Lakeport , Calif. After narrowly missing victory in the California Delta, former Bassmaster Classic Champion Skeet Reese turned his attention to Northern California's famed Clear Lake ; the lake he first began fishing tournaments on more than 20 years ago.
Clear Lake is home to many big Florida Strain largemouth bass, and with the recent year's boon in shad population, and the famed Hitch for forage; those big Florida Strain largemouth have continued to flourish and grow. The Bassmaster Tour and Elite Series has enjoyed several moments of Clear Lake's ability to produce giant limits of bass, and Reese has been right in the mix for most of them.
Skeet hoists a couple Golden State Fish
In his Tour and Elite Series record, Reese has returned home to California waterways of the California Delta and Clear Lake for six events. In those events following his 5 th place performance in the just completed Golden State Shootout Reese has finished 5 th or better in all of those events.
His California record includes two 2 nd place finishes, 2007 at Clear Lake and 2010 on the Delta. Two 4 th place finishes, 2003 at Clear Lake and 2007 at the Delta, and two 5 th place finishes, 2003 on the Delta, and 2010 at Clear Lake . California is home, and I've always felt really comfortable competing here, said Reese. I've had a lot of success here when we come back, one of these days it will result in a win, but I've been fortunate to be able to string together good finishes here.
Heading into the Clear lake event as a dominant favorite in the minds of most pundits, Reese went to work putting together a combination of current data from his practice and a database of historical information to make his game plan; and it revolved around a swimbait primarily.
The giant bass that Clear Lake is known for had not yet fully begun to make their move into the shallows, said the 2007 Bassmaster Angler of the Year. So I targeted areas where they have historically begun their spawning migration in hopes that the bite would come to me.
The schools of giant bass never did fully move, but by running and gunning with several different swimbaits, and the occasional cast with a Berkley PowerBait Heavyweight worm in scramble mode, Reese produced four limits of Clear Lake bass totaling 85 pounds, 3 ounces to grab a 5 th place finish; his second Elite 12 tournament in a row.
Reese tossed a 9 swimbait on his signature Wright & McGill Co. Skeet Reese Tessera Flippin' and Pitchin' rod paired with a prototype baitcasting reel spooled with 25-pound-test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line. For the smaller 7 swimbait, he used the same prototype reel on his signature yellow and black Swimbait / Carolina Rig rod but chose 20-pound-test 100% Fluorocarbon.
His approach started with running as many docks as possible, making a few targeted presentations, but found him following the fish into the creeks as the tournament progressed.
I expected to catch 25 pounds a day, but the bites I had expected to get didn't materialize initially, he said. I figured something out on the end of the third day, and was able to catch the 25-pound stringer I'd been shooting for on the last day, and that helped me move up.
Move he did. While he never sat lower than 11 th in the standings, his final day push saw him leap six places to his final top five position. The finish, coupled with his second place finish at the California Delta gave him a 37 point lead in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race.
I'm not totally thrilled with my finishes, because I really want to win in my home state, Reese explained. but, I'll take top 10 finishes all year long if it adds up to a second AOY title that's been the goal from the start of the season.
The Bassmaster Elite Series next moves to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, and Reese's Lucky Craft / PowerBait Big Rig will once again be rolling east, with destiny on her mind.
