Quick Bites: FLW Old Hickory Lake, Day 4
Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Old Hickory Lake, Gallatin, Tenn.
Pro finals, Saturday
Did you know? … The first bass-fishing tournament that Basil Bacon ever won was in 1974. Called the Project Sports tournament, he scores that victory as personal his best win ever and Saturday’s FLW win as his second-best win. “I’ve never won this amount of money before,” said Bacon, who has been competing in tournaments for over 30 years and who collected his first-ever $110,000 victory check Saturday. “You’ve got to know, back in the days when I was winning tournaments, three grand was top dollar. But this one has to rate second to the first tournament I ever won.”
A future Fisher king? … Runner-up Pat Fisher admitted that he was “bummed” about falling short of victory by just 3 pounds to Bacon. “I’m very competitive, but that’s fishing,” he said. But Fisher knows he has nothing to hang his head over. He has already won an FLW tournament at Lake Murray, S.C., in 2000 as a co-angler and had five top-10 finishes in all during his stint from the back of the boat. Since he moved up to fish as a pro two years ago, he has barely missed a step, taking two FLW top-10s and a win on the EverStart Series this year at Lake Eufaula, Ala. “It’s been a wonderful year. I’ve learned that fishing’s an up-and-down sport, and it seems like the last two years I’ve just been going up.”
News flash … Kevin VanDam did NOT take second place for the first time in an FLW final round where he’s made the cut. Unfortunately, however, he dropped a notch to third place – which is still nothing to sneeze at. And he knows it. “This (FLW) format is a great format. All you’ve got to do is make the cuts and really go for it on that final day,” he said graciously. “I’m happy with it.” And while he didn’t say as much, he’s also probably looking forward very much to the next event at Lake Champlain, N.Y., where he will be a favorite to win on the smallmouth fishery and where he’s almost a lock to receive his second Angler-of-the-Year trophy in a row.
Koby’s take on competition … Fourth-place Koby Kreiger, a sight-fishing specialist, is a fixture in the final round of any given EverStart Series tournament. He has no fewer than 10 top-10 finishes scattered throughout all three of the circuit’s divisions, including his only FLW Outdoors tournament victory (Kentucky Lake, 2001). He has had nominal success on the FLW Tour as well – taking home four top-10s in the last five years – but not nearly to the extent as at the EverStart level. There are some really good, often unheralded anglers who fish the EverStart and not FLWs, so dominating that circuit is no small feat. What is the difference Kreiger sees between his performances at the EverStart and FLW levels? “In my opinion, the competition isn’t that much different,” he said. “In EverStarts, you’re often fishing against the best anglers from those areas, and that can make it even harder. The difference for me is that we’ve fished at three lakes (on the 2002 FLW Tour) that I’ve never been to before (Ouachita, Wheeler and Old Hickory). Plus, the weather has been really bad this year for my style of fishing.”
The contingencies go to … Congratulations to ninth-place Dion Hibdon, who won the Energizer Keeps-on-Going award for coming back from 73rd place on day one to make the finals, and 10th-place Donald Eaton for taking home the Conseco Step-Up award for notching his highest career performance. Sixth-place Frank Ippoliti won the Shop-Vac High-Performance award Friday for catching the most amount of weight over the first three days. His total was 43 pounds, 4 ounces.
Sound bite
“Nah, not really. When we get in the boat together is when we get competitive.”
– Legendary pro angler Guido Hibdon, talking about whether he and his son, Dion, are competitive during tournaments.
Quick Links, Day 4: