Skeet's Hot Streak Continues with Win at Lake Guntersville

Guntersville , Ala. – As if the 2010 Bassmaster Elite Series season could get any better for Auburn, California's Skeet Reese; it just did.

Following a streak that saw him open the season with four consecutive top five finishes; including a win at the third stop of the season at Smith Mountain Lake ; the 40-year-old pro grabbed his second win of the season at the hallowed waters of Lake Guntersville in Alabama . Reese powered through a wild week of postspawn fishing at the “Bass Fishing Mecca” to bag 100 pounds, 13 ounces of Guntersville largemouth to wrestle victory from third day leader Davy Hite of South Carolina .

Long known as one of the best bass fisheries in the country, Guntersville, like so many southern lakes, had suffered through a tough winter of below freezing temperatures that had killed a majority of the shad population. The fast and furious fishing that greeted the anglers in the 2009 version of the Elite Series Southern Challenge was still present, though not as shallow as the year before.”

“We were catching them on top of ledges last year during the shad spawn, but they weren't there this year; you had to go deeper;” said the 2009 Bassmaster Classic Champion. “We still caught as many fish the first couple of days; we just had to move deeper to find them.”

Reese reported catching as many as 200 bass on the first day of the Synergy Southern Challenge by throwing a Lucky Craft crankbait. His first day weight of 29 pounds, 3 ounces gave him more than a one pound lead after the opening round. He backed up his first day weigh with a 24-pound, 1-ounce limit to bring his total to 53 pounds, 4 ounces and a lead of nearly two pounds heading into the weekend over Hite.

On the third day of the tournament Reese succumbed to a hard charging Hite, who bagged more than 28 pounds, while Reese managed to put 21 pounds, 10 ounces on the scale bringing his total to 74 pounds, 14 ounces. His performance earned him the right to fish on Sunday for the fifth consecutive time to start the season, but saw him nearly five pounds behind Hite.

“I started out Sunday morning in a really relaxed mood,” said the 2007 Bassmaster Angler of the Year. “I was simply planning to go out and put up as much weight as I could to gain more points in the AOY standings; I didn't think I had a shot to catch Davy (Hite); my goal was to stay in the top three.”

But, as has happened for much of the season, Reese managed to string together a hefty 25-pound, 15-ounce limit of Guntersville largemouth to push his total over the century mark; it is the fourth time Reese has accomplished the feat.

When Hite weighed an uncharacteristically light bag, Reese grabbed the victory, the sixth of his career, and the second of the 2010 season. “I really didn't expect to have a shot at winning,” said Reese. “When I went backstage with my fish, and saw that Davy's bag was light, I thought I had a chance; I'm really thrilled to have won. Guntersville has the same meaning to the fishing community that Augusta has to the PGA; it's awesome to have won here.”

Reese tied his White Shad (Splatterback Shad) Lucky Craft RC 3.5DD crankbait to 10-pound-test Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line on his 7'10” Wright & McGill Co. Skeet Reese Tessera Magnum Cranking Rod and Abu Garcia SKT Revo. He caught the majority of his keepers on the Lucky Craft crankbait, but did catch a few on a couple of other diving plugs and two of his final day's limit came on a brown ½-ounce homemade original Mop Jig with a chunk for a trailer.

Reese reported that the key to triggering bites was to power the crankbait through the schools of postspawn fish that hand ganged up on the offshore humps, shellbeds, ledges and stumps that he was targeting in 10 to 18 feet of water. “You had to get the bait down there and keep it moving fairly quickly through the school to trigger a strike,” he said of the more than 400 bass he caught throughout the week. “Once you got the school fired up, you could sit there and catch them cast after cast.”

The win gave Reese 315 points in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year Race, bringing his total to 1485 points after five events; 258 points over Oklahoma's Edwin Evers.

His fifth consecutive top five finish is an Elite Series record, and with three events remaining in the regular season, it looks like he is on track to reaching his goal.“I want to have as big a lead as possible heading into Toyota Trucks Championship Week, my goal is to win the Angler of the Year again; that is my long term goal, and we'll just take it one day at a time until we get there.