LuckyCraft.com On Tour BassFan.com BassFan.com
Photo: Bassmaster.com
 Takahiro Omori still leads the Bassmaster points, and three other Team Lucky Craft pros are in the Top 5.

Week 9 ・Points Domination
Team Lucky Craft
Dominates Bassmaster 2/28/2005

After the Guntersville Bassmaster had ended, a quick scan of the Bassmaster points showed one thing: Team Lucky Craft's got major game. Four out of the Top 5 Bassmaster anglers right now are Team Lucky Craft members. Takahiro Omori, Skeet Reese and Gerald "G-Money" Swindle are 1, 2 and 3 respectively, and Marty Stone is in the No. 5 spot. Not too shabby for one team.

Then there's Kelly Jordon, who won the first FLW event of the season on Okeechobee. He's 2nd right now in the FLW Angler of the Year (AOY) race.

Jordon Dominated the Big O

Jordon kicked the year off with a huge win at the Lake Okeechobee FLW and put Team Lucky Craft on the move. Omori didn't have a stellar performance ・neither did Brent Ehrler ・but they were all ready to move onto bigger and better things.

Omori Whacks and Stacks

Takahiro Omori, the reigning Bassmaster Classic champ, kicked off the Bassmaster season with a victory at Toho. A Bassmaster Tour win is an accomplishment few anglers ever achieve, but to win the Classic and follow it up with another victory in the next tour-level event was simply awesome.

Another Team Lucky Craft feat occurred when G-Money Swindle finished the Toho opener in 6th place.

"According to the folks I spoke to at BASS, no other Angler of the Year started the season off with a Top 12 finish," Swindle said.

Reese Made Harris Cut

Although a Lucky Craft angler didn't win The Harris Chain Bassmaster, Reese busted a move and ended up in 8th, which secured himself a place in the hunt for the AOY title.

The race for AOY tightened after Harris, but some of the Team Lucky Craft pros didn't feel too good about where they sat. Swindle and Stone were back in the 17th and 18th spots, and worried whether they were still in the running.

Photo: Bassmaster.com
 Gerald Swindle came from nowhere (104th) to make the Guntersville cut.

Jordon Slips a Bit

After a perfect start to the season, Jordon stepped backwards at the second FLW Tour event. But it wasn't a very big step. He finished in the lucky 13 spot at the Toho FLW, which left him in the runner-up position in the FLW points after two events.

"I'm pleased with my overall performance so far," he said. "I just need to keep taking each tournament one at a time."

LuckyCraft.com/CatalogueLucky Craft at G-Ville

Bing, bang, boom and wouldn't you know it ・Team Lucky Craft rules the roost on the Bassmaster Tour. Five members of Team Lucky Craft earned Top 40 finishes at Guntersville, and afterwards, four out of the Top 5 dogs on the Bassmaster Tour barked a Lucky Craft tune.

Swindle made the most impressive move. He was in the 104th-place spot after Day 1, but bagged a monster limit on day 2 (27-15) and made the cut.

He used a Lucky Craft Flat CB MR crankbait (ghost minnow) and a jig for most of the tournament.

He grew up less than an hour away from Guntersville but said the lake is changed. "The funny thing is, I learned to fish a totally different lake," he said. "When I fished Guntersville, it didn't have all this grass it has now. It was more about what bottom you were fishing. It's a whole different lake now."

Provided by BassFan