Quick Bites: FLW Okeechobee, Day 2

Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston, Fla.
Opening round, Thursday

This is what it’s all about … Another rookie stole the show on day two as Jimmi Leuthner of Vernon, Conn., took top honors in the Pro Division with a two-day combined weight of 32 pounds. Leuthner, who has been walking around the past two days with a smile wider than the Gulf of Mexico, is a compelling success story. Having spent 13 years as a pipe fitter in the Northeast, he quit his job last year to hit the tournament trail on the brand-new EverStart Series Northern Division. He posted a number of good finishes, finished fourth in the 2001 divisional standings and qualified for the FLW Tour this year. With his outstanding performance in his first-ever FLW opening round, the energetic Leuthner is proving – to himself and everyone else – that he can fish with the big boys of bass fishing. And he’s acting like a kid in a candy store. “This is the biggest thrill of my life,” he said at today’s weigh-in. “It’s like a dream come true to fish against the best in the world. I didn’t sleep at all last night. I just hope I can sleep tonight.” … Leuthner’s success is no accident. He came down and pre-fished at Lake Okeechobee for 35 days before this tournament started. He has a prime – and large – area of fish scoped out on the north shore that, he says, holds more honey holes than he can count.

Florida fallout … Yesterday it was Tennessee’s Rusty Rust in the headlines and today it’s Vermont’s Leuthner. A glance at the pro top 20 reveals only two Floridians: Jeff Sims of Punta Gorda and Chuck Economou of Redington Shores (And that’s cheating; Economou is really from Michigan. He’s only been in Florida for about five years.) What happened to all the Sunshine Staters who were supposed to show everybody how to fish big, bad Okeechobee? Well, for one thing, Okeechobee hasn’t been as big or bad as predicted. While there has been a smattering of 7-pound bass, overall catch weights have been lower than anticipated coming into this event. Where the Big O was expected to roar this week, it has only burped. Anglers are saying that many of the old, reliable fishing holes on the lake took a lot of fishing pressure before the tourney even started, diminishing the number of big females on the beds. So locals and others who know Okeechobee who went out to their familiar spots looking for big, bedding females are only finding smaller- to medium-sized bass. That plus unexpectedly windy, muddy conditions have made sight-fishing a tricky endeavor. Even Economou admits he’s having a tougher go of it despite qualifying for the semifinal round. “Tomorrow, I’m scrambling,” he said.

Comeback kid … Today, Arkadelphia, Arkansas’ Keith Green made one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent memory. On day one he caught 6 pounds, 15 ounces and was sitting in 129th place. Today he caught the largest stringer of the tourney so far, 21-12, and vaulted himself into fifth place. He and eighth-place pro Randy Howell of Trussville, Ala., are using a team approach, fishing the same deep water. Said Howell, “I love the (new) top-20 cut because I used to have a tough time making the top 10.” Yeah, right. He’s being modest. Howell’s a regular face in the later rounds on the FLW Tour and Green’s a BFL all-star who’s primed to make his mark on the FLW. Look out for these two young guns Friday and Saturday.

Speaking of young guns … Ninth-place co-angler Jason Knapp of Uniontown, Pa., is just 20 years old.

” BORDER=”1″ ALIGN=”LEFT”>Biggest bass of the year update … Pro Jim Carnell of Muskogee, Okla., set the mark to beat this year with a fat 8-pound, 4-ounce monster today. Congrats, Jim.

FLW worldwide … Hello goes out to Perry Papadimitriou of Athens, Greece. Perry is Chuck Economou’s cousin and has been following Economou’s solid performance via FLWOutdoors.com. (Perry, Chuck says hi, and he says he appreciates those long-distance phone calls when he’s on the water.)

Quick Numbers

2: Number of FLW tournaments won by second-place pro Gary Klein of Weatherford, Texas.
8: Number of final-round appearances by Klein.
36: The lowest Klein has been ranked in final season standings since 1997. Last year he finished in ninth place and in 1998 he finished third.

Sound Bites

“It was a tough day. My partner brought a banana in the boat and it was all downhill from there.”
– Pro Al Gagliarducci, leaning on the old superstition – that bananas in boats are bad luck for fishing – to explain his 136th-place finish.

“They never bite at 60 mph.”
– FLW host Charlie Evans, responding to 159th-place pro Mark Hardin, who said that he ended up driving around Lake Okeechobee a lot in search of fish.

Quick Links, Day 2:

Leuthner leads the way at Lake Okeechobee
Photos
Results
Today’s pairings
Tomorrow’s pairings
Press release