Augusta, GA - The lead changed hands only once heading into the final day at The Pride of Georgia, the fourth stop of the 2007 Elite Series at Clarks Hill – that’s one time less than the number of times name of the lake has been changed over the years. Through force of habit, we’ve been incorrect in referring to the lake located just outside of Augusta, GA., as Clarks Hill. The correct name of the lake is J. Strom Thurmond Lake.
Created by Thurmond Dam, located on the Savannah River twenty-two miles above Augusta Georgia, it’s one of the southeast's largest and most popular public recreation lakes. Originally, the project was to be called “Clarks Hill Dam,” but the “s” at the end of “Clarks” was omitted due to a clerical error, and the project became “Clark Hill Dam.”
It was later changed to add the “s” at the end of “Clark,” but the lake was once again renamed later to commemorate a late senator from Georgia, Richard B. Russell, who was very important in supporting the building of dams on the river.
This subsequently created a movement to rename Clarks Hill Lake after J. Strom Thurmond, the longest serving senator in US history who was from Edgfield on the South Carolina side of the lake. The movement gained support due to the senators’ great popularity in the area, and in 1988 the project was congressionally renamed “J. Strom Thurmond Dam and Lake at Clarks Hill”.
Now that the history lesson is out of the way, let’s talk about bass fishing…shall we?
During practice, the field commented on the absence of the main forage base in Clarks Hill – the big Blue Back Herring – which won’t make their annual pilgrimage to the banks until May. As such, rookie Casey Asheley, the local favorite
who lives on the South Carolina side of the lake, applied his home field advantage to go out in front Thursday by a narrow margin with 22-6.
Friday, the local stumbled and Florida’s Chris Lane came charging through the opened door with and led through the conclusion of Saturday’s weigh-in. Entering into the weekend, the field commented on the absence of the herring and north winds were having on the fishing. “Brutal” was the word most often used to describe conditions.
Tough as it might have been, there were 12 who managed to make the cut Saturday, of which a number of recognizable faces were apparent. Perhaps the most notable among them was Skeet Reese who has become a fixture near the top of each tournament since the Classic in February. Besides Reese, rookie sensation Derek Remitz – winner at Amistad in his first event at this level – was there, along with Saturday’s Berkley Heavyweight Ish Monroe who stormed into the top 12 with 19-12, anchored by a 7-10 hawg.
Lane set out Saturday to create a cushion for himself knowing that weights were tight, and Sunday would likely come down to an ounce or two of difference – so he wanted all he could get. After weigh-in, Lane commented that he’d stayed in his primary area longer than he’d planned milking it for all he could. The long stay and additional pressure he applied was something that he hoped wouldn’t come back to hurt him Sunday.
As it turned out, Mike
McClelland further refined his jig pattern he had used to remain in contention all week. He crossed the stage Sunday for the final time bringing an impressive 19-15 to add to his total combined weight giving him 70-7 – out catching Lane by over six pounds on the final day.
Florida pro Chris Lane, who was in first place when the day started, stumbled Sunday weighing his smallest limit of the week at 12-4 and finished the tournament in second place. Lane made a strong charge Saturday in an attempt to distance himself from second place, but ultimately his four-day total of 69-0 wasn’t enough.
|
|
|
In third place was Mississippi pro Pete Ponds with 66-1. Ponds, fresh off an 11th-place finish at Clear Lake, rode the wave of confidence and some old school tackle into the third-place slot. Ponds weighed 14-5 on the final day to secure the third-place slot.
In fourth was John Crews, who finished last year’s event at Clarks in 10th. Crews’ 16-12 limit Sunday – his largest of the week – wasn’t enough to be a serious threat, but still gave him 61-1 for four day’s of fishing. Rounding out the top five was rookie pro Derek Remitz, who weighed a tournament limit of five bass at 13-5, giving him a total combined weight of 59-9.
1st Place: Mike McClelland
Mike McClelland has been at this game a while, so he’s not unfamiliar with what’s required to win a tournament at this level. Starting the day at over six pounds behind then leader Chris Lane, winning – while not out of the realm of possibility – wasn’t exactly a given. “Saturday really hurt my feelings,” he said.
“I didn’t necessarily want to be leading it to the start Sunday, but I feel like I sort of let myself down be bringing a small limit in like I did.”
McClelland said then that as long as he had a jig in his hand, he felt like he could wind. So, coming to the stage needing 10-10 to take the lead, he instead weighed 19-15 anchored by a 5-13 big bass. “The Lord blessed me today, that’s for sure,” he said. “I caught the ones that I needed to catch, and the ones that I lost wouldn’t have helped me…it was just almost meant to be.”
Day one was a big one for Mike where he came sailing out of the gate with a near 21-pound back that put him in third place. After Saturday’s disappointment, where he weighed only 12-11, McClelland rose to the occasion commenting that it was in the cards for all the McClelland’s this week. “There have been a lot of things that happened this week to get me to this point,” he said. |
|
|
“Everything sort of came together today for me on the water, but my boy won his first woods race yesterday too – so it’s almost as though us McClelland’s were supposed to win everything this week.”
| Just like he had said all week, the morning bite was crucial to him as it afforded the best opportunity to catch his day’s big fish. “I roll with momentum,” he said. “I don’t worry about catching five anymore, I just look for a big bite. Whenever I can it first thing in the morning, all the pressure is off.”
McClelland focused all week on a series of main lake points with a 3/8-ounce Jewel
Jig and a 1/2-ounce Jewel Football
Jig. The simplicity of his pattern and game plan, which involved little more that stayed put and keeping his jig wet all week. “This week was really a rollercoaster,” he explained. “I’m not the kind of angler, like a Kevin Van Dam, who can go all over the lake and catch fish on high bypass. I fish best when I fish slow.” |
|
 |
|
This
is the actual Jewel 1/2
ounce Football Jig (peanut
butter & jelly) with a
Zoom Super Chunk Trailer
(green pumpkin purple) Mike
used to capture his second
Elite Series win. It was
the same type of Jig Mike used
to win at Grand Lake in 2006. |
|
McClelland stayed up late Wednesday night trying to decide what he should do as practice didn’t really give him much to rely on. Ultimately, it came down to just keeping it simple. “The night before the tournament, I stayed up until 11:15 trying to figure out what I needed to be doing. That’s probably what got me on the right track actually, because I just simplified everything.
“Even though practice wasn’t great, I just felt like the jig was going to be it for me – I would either win it or lose it with my confidence bait, so I never put it down all week. The last three tournaments I’ve won have been on a Jewel Jig.”
Key to the week: “The Jewel Jig. They may have caught them good last year on a Buckeye jig, but I’m telling you right now that the Jewel Jig will flat catch them at Clarks Hill.”
2nd Place: Chris Lane
Having lead the tournament since Friday, Chris Lane came into Sunday’s final day with a big bulls eye on his back. No matter, as he had five pounds of separation on second and at Clarks that’s a lot of ground to make up.
|
|
|
As the last man to weigh in, Chris came to the scales needing 13-12 to seal the deal. He came up a pound-and-a-half shy of the target with a bag that was nearly half of what he’d weighed the first day. “I just didn’t get the right bites today,” he said. “To win a tournament at this level, you have to have everything go exactly right for four days straight.
“The bottom line is that I have three perfect days, and one good day where I just didn’t get the right bites.” |
“I knew that I was going to have to catch a big bag again today,” he added. “I went to my primary area this morning and they were schooling all around me. I absolutely caught everything I could catch.”
There are no sour grapes in Chris Lane – to him, this one’s over so it’s off to Guntersville. However, the question that’s hanging there begging for an answer is the obvious: What would you do differently? “There’s not one thing that I would have done differently,” he responded.
“I found an area with the right kind of bait, and it had the fish that I needed to win with. It just came down to them not responding like they did the other days of the tournament.”
Key to the week: “Being able to have my water to myself. I never saw another tournament boat where I was, so to me is was the perfect set up.”
3rd Place: Pete Ponds
Pete Ponds came to Clarks Hill this week with an air of confidence about him. The journeyman pro had an abysmal 2006 campaign where his only highlight a 14th-place finish at the season opener on Amistad. He finished 51st here last year and came to the event fresh from an 11th-place finish at Clear Lake.
|
Practice was where it all began for Pete this week, and it was there that he felt winning was a distinct possibility. “The first day of practice, I really thought the fish would be spawning,” he said. “I was looking for spawners and wound up in the back of a pocket with and eight-foot channel.
“I saw one surface, and noticed that they were starting to school. I then went and looked for any pocket that was similar to that one, and just focused on them all week long.”
Those back-end pockets were but one part of the 3rd-place campaign that Pete waged – the other half was his bait selection.. “My friend Sam Rush in Jackson, MS gave me a lure before I left to go to Amistad that I’d never used,” he explained. “Without it, I don’t think I be here right now. |
|
|
“I was forced to change up some today though and tie on a Pencil Popper because the fish wouldn’t respond unless they were schooling, and even then you had to get it right beside them. With the Pencil Popper, you can cast it 100 yards.”
On his week, Ponds is all smiles. “If I could do this every week, I would just be tickled to death,” he said. “I had a great tournament, and I’m off to a great start in the year. Now it’s off to Guntersville.”
Key to the week: “The bait helped me get here, but the other bait that I used most of the week was a Rattle Back crankbait that my dad invented.
“Both were really special to me, and I know that without them I wouldn’t be here right now.”
4th Place: John Crews
John Crews was an early pick to do well this week given his history at the lake and the 10th-place finish he had here last year. The young pro started the week in ninth place and steadily clawed his way up the leaderboard all week coming up nine-pounds short. ““I had a lot of fun this week,” he said. “Anytime you make a cut at this level you’ve had a good tournament.”
|
|
|
With the history that Crews has on the 70,000-acre impoundment, practicing was merely a series of eliminating previous spots. “Aside from one spot that I had last year, I caught a fish on every spot that I practiced on,” he explained.
“I had a pretty solid day today – in fact better than any of the others, but I just had too much ground to make up.”
While practice was all about eliminating water, there wasn’t much that John left with that could help him out pattern-wise. “You know, really it was just a lot of junking it up from practice,” he said. “It was almost good though that I didn’t have a good practice because I didn’t get locked onto any one specific thing.” |
Crews employed a floating worm on spinning gear teamed with 20-pound Spiderwire Ultracast as his primary weapon to amass over half of his 61-pound four-day total, but he caught fish from beds, and several on topwater as well. Patience in just being able to fish was, he explained, elemental to his success.
“Patience with being able to have 10 rods on the deck and just go fishing was huge,” he said. “I didn’t get a lot of bites during the day, but I was able to do what I needed to do to stay in contention each day.”
Key to the Week: “For my bed fish – which accounted for two of my best fish – the Berkley Power Hawg was just huge.”
5th Place: Derek Remitz
Remitz started the season with a win, the backed it up with a second place finish. His event at Clear Lake wasn’t nearly as impressive, but he rebounded nicely with a fifth-place finish this week to maintain control of the Rookie of the Year race.
|
However, based on the practice he had, if Remitz would have been offered $10,000 and a 50-place guarantee, he would have jumped at the chance to leave for Guntersville early. “With the practice that I had, this finish is just awesome,” he said.
“The only thing that I had going was a small little bite on a jig, but then I throw a jig 95% of the time when I’m fishing anyway, so I didn’t really have much at all to speak of.”
With the absence of blue herring for forage, which will draw the bass into the shallows to feed, Derek needed the weather to help him a little bit. “The sun this week pinned them to the bottom,” he explained. “The heavier wind Friday really helped to get me up in the standings – it activated the bigger fish. |
|
|
“From there the wind didn’t blow enough to really help me much.”
Key to the week: “The jig and the areas that I had, but you have to understand that I didn’t have a lot to work with.”
6th : Skeet Reese
Final-Day Thoughts: “I was very pleased with the day, and I wasn’t really stoked about coming here.”
|
|
|
Bait
of Choice: Lucky Craft Sammy 100 and
3/8-ounce jig
Biggest Challenge: “Having to
scramble around on the ultimate
junk-fishing pattern.”
Key to the Week: “The ability to
find and locate a new group of fish
each day.”
Week in Review: ““For me to pull
off a top 12 finish this week is just
great. I didn’t have a really good
practice, but I was able to make some
good decisions, because practice for
me was pretty much useless.” |
7th Place: Bryan Hudgins
Final-Day Thoughts: “I didn’t lose any fish, and really was fortunate that I didn’t. I feel like I had a great day today.”
|
Bait of Choice: “These fish were so picky this week, so about half came on a drop-shot rig and the other half on a tube.”
Biggest Challenge: “Trying to learn what the fish are using to transition, but fortunately I found some site fish that kept me from having to point fish.”
Key to the Week: “I was relying strictly on sight fishing, so it was a simple deal of them either being there and being locked on, or not. Thankfully, I had an area up by the dam that had cooler water and they were still on the beds.” |
|
|
Week in Review: “I’d never been to this lake before, and only had three days to put something together. I was fortunate to find a little area that had the coldest water that I’d found.”
8th Place: Casey Ashley
Final-Day Thoughts: “The day was tough – it was what I wanted, but it was tough. I ran the top-water deal a little too long, and finally picked up the jig to finish a limit, but it was too little too late.”
Bait of Choice: Homemade Jig
Biggest Challenge: “I don’t really know – I feel like I did the best I could do. Maybe get one or two of the lost fish back?”
|
|
|
Key to the Week: “The key for me was the jig that I used. I make it – I actually got the idea from a guy in South Carolina – and it’s a lot like the one that Davey used to win here last year.”
Week in Review: “I could taste the win the first day. I went out the second day to do the same thing, but my big fish didn’t cooperate. I also lost a good fish that second day that will haunt me, but all in all it was a great week. I wouldn’t change a thing if I could. I had a great week, and to be able to have a top five against this type of competition is just great.” |
9th Place: Kevin Short
Final-Day Thoughts: “I just never got any quality bites today. To be honest, I’m not sure why. I caught a lot of fish, just never any quality. I think I just ran out of fish.”
Bait of Choice: Lucky Craft crankbait and Carolina Rigged Zoom Lizzard
|
|
|
Biggest Challenge: “Today I was just wanting to open up my taklebox and dumping it in the water in the hope that a fish would come up and take something to show me what I should be using. It was really frustrating, that’s for sure.”
Key to the Week: “This is probably one of the most unique lakes that we fish. You have to move around a lot through the day to be successful, but I actually was able to find one mainlake point that was holding fish.” |
Week in Review: “I’m just tickled to death to be standing here on Sunday. This is the fourth time that I’ve been to Clarks Hill, and each time I’ve left with a little bit more knowledge on how to be successful. Maybe the fifth time will be the charm.”
10th Place: Fred Roumbanis
Final-Day Thoughts: “I had really ran out of fish today. I just dropped the trolling motor and put it on high and went fishing.”
|
Bait of Choice: Swimbait
Biggest Challenge: “The warming trend the last couple of days has brought a lot of the big females into the shallows. They weren’t quite locked on yet, but they will be very soon.”
Key to the Week: “With all the blue herring, the swimbait was a great choice. I was working it kind of unique because I was running it along the shallows and could get the fish to break.”
Week in Review: “I wish that I had another day to fish after what I was able to learn today.” |
|
|
11th Place: Aaron Martens
Final-Day Thoughts: “I made a 160-foot cast today and jerked it twice and had a fish jump on and broke it off. Fortunately, I had so much line out that I found the ball of it and was able to hand-line it in. I lost a ton of fish today though – three that would have been over three pounds. It was sick.”
|
|
|
Bait of Choice: Pencil Popper and a Drop-Shot Robo Worm
Biggest Challenge: “It was a finesse tournament, and then it wasn’t. I had a chance to have a little bit bigger limit today, but it seemed that the bigger the fish was, the more likely they were to miss it.”
Key to the Week: “Staying hooked up with the topwater fish.”
Week in Review: “It changed all week. I’ve fished from 20-foot to the top of the water. There are a couple things that I maybe should have done differently, but all in all, it was a great tournament.” |
12th Place: Ish Monroe
Final-Day Thoughts: “It started out okay, and I finally found a good fish on a bed and lost her. From there, it kind of went down hill.”
|
Bait of Choice: “The floating worm and the Ish Tube were my baits of choice all week.”
Biggest Challenge: “I lost a lot of big fish this week. Sunday I lost one that would have pushed eight pounds.”
Key to the Week: “Not losing fish.”
Week in Review: “This is a really great lake. I didn’t have a good tournament here last year, so it’s great to be able to come back in and do well. I just wish that I could’ve been able to hook up with some of those big girls that I kept seeing all week.” |
|
|
Final
Standings
|
|
|
Total |
Total |
|
| Place |
Pro
Angler |
Hometown,
State |
# |
Wt. |
Earnings |
| 1 |
Mike
McClelland |
Bella
Vista, Ark. |
20 |
70-07 |
$100,000 |
| 2 |
Chris
Lane |
Winter
Haven, Fla. |
20 |
69-00 |
$30,000 |
| 3 |
Pete
Ponds |
Madison,
Miss. |
20 |
66-01 |
$25,000 |
| 4 |
John
Crews |
Salem,
Va. |
20 |
61-01 |
$18,000 |
| 5 |
Derek
Remitz |
Madison,
Ala. |
20 |
59-09 |
$17,000 |
| 6 |
Skeet
Reese |
Auburn,
Calif. |
20 |
58-12 |
$15,500 |
| 7 |
Bryan
Hudgins |
Orange
Park, Fla. |
20 |
58-06 |
$15,000 |
| 8 |
Casey
Ashley |
Donalds,
S.C. |
20 |
57-09 |
$14,500 |
| 9 |
Kevin
Short |
Mayflower,
Ark. |
20 |
56-09 |
$14,000 |
| 10 |
Fred
Roumbanis |
Auburn,
Calif. |
20 |
56-07 |
$13,500 |
| 11 |
Aaron
Martens |
Leeds,
Ala. |
20 |
54-05 |
$12,500 |
| 12 |
Ishama
Monroe |
Hughson,
Calif. |
20 |
52-13 |
$12,300 |
|
