake.

“I liked the kind of fishing I was able to do at this tournament,” Omori said. “I was flipping, sight-fishing, throwing a Senko and cranking, which was most productive. I’m also looking forward to Clear Lake, because it’s another great fishery. I’ll probably be sight-fishing there too, using a Senko-type bait. I’m just trying to keep a positive attitude through it all and enjoy the fishing out here (on the west coast).”

Narrowly missing the cut to 50 was Lucky Craft’s Marty Stone, finishing his tournament in 52nd. Having a couple good days in practice led Stone to the right fish – getting them to bite was a different story.

“The first day of practice I probably had 20 to 25 bites and caught two fish over five pounds,” Stone began. “It was totally a flipping and pitching deal and I was flipping a Tru-Tungsten weight – 1/2-ounce or 3/8-ounce depending on the tide – with a new Zoom Supercraw. I was also flipping a 1/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten jig with a trailer on the back. I found the fish that day in a lot of different areas and tides.”

Stone expanded his bait selection on day two of practice and had more than 30 bites, but never caught a fish weighing more than two and a half pounds. The third day of practice led Stone to a good spinnerbait bite as the wind blew close to 30 mph. As the first day of the tournament approached, Stone knew he had some decisions to make.

“I had one area I thought would be pretty decent, but only had a limited amount of time to fish it on the right tide (high tide),” Stone explained. “Or I had the option to go chase the spinnerbait fish for an hour or two and if that worked out, I knew I could have 20 to 25 pounds in a hurry. So I chose to go after the spinnerbait fish, and when it was all said and done, I had eleven bites in an hour and a half, catching one that weighed four pounds. I knew it was time to put down the spinnerbait and go to my other area.”

Stone moved to his other location, but only had 45 minutes to fish with the tide on his side. After three hours of no bites and waiting for the tide to come in again, Stone culled everything in his boat except for the four-pounder he caught earlier in the day, weighing in with 12 pounds, 1 ounce.

Knowing he had ground to make up on day two, Stone went back to his primary area, but wasn’t able to bring in those big fish.

“I had a limit in about 15 minutes, but never had anything big,” Stone said. “For some reason, the big fish in that area just didn’t bite.”

After trying to entice those big fish, Stone decided he would move to some other areas. He caught fish everywhere he went on day two, but was never able to bring in the fish he needed to move up.

“I felt good about Friday,” Stone said. “I probably caught 20 keepers and I had the right rhythm. I felt like I understood what was going on with the fish, but the sad thing is I never had one of those six-pound bites. I know I was around them, but it just didn’t happen.”

According to Stone, there is some good and some bad about how his year has started. The bad – he hasn’t made a cut yet this season. The good – he is fishing well and only a bite away from something special.

“I’ve had a much better start than last season – in fact, its not even comparable,” Stone concluded. “Last year, I wasn’t even on the right planet. This year, I’m at least in the right areas. I’m going into Clear Lake thinking I’m going to catch 30 pounds – because sooner or later, I am going to get those bites.”

Another Lucky Craft angler just narrowly missing the cut to 50 was Kelly Jordon, finishing his week in 62nd with a total weight of 24 pounds, 15 ounces. Much like teammate Omori, the wind really affected his primary areas.

“I am disappointed because I had some opportunities to do a lot better,” Jordon said. “I had my stake in some stretches on the south side of the Delta, but those areas got smoked by the wind we had (Wednesday). It just turned into chocolate. I tried to fish there both days of the tournament, but it never cleared out.”

Jordon did some scrambling and went to the north side, but never got dialed in on that end, so he ran around looking for those big fish.

“I missed a really big one on a Senko yesterday (Thursday),” Jordon said. “I was catching them in the grass and thought I was going to slam them on a BDS 3 (Tennessee Shad). I did end up bringing in some of my fish yesterday on the BDS 3.”

Jordon fished around, trying to make something happen. He caught a few nice ones, missed a couple and saw some that wouldn’t bite. After bringing in 11 pounds, 11 ounces on day one and a little more than 13 pounds on day two, he was disappointed, because he really likes the fishery and has done well on the Delta in the past.

“I expected to do a lot better,” Jordon said. “I really like this place and did well here last time, but the stuff I fished back then didn’t work out this time around. The windstorm that came through really tore up my areas and I didn’t scramble well enough or have enough back-ups.”

Hoping Clear Lake will be a different story, Jordon expects to be productive with several Lucky Craft products.

“I can’t wait to go to Clear Lake,” Jordon concluded. “I’ll be throwing the new Real California Premium. I think it could also be a tournament for the Slender Pointer 127 and Pointer 128. It’s another great place with a lot of big fish.”

Practice was great for Lucky Craft’s Gerald Swindle, but he was left scratching his head after the tournament was over. Swindle finished his tournament in 89th, but was smoking them in practice.

“In three days of practice, I caught 16 pounds one day, 18 pounds another day and close to 29 pounds the last day,” Swindle said. “I had a good practice, working the tules in canals and points of islands. I was flipping shallow with a seven-inch Senko, fishing the BDS 2 (Citrus Shad) and throwing a spinnerbait. I was cranking the BDS 2 right over the shallow tules when the tide went out.”

Swindle thought he had some good areas going into the first day of the tournament, but after it was all said and done, he wasn’t quite sure what happened.

“I went to the same areas I had in practice, but never caught anything over three pounds,” Swindle said. “I had good bags in practice and knew where they were at, but never caught them. In fact, I never even had a big bite. Seven of the top ten anglers were sitting within eye-distance of me, and everyone around me caught them. I don’t know what happened.”

After bringing in 9 pounds, 7 ounces on day one and 10 pounds, 4 ounces on day two, Swindle chalked it up to plain old ‘buzzard luck.’

“This was such a luck tournament and it was really hard to figure out what happened,” Swindle said. “It’s not really anything you can predict. I would fish hard and catch 10 fish weighing eight pounds. Someone else could fish hard, doing the same things, and catch six fish weighing 20 pounds.”

Swindle had to leave this tournament on the water and not take it with him, as he now has his sights set on Clear Lake.

“I didn’t fish that bad – again, I just didn’t have those big bites,” Swindle concluded. “I don’t understand it, but the only thing I might have done was fish a little bit too fast. But I’ve left all that on the Delta and am on my way to Clear Lake. I’m not going to sweat it.”