Stockton, CA – The much anticipated and ballyhooed Duel on the Delta came to fruition Sunday as the 12 remaining Elite Series pro came to the stage with their creels to settle the score. After the initial anticipation of what it may take to win came to a head Thursday, Mark Tyler left the stage as the leader. In his shadow was rookie Derek Remitz who was trying to go two for two.
Friday the field was cut to 50 anglers, and those who remained on the Delta knew that even with the improved conditions, the Delta bass still weren’t ready to just jump into the boat. At the conclusion of the weigh-in, there were essentially two who remained – at least that’s how it looked.
Aaron Martens left the stage as the day’s heavyweight by bringing more than 30 pounds of bass to the stage, along with the big bass of the tournament – an 11-4 donkey. Martens was fishing with a specific intent – to win for new baby Spencer; however, he was ounces behind the persistent rookie Remitz going into the weekend. While the two had better than an eight-pound lead over third place, anything’s possible when fishing around the trophy bass The Delta is apt to give up.
As the scales opened on Saturday, it quickly became apparent the fishing had gotten even more arduous. Local anglers, pleasure boaters and the typical weekend conditions hurt the bite on Saturday. Additionally, the tidal conditions, which played an important role all week, remained high most of the day making the already difficult fishing even tougher. The result was a skinny bite for most everyone, but the two-man duel played out further to amass a 10-pound spread between themselves and the rest of the field.
Mother Nature once again served up some surprises for the final day of the event. The chilly air temps that hung around all week didn’t let up Sunday, but the wind that blew so hard during practice, and laid down to almost nothing the first three days of the tournament, returned with a vengeance Sunday. The result was a far-less-that-perfect scenario for all in the field.
In front of record-setting crowds who had gathered for the sunny (but blustery) weigh-in, the last man standing at the tournament’s conclusion was announced. While it appeared Sunday morning that there were only two horses left in the race, surprises unfolded as the weigh-in ensued. As stated earlier – anything’s possible when fishing a place capable of spitting out donkeys like The Delta can.
At the end of the day, the other
eleven Elite Series pros at the weigh-in,
were not able to catch up the California native, who now calls Alabama home sweet
home. Aaron “A-Mart” Martens. Martens went on to catch a limit
on the final day that totaled 15-15, eclipsing everyone else in the 12-man field.
His four-day total of 85-12 put Aaron in the top spot by over six pounds…diminishing the hopes of everyone else, who had all but conceded to fishing for third before the day began.
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Derek “The
Next Big Thing” Remitz has made a profound statement in just two tournaments on the Elite Series. Just as it was at the Lake Amistad’s “Battle on the Border,” the rookie sensation continued to amaze the fishing world this week in Stockton. Ultimately, Derek wasn’t able to seal the deal this week, and had to settle on second place for the first time in his young career. He brought his smallest limit of the week weighing 11-11 to the scales on Sunday, giving him 78-6 for a final weight.
In third place at the tournament’s end was Stephen Browning, who held the lead through most of the afternoon’s weigh-in. Browning final limit, weighing who crossed 24-4 was the day’s heaviest stringer and catapulted him from 10th place when the day started to a strong contender with a total weight of 75-8 when it was all said and done.
Fourth place belonged to California native Skeet Reese, who crossed to the scales with a limit of bass that totaled 23-4 Sunday. Skeet’s four-day combined weight of 74-6, anchored by a 6 pound 7 ounce beauty, put him on top for a few moments Sunday, but would eventually concede the hot seat to Browning.
Rounding out the top five Sunday was Brent Chapman, who brought 20-11 to the scales on Sunday, which was the day’s Purolator Big Bass weighing 9-9. In what amounted to a very tough day of fishing, Chapman’s limit elevated his final weight to 73-12.
1st Place: Aaron Martens
Let’s be honest, if not for his jaw-dropping Berkley Heavyweight limit weighing 30-10, and the Purolator Big Bass weighing 11-14, didn’t happen Friday, A-Mart wouldn’t be Champion. But the fact is, it happened that way and he was able to weigh the biggest limit of the tournament, and the event’s biggest bass in route to his first Elite Series win.
It’s almost like it was meant to be or something. Martens is the classic “always a bridesmaid, never the bride” figure in professional bass fishing with six second-place finishes – three of which came at a Classic. However, A-Mart can now remove that stigma from his resume, as he’s BASS’ newest millionaire and the last man standing after the Duel on the Delta.
Martens
came to the stage needing a little over
eight pounds to claim the lead – and he
brought almost 16. “It couldn’t have
happened at a better place that the
Delta,” he said. “This place has had
my number so many times, and I couldn’t
have dreamed of winning at a better place
that here.”
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Martens
won $110,000 for the win after all
the bonus money was added –
$9,000 for the Berkley Heavyweight
stringer and $1,000 for Friday’s
Purolator Big Bass honors. Still
all the money aside, winning was
bittersweet as he was without his
travel partner – Leslie his
wife. “Leslie never misses a
tournament, but we had a baby
10-days early,” he tearfully
expressed. |
“I
know that she’s happy with the win, but
I still wish that she could’ve been here
with me to win this one.”
Aaron spent most of his time this week
alternating between a spinning rod and a
flipping stick. With the spinning rod, his
bait of choice was an Aaron Martens Lures
Scrounger. When using the flipping stick,
he had a 4.5-inch Roboworm tied to the end
of his string. Both accounted for a fairly
even split of fish each day.
With changes Mother Nature dished out Sunday, Martens decided to begin moving around inside the area fishing faster than he had all week…he also upsized his line midway through the final day, which allowed for him to fish faster in the wind. “After I moved, it took me a little while to get hooked up, but they were pretty much biting all day,” he explained.
“They were just coming too slow. I wasn’t panicked or anything, but I decided that with the wind blowing, I needed to gamble a little bit. I only missed one fish today after I started moving around, so it paid off.”
Looking back now as a first-time winner – both on the Elite Series and at long last on The Delta – Martens hasn’t had time to fully digest everything that’s happened this week. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “Coming here I just wanted to make the top 50 – I would’ve been satisfied with that because this place has always been so brutal to me. After the first day of practice, I’d caught 30-pounds pretty quick…that was kind of the sign of things to come.”
2nd Place: Derek Remitz
Remitz, always the steady handed’ gunslinger, came in to Sunday’s weigh-in needing only a small limit to take over the lead. He was able to unseat Browning as the tournament’s leader with his limit weighing 11-11. When asked about his focus on the day, and how he’s been able to be at the top of both Elite Series events in 2007, the young pro was at a loss for words. “I really don’t know,” he said. “I just put everything aside and go fishing.”
| Coming into the event Thursday, Remitz couldn’t have dreamed that he would finish the tournament in second place. “It’s really something to finish like I did with the way practice went for me,” he said. “I never was able to really establish much during practice, so I decided to just fish the area that I had the most confidence in and see what happens.” |
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Remitz primarily relied on a ½ Red Rat-L-Trap throughout the week. “I don’t even know what the color is called,” he said. “It a bait that I have a great deal of confidence in this time of the year, and I almost always have one tied on.”
Remitz looked unstoppable the first two days of the tournament, but by Saturday his water was showing signs of getting weak. He went back to the community hole Sunday hoping to milk it one last time, but came up short and left midway through the day in search of new water. “I really should’ve bailed on my water around 10:00 Sunday because it was clear that I’d beat on them too hard,” he said.
“I just stuck it out and waited too long before I pulled out and went looking.”
Remitz concedes that his fish began petering out Saturday, but he was confident in the water he was on. Just as he would start to leave, he would get another bite which further fueled his desire to stay in the area that was so good to him the first two days of the event. “I would start to think that I needed to move to some of the other water I had found and then I’d get a bite,” he said.
“That’s pretty much how it went until at last I started to scramble…too little too late. I knew that Aaron was on them, and I felt sure that I would need about 20 pounds to win today. With the wind that we had, I was fairly sure that my water would give that much up. It was at around 1:30 when I knew that it wasn’t going to happen.”
While he wasn’t able to secure a win this week, Remitz explained that he’s already accomplished more in two events that he dreamed he could all year. “I’ve been dreaming of doing this for a long time, and I’ve worked hard to get here,” he said. “I had a good season in the Opens last year, but I would’ve never dreamed that I would have a start to my career like I have.
“If I keep catching them, great. If I don’t, it’s been awesome this year already.”
3rd Place: Stephen Browning
Browning started his tournament off the right way with a 20-pound bag, but Friday stumbled slightly as the tide wasn’t in his favor. Fortunately, most everyone else in the field experienced the same challenges and his position improved as a result. With the crowds that came out Saturday, Browning continued to struggle weighing his smallest limit of the event – 13-15.
With everyone assuming that it was a two-horse race, Browning came to the scales needing 23-3 for the lead. Again, he proved that it’s never over until it’s over as he pilled on his heaviest limit of the event. “I really struggled this morning for a long time,” he said.
“I’ve preached all week about the first two hours of the morning, but it was slow like a three-legged turtle. I decided to make a little change, and when I got on them brother, I got on
‘em.”
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The change that Browning made was to abandon his water and simply go fishing. “I took off down the bank with a little 3/8-ounce
Rattlin’ Vibe, and just got after it,” he explained. “There was a little 50-yard stretch that was just holding fish like you couldn’t believe. My day go a lot better right then.” |
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Stephen was targeting what he’s sure where bedding fish around the base of tulles in Frank’s Track all week long using a Yamamoto Senko. However, with the wind that kicked up Sunday, the Senko wasn’t going to work. “When the wind started blowing, I had to change to the Rattlin’ Vibe,” he said. “All week long, I was fishing the Senko in six- to eight-feed of water and they were eating real good during high-tide.
“That went out the window in this wind, and really forced me to scramble.”
Browning said that his goal, assuming that the tournament was all but over for all but the top two, was to must a top 5. Mission accomplished, and then some. “My main goal starting the day was a top five finish,” he said. “I’m just tickled to death. I told my wife last week that if I ended this event in third place, I would fly my wife out to Clear Lake.”
Stephen is still perplexed about his finish given the mixed signals he received during practice. “I only had five good bites during practice,” he said. “When you can do that and still have a top-12 finish, it’s just been a great week. I had a really good tournament looking at it from that perspective, and I have absolutely no complaints.”
4th Place: Skeet Reese
Fresh off a ninth-place finish at Amistad, and a second-place finish at the 2007 Classic, Skeet cruised into California as one of the hottest guys on tour. Add a fourth-place finish this week at The Delta to that hot streak as Reese continued to show that he’s one of the best fishermen on the planet.
Skeet came to Sunday’s weigh-in 18-12 out of the lead. With 23-pound stringer in tow, it was clear that he intended to be in the mix when the tournament was over. “It was a great day today,” he commented. “It’s a good day for Lucky Craft and a good day for me.”
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Reese admitted that the wind played a critical role in helping him nab his biggest sack of the tournament. “I was throwing a the Lucky Craft SKT Trap in Mad Craw all day,” he said. “I was able to get a pretty good bag off my water yesterday, but I couldn’t get much going today. I was able to make a key change in location that was key for me.”
Reese commented that using a glass rod and 20-pound Spiderwire allowed him to rip the Lucky Craft SKT Trap in Mad Craw though the heavy grass in and around his key area on Sunday, which was by far his most productive of the tournament. “It was an absolute grind all week long,” he said. “I don’t feel like I fished my water, prior to today, very efficiently at all.
“Ultimately, if I wouldn’t have fished like a knuckle-head the first two days I would probably had a legitimate shot at vying for the win. I’m very pleased with the way that it turned out though, that’s for sure.” |
Looking to the next event, Skeet doesn’t show any signs of easing up on his hot streak. “Clear Lake is going to be an awesome tournament,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting to see what this front does to the fishing there. I do know that it will be completely different fishing that what we’ve had this week.”
5th Place: Brent Chapman
Chapman started the week off strong with a bag that was rivaling that of the leaders at just under 23 pounds. Until Sunday, he was never able to muster the 20-pound mark again. “I executed this week really well,” he said. I didn’t lose any fish all week that hurt me, and that’s really the key to any tournament you fish.
“But the key here at The Delta is those kicker fish – and that’s the difference in Thursday’s sack and the other ones until today.”
| Champman threw a Senko or a Zoom Brush Hog all week to the bases of tulles. He caught his 9.9 around 9:00 Sunday morning, and felt like he may be able to shake things up. “The frustrating thing was that I had that fish and a couple others that were three pounders, but I had one swimmer that I just couldn’t get rid of,” he said.
“I upgrade that fish, and I sitting a little bit better at the end of the day, that’s for sure.” |
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With 18 top tens to his credit, Chapman knows that when you don’t have a solid plan day-to-day, the easiest and most desirable fallback position is to just drop the trolling motor and go fishing. “I started out the day to just go fishing, and that’s exactly what I did,” he said.
“I was going down the bank with a Yamamoto Senko, and the big fish just ate it. That changed my tune for sure. I’ve never caught a 10-pounder, and I guess I still haven’t, but I’ll take a 9-9 any day. It’s just awesome.”
Looking back on his week, Chapman is comfortable with his finish. “My goal each year is to make the Classic,” he said. “If I can get some top 10s, and maybe a win in the season, everything else is a bonus. I had a decent finish at Amistad, and a fifith-place here, now it’s off to Clear Lake.”
6th Place: Kevin VanDam
If you’re anyone other than the most dangerous man in professional bass fishing, ripping a hole in the bottom of your boat the first day of the tournament might be unnerving. To VanDan though, it was merely an hour-and-a-half distraction. “The thing that I always tell people is that it’s all about attitude,” he explained. “If you have something happen to you, and it’s out of your control, you have to get it out of your mind.
You can’t worry about the things that are out of your control.”
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With 69 top 10s, and $2.2 million in winnings, the mind-over-matter that KVD continues to exert just adds to his legacy and the threat potential he poses. He came to the stage Sunday needing 23-11 to claim the lead, and since it’s VanDam, you just knew that it was possible.
Ultimately, the Michigan pro came up short ending the event in sixth place. “I really fished for big fish all day,” he said. “It probably really hurt me in the end. I should’ve probably fished for some two pounders too, but when you have wind like this you’ll see me throwing a reaction-bait
pattern“. |
“I fished some big swimbaits and spinnerbaits today, along with some other stuff just trying to pull out all the stops.”
7th Place:
Jared Lintner
Lintner came The Delta with one goal – do better than he did at Amistad. Past that, making a top 12 would be great, but considering that this could be considered as “home water,” for the California rookie, he just didn’t want to stink the place up. That’s pretty much the opposite of what he ultimately did, as he ended his tournament just shy of the 70-lb mark, but in 7th when it was all said and done.
Lintner was on them all week, and looked at Sunday as the prime opportunity to move up in the final standings. “The wind was blowing, and they were eating the Trap and I was in heaven,” he said. “I just wasn’t able to get a big one today.”
Lintner fished from the same waters all week, but was forced to abandon his honey hole the final day given the windier conditions. “I fished the same spot all week, but today was different,” he explained. “The wind broke up the water’s surface and as soon as you’d burn the Trap over the little hydrilla mats, they’d just smoke it.”
Lintner has won an Open at Clear Lake in ’05, and looks to the next tournament as a great opportunity to make his mark on the 2007 season. “I’ve been dreaming about this one for a long time,” he said. “The bad weather that’s forecast is alright because it evens the field. |
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“I’m not saying that I’m gonna catch ‘em, but if it goes like I’m hoping it does it could get ugly.”
8th Place: Jeff Reynolds
I caught all my fish on a Senko. I did catch some flipping during the week, but the wind just really hurt me. I guess I stayed in there too long, but I was trying to go for the win.
I really tried hard today. I did a lot of running around trying to put something together. In the end, I just wasn’t able to do it.”
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9th Place: Chris Lane
As the last to make it into Saturday’s 12-man cut, Chris Lane knew that he had nothing to lose. He swung for the fences using the flipping technique that nabbed him Purolator Big Bass honors Saturday, but the wind had moved the critical grass mats. “I’d been flipping mats all week long,” he said. “I had been catching fish pretty steady during the morning, and I’d go to the mats in the afternoon and flip a Gambler Cricket. |
“In all this wind the mats were gone so I had to flip tulles instead and just wasn’t able to get the better fish I needed.”
Lane wants to win the coveted Angler of the Year title, but more important to him in the short term is a Classic berth. “My big goal this year is to win Angler of the Year, but also to make the Bassmaster Classic,” he said. “The more fish you catch, the more points you earn. So my goal this week was to catch as much as I could and better my points situation.”
10th Place: Greg Hackney
Greg “The Hack Attack” Hackney had an abysmal Classic, and a lackluster tournament at Amistad. The Delta was the event where Hackney knew that he would be able to turn the ship around given the amble flipping opportunities, and the visages of his native Louisiana.
With a big move made Saturday to sneak into the top 12 cut, Hackney appeared to be performing one of his classic come-from-behind upsets; however, the high winds spoiled his game plan Sunday. “The biggest factor in the day for me was that the wind packed all the weeds together,” he said. “It was hard to get my bait through it all.
In amassing his 22-4 limit from Saturday, Hackney power-fished all day in an area choked with tulles, hyacinth and milfoil. “I threw a lot of reaction baits yesterday, and went back to the same water trying to repeat,” he said. “Throughout the tournament I just never really got the big bite I needed.”
With some time to decompress, Hackney admits that he wouldn’t change a thing on the week. “I would do the same thing if I had it to do all over,” he expressed. “I really felt like I had the right fish, and I kept thinking that some new fish were going to move up. I guess I hurt them Saturday more that what I’d thought because they never showed up.”
11th Place: James Niggemeyer
Amistad wasn’t kind to the rookie with a last-place showing, but he was able to make up some much needed ground this week at The Delta. To do it, he had to insulate himself from all of the chatter about what could and should be done on the sprawling California fishery. “I was able to come in there and really pull back from the dock talk that I was hearing,” he said. “No having a lot of other thoughts in my head about doing this or that allowed me to focus in and just do my thing.”
His “thing” was pretty simple, as the Texas transplant is a known shallow-water specialist. “I had to be flipping tulles in the current,” he said. “If there was some hyacinth around it was a bonus.”
As a native Californian who only recently moved to Texas to be nearer to the tournament travel lines, Niggemeyer explained that he’d never been witness to the mass of people who gathered for Sunday’s weigh-in. “I’ve been a spectator to a lot of weigh-ins,” he said, “but to see the crowd that gathered for this one…it was just awesome.” |
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12th Place: James Charlesworth
Florida rookie James Charlesworth was fishing out of his mind Sunday and missed a crucial step in the culling process – he failed to release one of the swimmers in his livewell. As a result, James was docked with a penalty that knocked the wind out of his sails. “I’ve never done that in my entire life,” he lamented. “I just fished as hard as I could and left one in the boat.
“I don’t know, I got side-tracked or something, and had to turn a four-pounder back.”
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| Final
Standings - The Top 12 |
Total |
Total |
Earnings |
| Place |
Pro
Angler |
Hometown,
State |
# |
Weight |
|
| 1 |
Aaron
Martens |
Leeds,
Ala. |
20 |
85-12 |
$103,000 |
| 2 |
Derek
Remitz |
Hemphill,
Texas |
20 |
78-06 |
$30,000 |
| 3 |
Stephen
Browning |
Hot
Springs, Ark. |
20 |
75-08 |
$25,000 |
| 4 |
Skeet
Reese |
Auburn,
Calif. |
20 |
74-06 |
$18,000 |
| 5 |
Brent
Chapman |
Lake
Quivira, Kan. |
20 |
73-12 |
$17,000 |
| 6 |
Kevin
VanDam |
Kalamazoo,
Mich. |
20 |
72-05 |
$15,500 |
| 7 |
Jared
Lintner |
Arroyo
Grande, Calif. |
20 |
69-15 |
$15,000 |
| 8 |
Jeff
Reynolds |
Idabel,
Okla. |
20 |
68-14 |
$14,500 |
| 9 |
Chris
Lane |
Winter
Haven, Fla. |
20 |
67-12 |
$15,000 |
| 10 |
Greg
Hackney |
Gonzales,
La. |
20 |
65-15 |
$14,500 |
| 11 |
James
Niggemeyer |
Van,
Texas |
20 |
65-14 |
$12,500 |
| 12 |
James
Charlesworth |
Saint
Cloud, Fla. |
20 |
62-14 |
$12,300 |
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