Quick Bites: FLW Tour Lake Okeechobee, Day 4

Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston, Fla.

Final round, Saturday

Chitter chatter … At the day-four weigh-in, when the fishing is over, the pros finally begin opening up about their bait of choice, and the far and away favorite this week was something called a Chatterbait, made by Rad Lures. Word on the street is that the tackle shop at Angler’s Inn sold 1,400 of them this week alone, probably due in part to the fact that Bryan Thrift used it to score a Stren Series win on Okeechobee two weeks ago. Owning up to its use today were Sean Hoernke, Tommy Biffle, Chip Harrison and David Fritts, although more of the top 10 surely put it to use as well. So what is it? “It’s a brand-new bait,” Hoernke explained. “It’s a jig with a blade on it. It’s a very nonintrusive bait, and it’s very subtle.” Hoernke said the Chatterbait swims along the shallow weeds similar to a spinnerbait. Hoernke credited dock talk for the bait’s popularity this week. “Once one guy starts to catch them on it, everybody uses it,” he said.

Nice handiwork … Chip Harrison came close to his first FLW Tour victory this week, jumping from eighth to second thanks in large part to a mammoth 7-pound, 15-ounce bass, one of the largest weighed in today. But to get it in the boat, Harrison had to use his hands and not the net. Why? The cameraman was lying on his net! … Because Harrison went out in boat No. 8 this morning, he was left to fend with the wake of seven other boats before him and their respective camera boats, making for a pretty tough ride. As a result, he broke the switch off his livewell and had to ask his cameraman to try to fix it. In order to do that, the cameraman had to lie flat in the boat to try to fix the plug that’s underneath the livewell. “He was lying across my net,” Harrison said. “So when I caught the 7-15, I had to lip it.” The effort helped propel Harrison to his best-ever FLW Tour performance and earned him $36,000.

The need for speed … Tommy Biffle took off this morning from the No. 7 boat and thought he had devised a clever way to get away from the on-the-water rush hour. Sure enough, he got out quicker than the competition, but he was also too fast for his camera boat, a bad thing since Biffle is not allowed to make a cast until the camera crew arrives. “I had that Ranger hauling the mail,” Biffle said. “I was having so much fun driving that I ran off and left my camera-boat driver.” … On Lake Okeechobee, there are certain trails boats can run through the grass, and the rest of the boats were lined up, taking one trail. Biffle had another trail marked on his GPS and figured that one allowed the shortest distance, so he took it. “I got to my first spot and turned around, and I thought my camera boat would be there, but he was gone,” he said. “That wasn’t good.” So Biffle pulled up to fellow competitor Kelly Jordon and asked the tournament director if he could fish with them as witnesses. Eventually, a solution was worked out, and Biffle was able to return to his spot with a camera in tow to begin his fishing day. Later, Biffle decided to switch holes but only traveled about 150 yards. On the way, he hit a rock. “I started talking to my cameraman, and he wasn’t there,” Biffle said. “I had bumped a rock, and he hit the same rock. So we tore up two props.” Eventually, that cameraman made it over, and Biffle could once again commence his fishing. In the end, it all worked out fair enough, as Biffle still managed to catch more than he did yesterday. His two-day total of 17 pounds, 1 ounce gave him seventh place and $16,000.

Setting the Pace … Semifinal-round leader Keith Pace eventually ended the tournament in third, but he gained invaluable experience on what it’s like to be a pro gunning for a title. From 1999 to 2004, Pace made a name for himself as one of the top co-anglers on the FLW Tour, winning Co-angler of the Year honors in 2004 and winning the 2002 championship from the back of the boat. He made the leap to the pro side in 2005 but experienced a rookie learning curve. His second year as a pro, though, is so far shaping up pretty nicely. “It’s a lot different,” said Pace of the pro vs. co comparison. “I saw more cameras and cameramen than I have ever seen in my life. I probably had 10 boats watching me at one time today. I’d catch one, and they’d holler. If you do well (as a pro), it means a lot more.” All the on-the-water attention didn’t rattle the Arkansas pro too much, though the bright lights and big stage did take their toll on the nerves. “I get nervous when I get on stage,” he admitted. “But I’m never nervous when I’m fishing.”

Quick numbers:

3: Number of FLW Tour pro winners who hail from Japan – today’s winner Shinichi Fukae, 2005 Ouachita River winner Toshinari Namiki and 2001 Lake Martin winner Takahiro Omori.

5: Number of top-10 finishes scored by No. 9 pro Chad Grigsby in the last eight tournaments.

4-14: Weight, in pounds and ounces, that separated Jordon and eventual winner Fukae as Jordon went to weigh his last fish. In the end, Jordon finished fourth, and Fukae beat him by 3 pounds, 15 ounces.

8: Number of pros who caught a five-bass limit on day four.

11-14: Difference, in pounds and ounces, between Harrison’s day-three catch and his day-four catch. His 19-pound, 1-ounce limit on day four bumped him from eighth to second.

Sound bites:

“Me and about eight or nine of my closest friends.” – Harrison, on who was fishing the Moonshine Bay area today.

“I don’t know where it is.” – No. 5 pro David Fritts, on his career tournament winnings, which exceed $1 million.

“He didn’t look at me.” – Yesterday’s No. 2 pro Jordon, on whether he tried to intimidate yesterday’s leader Pace this morning at takeoff.

“This puts you a little ahead of the game and gives you room to go for broke at the next one.” – Hoernke, on the invaluable momentum gained by finishing well at the first event of the season.

“I really get aggravated when I don’t win.” – Fritts, who leads all FLW Tour anglers with four wins to his credit.