Posted March 9th, 2007  7:07pm CST

Campbell Remains in Second, Tied with Klein - 35-14 Makes the Cut                       

Story by Brent Conway and Mark Jeffreys

 Photos by Mark Jeffreys

Del Rio, TX – Like Moses parting the Red Sea, defending Toyota Rookie of the Year Steve Kennedy raised his staff (which in his case it was a handful of Tex-Mex bass) that stood the crowd gathered for Thursday’s Elite Series weigh-in at Diablo East marina on its collective ear. 

Oh sure, everyone knew that there would be some big fish weighed, but only a handful of odds-makers would have dared to speculate that by Friday we’d be seriously talking about 125-pounds of bass being weighed in by the tournament’s winner.

But hold the phone for dialing Vegas because we’re not there yet. Looking at what was done Thursday, you’d be right in saying that 125 pounds (or more) would be required to win out; however, mother nature threw a curve ball and the ways fell like a rock today. Still, knowing that the weather is getting right for sight fishing to come into its own – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate that there is still the potential for this event to shatter a record or two.

It’s likely that during Thursday’s weigh-in you quickly broke out the calculator to run an average on the tournament’s potential winning weight. While Thursday’s weigh-in looked almost like ESPN’s “Shark Week,” Friday’s brought us back to reality. Granted, there were some stud limits weighed in – but nothing like the near 37-pound bag from Thursday.

The sun and wind have worked together to super-heat Amistad’s water to the point of egg-laden females will soon be making a run for the bank, but Friday’s apparent slow down took a few by surprise – including Kevin Short (starting the day in the third slot) who failed to weigh a keeper missing the cut by less than two pounds. 

For the second straight day Steve Kennedy crossed the stage with a limit of border beauties. His day two performance was nowhere near the first day, but his limit weighing 16-6 was just enough to maintain a less than one-pound lead over Missouri rookie pro, Scott Campbell and veteran pro, Gary Klein, who are tied for second with 52-7. Kennedy's combined total weight for two days is 53-0. 

Klein has shown the most consistency during the first two days of the swing fest bringing back-to-back limits weighing over 25 pounds to the stage. After a huge day one, Campbell only managed a limit of swimmers weighing 16-7, bringing his two-day combined weight to 52-7. 

Superstars are lurking in the fourth and fifth positions after day two. Both Mike Iaconelli and Kevin VanDam caught limits Friday weighing 24-8. Ike sits in fourth, just under a pound off the lead, and KVD is lurking in fifth with an even 51-0. 

Saturday will be interesting, that’s for sure. Here’s what the remainder of the Top 12 will look like at Saturday’s launch:

Kennedy Praying Hard
Steve Kennedy looked like he might have the mojo to go wire-to-wire with the huge bag he busted Thursday. Friday’s weigh-in found him in different spirits entirely, and he’s planning on asking for a few favors from the big guy before hitting the water Saturday. “I’m just praying that they’re going to show up on the banks tomorrow, but I haven’t seen a female locked on yet,” he said. 

Kennedy, like everyone else, feels sure that the beds are about to get full. “I did see some big females in the same trees that I’ve been catching them out of trying to break their eggs loose,” he pointed out. “I have no idea how to make one bite…I did everything but throw my tackle bag at them.”

Kennedy confesses that he’s stubborn when he’s on a good thing. That said, until he’s positive that he has some locked-on females up shallow, he is committed to running the same water. “The water’s 64 to 65 degrees, so they have to be coming, and I’m just praying that it’s real soon,” he said. “I have to run my same deal again tomorrow, I just have to.” 

Klein
While Thursday most everyone admitted to having an early limit, it was reversed Friday with slumps in the morning period and limits in the afternoon. Veteran pro Gary Klein wasn’t an exception to that norm. “I struggled early,” he acknowledged. “I finally got a limit that would have went around 11 pounds by around noon and settled down a little and picked up some pretty good fish to cull out all my small fish.”

Campbell
Rookie pro Scott Campbell weighed the biggest bass of the tournament thus far Thursday with his 12.10. Friday he could see the same class of fish all around him, but never could get one to commit. “When you can see them, and you know that they’re there, it makes it really tough,” he said. 

“It was one of those days where they were really in between. It wasn’t warm enough for them to be up shallow, but it wasn’t cold enough for them to hang out deep. They were really scattered out today.”

Campbell confirmed that the water is warming to the point where Sunday could be an all out slugfest. “In practice, the water was between 54 and 55 degrees,” he said. “This morning the water had warmed to around 57 or 58 degrees, but by the end of the day I found water on the main lake that was over 60 degrees, and it’s just going to keep getting warmer.”

Knowing that the water is just about perfect, Campbell is abandoning his deep-water swimbait bite Saturday to search out bedding fish exclusively. “I’m going to look for spawners all day tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll need 26 pounds to make the top 12 tomorrow, and they’re moving up. You can see them cruising around, but they’re not locked down. That should change overnight.” 

Iaconelli
Consistency is the key word for any top-tier professional athlete regardless of the sport. Iaconelli has been promoting his desire for this trait since he’s been at the tour level, and this week at Amistad he appears to be getting closer to that mark. “I’ve really thought all along that if you could catch 25 pounds a day here you would be hard to beat,” he explained. 

Ike explained that Saturday will be a repeat of what he ran Thursday and Friday, but he’s got a little something up his sleeve. “I’ve got one ace-in-the-hole spot that I haven’t hit yet, and I’m going there tomorrow,” he said. “I actually have four other areas that I’ll cycle through, and I’ll keep rotating through those areas.” 

VanDam
VanDam is not the guy you want sitting a few place behind you if you’re trying to win a tournament (be it bass fishing or bowling…right Mark?). Though he admitted that his fish must have grown while standing in the bag line, KVD knows that his day could have been much better, and that the move he made into the top five was a blessing. “I didn’t think that I had as much weight as I did because I had a three pounder in the sack,” he said. 

“I had a chance for a real good day, but I lost like and eight pounder on my first cast this morning.”

“I would like to have some cushion in there, so maybe tomorrow I can bust a big sack.”

VanDam isn’t being swayed by the prospects of a sight-bite. Instead he is committed to running his deal regardless of the prospect of bedding fish. “I’m fishing the way that I like to fish right now – both deep and shallow,” he said. “I probably won’t sight fish no matter what happens, but I’m not stupid either. If the water slicks off and I see a big one on a bed I’ll pop her, but I’m not going to target bedding fish.”


Day Two Standings

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