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Lakeport, CA – Clear Leak is the oldest natural reservoir on this continent, and in the last five years it’s become known as one of the most prolific trophy-bass fisheries in the world. In what would amount to a historic day in professional bass fishing, 12 anglers set out from Liberty Park on Clear Lake for the final day of the Golden State Shootout.
On the Thursday, the first day of the tournament, there was but a slight indication of the sensational outcome that laid in store…yet everyone sensed that this week was going to be incredible. Full-time Red Bluff, CA fireman Greg Gutierrez set the high-water mark that first day by almost crossing the 33-pound barrier with a limit that weighed 32-13. Nipping closely at his heels was fellow Californian Ish Monroe with 32-09.
The weather Thursday was textbook for the swimbait that Ish was chunking in the early-morning hours, but as the winds calmed to almost nothing Friday, he struggled to regain his footing and slid down to fifth the second day. Gutierrez, on the other hand, backed up his first-day performance and tacked on nearly 11 pounds of separation between himself and his closest competitor.
The three-day “heaviest weight” record that Byron Velvick had held for several years fell Saturday as soon as California pro Skeet Reese hefted his day’s limit onto the scales, giving him 89-12 in three days and a short-lived lead. Soon to follow was Alabama angler Steve Kennedy who stunned the shindig by hefting better than 40 pounds of bass on the scales, and revised history again, pilfering the lead from Reese.
The last of the record breakers to cross the stage Saturday was the man who’d led the event each of is two previous days, Greg Gutierrez. Gutierrez reclaimed the lead with his limit, but stress cracks were beginning to show around the seemingly unassailable pattern the local favorite had found.
Gutierrez brought his lightest limit of the tournament to the scales Saturday – nearly 10-pounds off the pace he’d set – and noted that conditions had been challenging for the way he’d been fishing. The 11-pound lead Gutierrez had starting the third morning of the contest shrunk, and there was just over two pounds separating first from third by
Auburn, AL pro, and defending Toyota Rookie of the Year ended all the speculation by brining in a final-day limit weighing 32-10, and winning his first ever Elite Series title. Kennedy collected the $100,000 first-place prize, and the all-time record with a four-day combined weight of 122-14.
Ending his tournament in second place was Auburn, CA pro Skeet Reese, who had a final total weight of 117-6. Skeet brought 27-10 to the scales Sunday, and was the first angler to break the all-time record, but it came up five-and-a-half pounds short of the top spot.
Reese made things interesting in the closing moments of the weigh-in, but ultimately ran into a virtual wall in Kennedy Sunday making his run remarkable, but not quite enough in the end.
In third Sunday was Greg Gutierrez, who’d lead each day of the tournament, but his pattern ultimately fell apart Saturday. Greg weighed 16-3 on the final day, giving him a four-day total weight of 108-1. |
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Fourth place belong to Gerald “The G-Man” Swindle after all of the dust had settled. Swindle brought 105-8 to the scales over four days, and weighed 29-4 Sunday to a short-lived lead in the event. Swindle won the day’s Purolator Big Bass honors with a hawg that tipped the scales at 10-6.
Rounding out the top five was Arizona’s John Murray, with a combined weight of 103-1. Murray brought a solid limit to the scales Sunday weighing 24-5, but was no quite enough to make up the ground he needing to make a legitimate run at the lead.
1st Place: Steve Kennedy
Steve Kennedy came to the stage Sunday needing 27-3 to take the lead from Skeet Reese. Weighing close to 33 pounds, with a 9-0 big bass, he not only won the tournament in a commanding fashion, but he also established a brand new all-time heavyweight record.
Coming from way down in 51st place after Thursday, Steve had knew that he’d have to have a rock-sold Friday. To do so, he knew that he’d have to rely on a swimbait, a bait that he’d only been throwing for less than a month. “I knew that I was going to have to get some good bites,” he said. “After the first day I downsized my swimbait and caught around 30 pounds on it.”
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The alarms in Kennedy’s brain went off Friday when he switched from the smaller paddle-tail
swimbait, to the much bigger Huddleston Trout. From there, he never looked back. “On my first stop Saturday morning, I missed one that was over nine pounds on that bait,” he said. “I would line up on the bushes where I thought they’d be spawning and hurl that big bait out and hang on.”
Steve lost two big fish Saturday that likely spelled the difference between a great day, and a completely amazing one. “The day was nothing like Saturday, but I did find one spot around 11:00 where I was able to catch most of my weight,” he said. “I dumped one around 10 pounds, and turned back another one that was almost that big. |
Breaking a big fish off happens, but do to so because of a split ring separating is a different matter completely. That’s exactly what happened with the first 10-pounder Kennedy dumped Sunday. The second was hooked outside the mouth, and state law requires that it be returned to the water. “It could’ve been better than Saturday, but it was really kind of frustrating,” he said.
“I can lay down tonight and know that I still one the tournament and I lost two that would’ve went better than 20 pounds. My personal best was 8-12, and I’ve caught three in this tournament bigger than that – and one of them I didn’t even get to weigh. Pretty amazing.”
After the week he’s had at Clear Lake, you might consider the Alabama angler a die-hard swimbait freak by now. “I caught my first fish on one less than a month ago,” he said. “I’m pushing $3,000 that I’ve spent on swimbaits since then. Before I leave here, it might be closer to $5,000.”
2nd Place: Skeet Reese
Skeet Reese was the first to break the all-time heavyweight record, and blew past then leader Swindle like he wasn’t even there. He’s on an unbelievable run this year, and he’s not been silent about the fact that Clear Lake is his favorite fishery. “I never in my wildest dreams thought I would catch 117 pounds of bass,” he said.
“It makes sense that it would happen here. This place is just awesome.”
Skeet explained that he had the opportunity to weigh closer to 32 pounds Sunday, but knows that even then he would’ve fallen just short. “I lost at least an eight-pounder this morning,” he said. “I thought I her too – I fought it and fought, and it pulled off.
“I
could’ve had around 32 pounds today, but
nothing more than that. The 40-pound bag
Steve weighed yesterday sealed the deal.
He beat me fair and square.”
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With
the astounding day Reese had Saturday,
the $64,000 question is – what
changed? “Yesterday was one of those
days that they were just chewing,”
he said. “Second place sucks, and I
hope that something good comes out of
all of the ones that I’ve had. If a
second place here gets me angler of
the year then I won’t be so
grumpy.” |
Reese alternated between two baits – a swimbait and jerbait – to make things happen this week. “I threw the big Osprey swimbait most of the week,” he said. “I did throw a new Lucky Craft Slim Shad jerkbait some, but it was mostly on the
swimbait. I changed up some, and threw three or four different
swimbaits, but the Osprey was the deal for me.”
Who knows, somewhere down the line, the 2007 season may be the defining moment in Skeet’s career. Right now though, it’s hard to see it from second place for Reese. “I feel like the past three or four years I’ve had pretty good years,” he said. “My fishing is good right now, and I can only hope that it continues this way.
“I’m sure there’ll be some tournaments where I scratch my head and wonder what I’m doing out there, but I have to try and do the best I can do.”
3rd Place: Greg Gutierrez
Greg Gutierrez lead the tournament for the first three days. He faltered Saturday and weighed 10-pounds less than his average of the first two days. Sunday, he came to the stage needing a big bag of over 30 pounds to close out the tournament as it’s wire-to-wire leader and claim the top prize. ‘I made a bunch of changes today because of the pressure my fish were getting,” he said.
“I think the fish I was on were very educated by the time today rolled around.”
| Knowing that things had changed, Gutierrez dropped the Osprey swimbait that had been so good to him all week long, and went instead to a Zara Spook. “They’d just seen my bait so much that the attack wasn’t as good,” he said. “The problem was that they’d come up on it, and start tumbling and the hook would come out of their mouth and I’d have to throw them back.” |
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At the midway point in the day, Greg felt sure that he was falling behind and knew that he would have to scramble in order to catch up. He switched to the hand-tied ¾ ounce football head jig in purple/blue flake that he’d thrown the first day “I went to my best spot with the jig, and got one small keeper,” he said. “It was my limit fish, so I wound up keeping it, but I wound up running all the way down to The Keys and flipping.
“I was able to flip up three keepers down there and culled twice with them. By then the weather had come up on me and I knew that it would be a rough run back so I headed by towards the north end of the lake.”
In retrospect, Gutierrez feels good about the tournament’s outcome. Though he would have preferred a win, to be in the prestigious 100-pound club is pretty special. “This was so awesome,” he exclaimed. “I didn’t come out on top, but I feel like I did pretty good. I made some adjustments that were good, and others that I did too late in the game. Steve Kennedy earned it.”
4th Place: Gerald Swindle
Gerald Swindle cruised into the top 12 thanks to unbelievable back-to-back 28-pound days Friday and Saturday. He waited until the final day to break out the good stuff, and stole the leader’s chair from Peter Thliveros early in the weigh-in. “It was pretty unbelievable,” he said of his day. “I wore my lucky green shoes today and everything.
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Gerald is candid about his novice swimbait skills, and bought the only ones he owns – a Basstrix – at the local tackle store. “I don’t know anything about
swimbaits, but I spent about $400 dollars on some goofy looking green baits and threw them all over the lake the last three days,” he said.
“You know how us rednecks are, we can’t take anything out of the box and just use it. I would peg a 3/16-ounce Tru-Tungston weight on the nose to keep it down.”
Swindle weighed the day’s heaviest bass at over 10 pounds, and knew that he wasn’t going to leave the lake without getting her in the boat from the moment that he laid eyes on her. “I saw her three times this morning on a retaining wall, but she would swim off about as soon as I could see her,” he said. |
“I came back four hours later in the day and threw up there one time and she chocked it.”
The 2004 Angler of the Year was the first one of the day to cross the century mark, and truth be told, that was his primary goal for the day. “You go out with the expectation that I couldn’t win, but I wanted to cross the 100-pound mark,” he said. “I wasn’t worried about winning because I would’ve needed like 50 pounds.
“All I wanted to do was for Gerald Swindle to have over 100 pounds of bass in four days. This week is probably the pinnacle of my career.”
5th Place: John Murray
Arizona pro John Murray was another angler to cross the century mark. Though he didn’t take the lead, but was able to do something not too many before him have ever done. “This has been one of the best tournaments I’ve ever fished,” he said. “I must’ve caught over 30-pounds of fish today, but the big ones bit early instead of late like they have been all week.”
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With 20-years of history on the lake, Murray knew that anything was possible so the win wasn’t totally out of his sites. However, he’s also a realist and knew that getting there would be next to impossible. “It was a real simple game plan for me this morning,” he said. “I was going for 100 pounds. I knew that if I had that by the end of the day, I was going to be happy.” |
Throwing a wacky-rigged 5” Yamamoto worm, Murray got off to the right start Sunday. My first fish – like my third cast – went over six pounds, so I was pretty pumped up,” he said. “I had a 20-pound limit by about 8:30, but the wind just got too rough for me.”
The day for Murray was almost the opposite of the first three, forcing him to through a swimbait more than the worm. “You would have to fish it so slow, and in the wind we had Sunday, I couldn’t do it,” he explained. “But this has just been an amazing week. To weigh-in close to 100 pounds of bass in a week’s time is just incredible.”
6th Place: Kelly Jordon
Final-Day Thoughts: “I just scrambled around throwing a big Osprey swimbait trying to do it. I knew at the end of the day that I would need 23 pounds to break 100, and with 20 minutes to go I caught a seven pounder. It was a firedrill to get it in the boat.”
Bait of Choice: Osprey Swimbait
Biggest Challenge: “The wind blew, and the clouds came in ahead of the front Sunday. I thought they would bite a little bit better, but it was a little bit tougher on me. But hey, I’ll take days like this and still catch 100 pounds any time.”
Key to the Week: “Trying to find where the big females are coming in. If you can find a big school of females, it’s on.”
Week in Review: “This place is just incredible. I love to out here fishing – if feels a lot like home to me.”
7th Place: Paul Elias
Final-Day Thoughts: “I had a bad day, I really did. I had four or five fish pull off, and had to throw one back because it was hooked outside the mouth. The way that I’m fishing, you’re supposed to lose a lot of fish. I didn’t lose one that would help me until today – when it mattered the most.”
Bait of Choice: Lipless crankbait ripped just off the bottom.
Biggest Challenge: “Sunday was my worst day. I lost a lot of fish, and I don’t know why. I jumped off a seven-pound, and had to put another one back that was almost that big.”
Key to the Week: “Every fish I weighed in this week, except one, came on a crankbait. They were really hard to catch because they just nipped at it, but I never could really get anything going with the swimbait.”
Week in Review: “This place is the best fishery I’ve ever been to in my life. It’s just a gold mine.”
8th Place: Peter Thliveros
Final-Day Thoughts: “I just missed the century club, but anyway you look at it, what we accomplished this week was nothing short of amazing. The day just seemed to get better and better as it went along. I was culling four-pound fish.”
Bait of Choice: “I threw a swimbait some all week, but my bait of choice was a Mojo-rigged fluke – that’s what I caught my biggest fish each day on.”
Biggest Challenge: “ The last dock I hit Sunday was one that I’d been fishing all week. I saw a fish there that just took my breath away. Things have to be perfect to get them to bite, and I just knew after I saw it the second time that she wasn’t going to bite. I packed my rods up and headed in. That was the hardest thing in the world to do – leave a fish that big in the water.”
Key to the Week: “All week long I was catching the majority of my fish on a Mojo-rigged fluke on 12-pound Fluorocarbon. I would work it around the deep docks where the big fish are bedding fishing it extremely slow.”
Week in Review: “This is without a doubt the best fishery I’ve ever been to in my life. It’s just been a phenomenal week. The only way that this could be topped is if we come back here next year at the same time.”
9th Place: Jared Lintner
Final-Day Thoughts: “I’m fishing good right now, except for today. It was really frustrating because I couldn’t get them to eat today. For me, when the sun got high enough, it would position the fish out on the end of the limbs of the willows I was fishing. The sun didn’t pop out until 1:00 today, and I don’t think they had time to position right.”
Bait of Choice: 7-inch Osprey Swimbait
Biggest Challenge: “I panicked a little bit today. I finally picked up a shakey head as a panic bait, but as soon as I got my limit, I started throwing the swimbait again.”
Key to the Week: “The sun, and it didn’t cooperate today.”
Week in Review: “I was pretty frustrated Thursday because I dumped a couple of good fish. I managed to have two really good days in between, but today was a total bummer because nothing worked right.”
10th Place: Scott Rook
Final-Day Thoughts: “I had two big bites, but I lost both of them. The other one ate the swimbait, but I guess I had it deep and it popped my line. I didn’t have the bright clear skies that I needed to create shade, and that really slowed my day down.”
Bait of Choice: Swimbait
Week in Review: “Here at Clear Lake, it’s not fishing, it’s just catching. This place is incredible.”
11th Place: Pete Ponds
Final-Day Thoughts: “I’m living my dream right now. To finish inside the top 12 on a lake like this is just amazing.”
Bait of Choice: “I started out with jerkbaits and caught some, but most of my fish came on a swimbait.”
Key to the Week: “I think the key for me was doing something with it a little bit different. I was throwing 12-pound Fluorocarbon, and I think that’s what got me in the cut. Besides that, the first day my co-angler was throwing a swimbait, and that’s what really got me clued in.”
Week in Review: “This is the best fishery I’ve ever been to in my life, Amistad was so good that I bought some land there.”
12th Place: Glenn Delong
Final-Day Thoughts: “I went and did the same thing that I did the first three days to get me here. The bite was totally gone and I didn’t have a thing. I went and swung for the fences with a swimbait and couldn’t ever get it going.”
Bait of Choice: 1-ounce jig
Week in Review: “Best tournament I’ve ever had in my life. If you could put in perspective, Ohio just doesn’t have stuff like this. This place is just awesome. Last night when I found out that I’d made the cut I cried for an hour – no kidding.”
Final
Standings
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Day
1 |
Day
1 |
Day
2 |
Day
2 |
Day
3 |
Day
3 |
Day
4 |
Day
4 |
Total |
Total |
Earnings |
| Pl |
Pro
Angler |
# |
Wt. |
# |
Wt. |
# |
Wt. |
# |
Wt. |
# |
Wt. |
|
| 1 |
Steve
Kennedy |
5 |
20-
0 |
5 |
29-13 |
5 |
40-
7 |
5 |
32-10 |
20 |
122-14 |
$100,000 |
| 2 |
Skeet
Reese |
5 |
26-12 |
5 |
27-
9 |
5 |
35-
7 |
5 |
27-10 |
20 |
117-
6 |
$30,000 |
| 3 |
Greg
Gutierrez |
5 |
32-13 |
5 |
33-13 |
5 |
25-
4 |
5 |
16-
3 |
20 |
108-
1 |
$25,000 |
| 4 |
Gerald
Swindle |
5 |
19-10 |
5 |
28-
9 |
5 |
28-
1 |
5 |
29-
4 |
20 |
105-
8 |
$18,000 |
| 5 |
John
Murray |
5 |
27-13 |
5 |
22-
7 |
5 |
28-
8 |
5 |
24-
5 |
20 |
103-
1 |
$17,000 |
| 6 |
Kelly
Jordon |
5 |
23-
3 |
5 |
32-
8 |
5 |
21-
3 |
5 |
25-12 |
20 |
102-10 |
$15,500 |
| 7 |
Paul
Elias |
5 |
23-
1 |
5 |
23-12 |
5 |
32-13 |
5 |
22-
5 |
20 |
101-15 |
$15,000 |
| 8 |
Peter
T |
5 |
28-11 |
5 |
25-
7 |
5 |
20-
9 |
5 |
24-
9 |
20 |
99-
4 |
$14,500 |
| 9 |
Jared
Lintner |
5 |
21-12 |
5 |
29-
7 |
5 |
28-10 |
5 |
17-
7 |
20 |
97-
4 |
$14,000 |
| 10 |
Scott
Rook |
5 |
19-15 |
5 |
28-
7 |
5 |
26-
6 |
5 |
22-
5 |
20 |
97-
1 |
$13,500 |
| 11 |
Pete
Ponds |
5 |
19-
0 |
5 |
29-
2 |
5 |
27-13 |
5 |
20-
8 |
20 |
96-
7 |
$12,500 |
| 12 |
Glenn
Delong |
5 |
25-
8 |
5 |
20-11 |
5 |
28-14 |
3 |
5-8 |
18 |
80-
9 |
$12,300 |
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