My ride for Day 3 was with Skeet Reese. He started the day in 11th place after a so-so Day 2 that followed a 24+ lb Day 1.
I met up with Skeet at the blastoff area and when I got there he had his head in the battery compartment of his Ranger Z521c. He was getting power failures on the cranking battery and was in there tighening everything up and making arrangements for a backup boat in case it was needed. That straightened away, I settled into the boat and there was a little small talk in between interviews, shaking hands and signing stuff for fans. He's a pretty popular guy out there..... In the small talk, Skeet told me he figured he needed about 21 lbs to safely make the Top 12 and fish the final day for $100,000. Blastoff was a 6:15 and being in boat #11 and didn't have ton of wakes to navigate through. Not that it mattered as that Z521c is a pretty sweet ride.
First stop was Seibold Creek. Locals were already out in full force pounding the flats and looking for spawning beds. Iaconelli, who is leading, was also in the area along with a 20+ boat flotilla followig him around. Skeet didn't get off to the best start. He was f'bombing himself for poor casts and lures getting tangled on the deck. Then all that changed when he ran the swimbait by a fallen tree and his rod doubled over. Fish #1 was a 5.5 lb'er and the world was good again. Within the hour, fish #2 - #4 were in the boat and all were 2.5 lb'ers hanging around a grass covered point. They all smoked the swimbait.
Fish #5 would have to wait because of a douchebag move by Ike. Ike decided to leave his spot and drove through the grass covered point that Skeet was fishing. Of course Ike's flotilla did the same thing. I said "Really?" and Skeet responded with the comment "That's how Ike plays. You either love him or hate him". I responded with "I have no opinion about Ike one way or the other but that was a douchebag move".
With that water blown out, Skeet moved over to fish a hump he wanted to fish earlier but someone else was there. Nothing doing there so it was back to the area where #1 was caught and just like #1, fish #5 was a 4 lber that smoked the swimbait. It's about 8:30 now and there's a limit weighing about 17 lbs in the boat. By this time, the wind had really started to pick up and most of the locals had bailed in search of calmer water so Skeet headed over to a big flat where many of the locals had been hanging out. Skeet didn't care about the locals being there earlier because he was only interested in a small area of the flat and he wasn't at all disappointed that the wind was blowing as hard as it was. The weights I had been punching in on Basstrak were being posted on Bassmaster.com and now instead of fishing in relative anonymity, there were a couple of camera boats and a dozen or so spectator boats. First fish off the flat came relatively soon after arriving and was a 3.75 lb'er and yes it hit the swimbait. That culled out one of the 2.5s and the 5 in the well weigh just over 18 lbs. There were a few 2.5 lbers caught, one of which was slightly bigger than one that was already in the well and the cull wasn't for much more than an ounce or two. It was now around 11:00 and the wind and lack of action drove most of the spectators away. Too bad for them as it wasn't long after most everyone had left that another 5.5 lb'er doubled the rod over, generated a 3 lb cull and the total weight is now around 21 lbs. Yup you guessed it - swimbait. It's only 11:00 and there's still about 3.5 hours left in the day. At this point the flat was getting really rough and very stained. Skeet fished the flat until about 12:00 Noon with no bites and decided it's time to move out of Seibold Creek and head elsewhere.
But first things first. The only time these guys eat or drink is when they are running to another spot. Most guys grab a PBJ out of their cooler but not Skeet. Today's sammie was roasted turkey with spinach, pepperjack cheese, a bit of mayo and some horseradish. All washed down with a Diet Mountain Dew. All consumed at 55 MPH in some pretty rough seas.
Skeet makes the short run to Town Creek. First stop is an area where he had a 7 lb'er come unpinned on Thu afternoon. He gets a couple of bumps on the swimbait that he figures are gizzard shad trying to have sex with the swimbait. Then he rolls up to the spot where he lost the 7 lber. It's not there....BUT A 6.25er IS!!!!! That's almost a 4 lb cull and Skeet is sitting at 25ish lbs - 5.50, 4.00, 3.75, 5.50 and 6.25. It's now about 1:00 and after a bit more time in the area with no bites, Skeet heads over to hit some very specific areas on another huge grass flat. The only real excitement on that flat was a 4+ lber that spit the hook but Skeet wasn't too choked up about it becasue he knew he was fishing tomorrow, Basstrakk had him in 2nd or 3rd place and he knew the area held good fish. We were on this flat until it was time to head back to the weigh-in for 3:00.
Skeet ended the day with 25 lbs 1 oz and in second place, a couple of pounds behind Iaconelli. As we now know, that deficit was nothing because Skeet rocked them again on Sunday and won the event going away.
It's no secret now that Skeet spent the entire day chucking a 7" Basstrix swimbait over emerging grass and into laydowns. He only had two swimbaits in the color that was working best and he lost the first one on the 3rd fish. Amazingly, the second one was useful for the remaining 30 lbs (8 fish) that included a 5.5 and a 6.25. I found it interesting that Skeet never re-tied that hook for the whole day. When the second swimbait finally wouldn't stay on the hook anymore, it put it in the hatch and said he would be spending part of the evening trying to glue it back together.
It was more than awesome to have a front row seat for the Skeet Show. He's a good guy, answered every question I asked and was happy to BS wih me for most of the day. I'm sure having 17 lbs in the well by 9:00 helped keep the mood in the boat as light as it was.....
This is the first 5.5 lber.....
Unhooking the second 5.5 lber.....
Grabbing the 6.25 lber.....
A Seriously Stoked Skeet with the 6.25 lber.....
End of the day and Skeet is sporting his stage gear.....
One more thing....my Basstrakk weight for Skeet was bang on - 25 lbs 1 oz.
Thanks for reading.....
Doug
