Posted  June 15th, 2007  7:26pm CST

Alabama Pro Tim Horton Bags 19-4 on Sunday - Earns First Elite Win

Story by Brent Conway -  Photos by Mark Jeffreys

Plattsburg, NY – It’s been a fantastic week at the eighth stop of the 2007 Elite Series season. As things turned out if you wanted a horse race you were disappointed. The lead changed hands only once, and upon that change the tournament was essentially over. For the leader, the Champion’s Choice at Lake Champlain turned out to be a choice between fishing Sunday or not for it was almost optional.

By the time Sunday rolled around, Timmy Horton had put a 10-pound cushion between himself and second place. His weight had averaged over 20 pounds each of the tournament’s first three days, and, realistically, the only real chance anyone had of catching him were for Horton to not make it back to the weigh-in. 

Thursday’s opening-round leader Steve Kennedy seemed to have a fair shot at making things interesting by starting the week with the heaviest bag of his tournament. Unfortunately for him, and the rest of the 108-angler field, Timmy Horton had other things in mind. Aided by a small magical area 75-miles south of the launch, Horton all but lapped everyone else in the field.

In what was a true “gimme putt” for the win, Horton’s final four-day weight of 83-10 loomed over second place by almost 13 pounds. He could have slept late the morning and fished around the launch site and been able to get the six or so pounds needed to win Sunday. Instead, he made the long drive south and crushed a final-day limit weighing 19-4.

Skeet Reese, while not vying for the win, did what he needed to do in order to take the lead in the AOY race with a four-day final weight of 70-13. Skeet brought his heaviest limit of the week to the stage Sunday weighing 20-4. 

In third after everything was all said and done was day one leader Steve Kennedy, whose weights have been steadily declining all week, with Sunday’s weighing 14-4. The light bag brought his final combined weight to 68-13 for four days fishing. Tommy Biffle finished his tournament in fourth place with a four-day combined weight of 68-11, after bringing 19-4 to the scales Sunday.

Cliff Pace, in his first top 12 appearance of the year, laid his heaviest limit of the week on the scales Sunday, which weighed 18-2, boosting his four-day combined weight to 67-2. Rounding out the Super Six was Takahiro Omori, who brought 17-11 to the scales Sunday, and ended the tournament with a combined weight of 67-0.

1st Place: Tim Horton
So, if you’re Tim Horton and you’ve just put number five into the live well that you’re positive contains enough total weight to be around 20 pounds or so, do you call it a day or do you stick around and try and make some kind of statement? If you chose option A, you guessed right as that’s exactly what he did.

It’s been a few years since he’d had a win at the Tour level (2004), and he’s never had an Elite Series win, for which Horton explained he was beginning to get some pressure at home. “My seven-year old daughter has been on me real hard wondering when I’m going to win one,” he said. “She was too young to remember the last win, so she was ready for me to win…me too.”

To win at this level, everything has to go your way. Horton doesn’t mince words when it comes to the reason for the win – hands down, it was the rock pile he’d found. “The first day of the tournament I pulled up on the spot and have five fish in five casts with my Booyah 5/8-ounce football-head jig,” he said. 

“I was able to cull one of them later in the day flipping a YUM Vibra King tube into grass, but the bulk of what I brought in came in the first five casts.”

The morning of the second day started much the same as day one had – a quick limit off the rock pile on a jig, and he left for the grass. “I caught five pretty quick, but culled every one of them throughout the day flipping the tube,” he said. “Saturday was a little bit slower and I only caught a small limit and got the rest out of the grass. “This morning though, I went to the rock pile first thing and it was the best that it had been all week. I caught ‘em every cast for about an hour, with the exception of maybe 10 casts. I caught the first five on a ½-ounce jig, but after a minute it just quit. I switched over to a Bomber Fat Free Shad Jr., in Dance’s Citrus Shad and just killed ‘em on it until I left.”

These are the actual lures Horton used on the final day to capture his first Elite Series Win, Bomber Fat Free Shad Jr., BD6F in Dance’s Citrus Shad and a Booyah 1/2 & 5/8 ounce Football Jig with a YUM Craw Papi trailer.

Horton explained that the larger profile of the Fat Free Shad Jr. seemed to trigger the school like never before. “I think the big bill on the crankbait, along with the wide profile gave them a look that they’d never seen,” he explained. “I was fishing it on 20-pound XPS Fluorocarbon so that it wouldn’t go too deep, and would hold the rod tip high, which is unusual, to just bang it through the rocks.”

Key to the Week: “They were biting the jig real light, which is pretty uncommon for schooling fish, and there were so many yellow perch in there that you had to be paying real close attention to what was going on. The Booyah jig was key to landing the fish the first few days on the rock pile because of the hook it has.”

2nd Place: Skeet Reese
After the weigh-in Saturday, Skeet knew that a fourth-place finish would put him back in the lead of the Toyota Tundra Angler of the Year race. He came to the stage needing 18-3 to claim the lead from then-leader Tommy Biffle, and hopefully hang on for a fourth-place finish. 

As for his day on the water, Reese explained that he seemingly could do no wrong. “After a pretty unusual start – I had to bring my camera guy back – it went pretty well,” he said. “Once I got to where I was going, I had an amazing morning. I caught two doubles today – I actually swung two doubles into the boat. When you do that, you know that you’re living right.”

Skeet explained that, after the flurry of activity died around 10:00, he had to settle in to a routine that he’d experienced all week. “The usually bit good every morning,” he said. “After the morning bite died, you would have to grind away on the mats and make several passes picking up a fish every other time around. That’s the way it was today too.”

Reese explained that the key bait for him all week was the BDS3 by LuckyCraft. “I would fish it around the outside edges of grass in around eight feet of water,” he said. “The other thing was the Revo reel – it’s awesome!”

Looking back on his week, Reese has no complaints. “I did the best that I can do and had a really good tournament,” he said. “I’ve always believed that the Angler of the Year title is the most important accomplishment you can strive for, and this tournament got me a little bit close to the goal.”

3rd Place: Steve Kennedy
As a plan, you usually intend to either start hot and stay there all for days of a tournament, or slowly build momentum into the final day. Steve Kennedy’s week didn’t go as planned, due largely to extensive mowing on key areas. He brought his lightest bag of the week to the scales Sunday, but, as it always the case, Kennedy found the bright side in it. 

Though his practice wasn’t especially strong, Kennedy saw the potential to have a good week. “I didn’t know for sure if I could have a top 12 finish with the fish I was on,” he said. “But then, I was running through the areas so fast too, it was hard to know for sure. The frog was key to getting the bigger bites, so when the tournament started, that’s all I threw.”

4th Place: Tommy Biffle
Tommy is doing everything he can to lock down a Classic berth – the 15th of his storied career. A fourth-place finish goes a long way towards that goal – particularly considering he still have Oneida and the Potomac coming up. “I had a good day today and had a couple of big bites early,” he told the weigh-in crowd. 

Looking to Erie, Tommy commented that while he’s not especially thrilled about it, he’ll be fishing for smallmouth all week. “That’s about all you can do,” he said. “I think you have to fish for them…I don’t even know if there’s a largemouth in there.”

5th Place: Cliff Pace
Champlain marks the seventh top 10 of Cliff’s career, but his fifth-place finish this week marks the first time he’d fished on Sunday in an Elite Series event. While the finish was awesome, Cliff pointed out the fishing he’d experienced shadowed his final resting place on the leader board. “I had a field day every day this week,” he said.

“I really probably hurt myself because I over managed my fish. I just didn’t realize the quality I was around.”

The mornings have always been best for Pace; however, Sunday morning was simply incredible. “I had about two-and-a-half hours this morning where they bit real good,” he said. “I think I had a limit in 10 minutes.”

Key for Pace was the depth he fished. “Down at Ticonderoga, the bream are spawning so big fish are naturally up shallow,” he said. “The key was to cover as much dirt-shallow water as I could in a day’s time. When you get around them, they’re pretty easy to catch.”

Pace fished an unnamed frog all week in a variety of colors dependant on the water’s clarity. He pointed out though, that among his choice of bait color, there’s a clear preference. “I like fishing with a white bait – it’s a lot like a bobber,” he said. “If a fish blows up on your bait, and you don’t see white – swing away.”

On the week, there’s only one change Pace would make. “If I had it to do all over, I would’ve launched my boat in Ti during practice,” he said. “At least that way I could’ve avoided two-and-a-half days of abuse on my back. That’s just a price you pay though!”

6th Place: Takahiro Omori
Tak has been fishing left-handed all week because of second-degree burns he suffered while cooking. Fishing through the pain, and against his doctor’s wishes, he was incredibly consistent all week. “I came down here worried about not being able to fish, but with the amount of points at stake I had to tough it out,” he said. 

“It just goes to show you…I caught the biggest fish I’ve ever caught out of Champlain this week, and had a great tournament too.”

Armed with a Sweet Beaver with a half-ounce weight tied to 65-pound Sunline Braid, Tak blistered the best limit of his week. “I had five fish by 9:00 this morning,” he said. “After that, I only caught one more that would help until 2:00, so everything I weighed pretty much came in the morning.”

7th Place: Shaw Grigsby
Final-Day Thoughts: “I did the same thing I’ve done everyday. I pulled in on my number one spot and caught a three pounder. After that, I culled a bunch and decided to leave looking for some big ones. I only caught one more after that, and wasted most of my day in the process, but I really couldn’t help not trying to gamble a little.”

Bait of Choice: StrikeKing Brush Beast on an eight-foot Quantum Gary Klein Signature Series Rod and a Quantum Burner reel.

Biggest Challenge: “Today, the fish were messing with the bait rather just crushing it. They would nudge it a little bit, and I’d have to twitch it a little bit more. Finally they’d inhale it, but it really took some nerves to make ‘em eat.”

Key to the Week: “Making the run south. It’s a gamble to make the run, but if you don’t do well you’ll fall flat on your face. But…without it, I wouldn’t be here right now because the fishing is so good.”

Week in Review: “This is just a beautiful place to fish, and the quality of fishing here is just amazing.”

8th Place: Yusuke Miyazaki
Final-Day Thoughts: “I didn’t have any big bites today. I had 15 bites, but they were all just keepers.”

Bait of Choice: Spro Frog

Biggest Challenge: “I just kept moving trying to find some better fish. Looking grass to figure out which line they would be holding.”

Key to the Week: “I tried to find the deeper grass. Better fish seemed to be staying in it. Three to four feet was the right depth for me. A lot of guys were fishing up shallower, but for me it was deeper.”

Week in Review: “It was a great tournament for me.”

9th Place: Fred Roumbanis
Final-Day Thoughts: “I struggled a bunch today. The wind really made it difficult for me to move around much and work the lure that I was using. I didn’t really have enough tackle in the boat to adjust much.

10th Place: Britt Myers
Final-Day Thoughts: “It was a fun day – I made a top 12 cut. I never got the bite that I thought that I would, and I think it was because of the wind. It was still an awesome day though.”

Bait of Choice: Weightless Gambler Ace

Biggest Challenge: “I was pushing the envelope and waited until the last minute to come back in Sunday afternoon. I knocked my lower unit off about 17 miles from the weigh-in. I really thought that I was done at that point, but Steve Kennedy was kind enough to pick me up – otherwise I wouldn’t have had weighed a fish today.”

Key to the Week: “The bank that I fished all week was just loaded with quality fish.”

Week in Review: “It was completely unbelievable. I did the same thing that I did in any other practice and just got on the right bank that had the right fish.”

11th Place: Peter Thliveros
Final-Day Thoughts: “I was living on borrowed time the whole tournament. We had three beautiful days to do what I like to do, but the wind finally caught up with me and things went south pretty quick after a flurry of activity this morning.”

Bait of Choice: Zoom Super Fluke on a Carolina Rig was what I used for 95% of my fish.

Biggest Challenge: “I couldn’t control the boat, and couldn’t make the right cast, so it just made for a really tough day.”

Key to the Week: “I was in an area that I’ve fished for years. The largemouth showed up for the first time since I first fished it years ago.”

Week in Review: “I knew that I was running out of fish. The place that I was on just didn’t have the kind of fish that I needed to hold up for four days.”

Bait of Choice: A&M Trick Stick

Key to the Week: “I keyed on docks all week, but they had to be sitting in grass. The shade-line that the grass created was essential.”

Week in Review: “It was really an awesome tournament. I came in not really knowing much about the lake, and looking back on how I fished I was kind of on the suicide pattern because I was the only guy there. I had 100 miles of lake to fish because everyone else was either way up north or down south flipping grass.”
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FINAL STANDINGS

As with each Elite Series event, The BASS ZONE will be On Location all week with our up-to-the-minute “On the Water Blog,” “Reel-time Chat,” and post-day interviews.

NOTE: Harold Allen and Mark Jeffreys will be featured in a new section called "Wide Open"  Check out the updates throughout the New York swing. CLICK HERE  STAY TUNED!!!!!!

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