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Auburn, Calif. – Pick up your tournament calendar for
2007 and plan out your season; your schedule includes 15 events. Assume that someone said you would have seven top 10 finishes including three second place finishes and one victory. Your season would feature you receiving 11 paychecks for a total of $319,000.
We could assume that most tournament anglers would see the above statistics as a successful season; perhaps even a career season. However, if your name is Skeet Reese, and you have spent the last nine years chasing the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title; your work is not complete.
Skeet Reese is chasing a goal; and despite the fact that he has earned 2579 points in the 2007 Bassmaster Elite Series, and currently holds a 107 point lead in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster angler of the Year Points Race over Kevin Van Dam, his work is not done; not yet.
However, just because Reese is focused on September 16, 2007 and being able to hold the Elite Series Angler of the Year trophy above his head; does not mean that he has not taken the chance to enjoy his success.
“I am really relieved to get this giant,
freakin’ second place Gorilla off my back,’ Reese said of winning the Capitol Clash and breaking his string of second place finishes that dates back to 2006. “With all of that said, I still have my eye on the ultimate prize, and to get the Angler of the Year title; I have to finish one more tournament.” |
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While he is focused on what is ahead, Reese took the time to talk to BASS ZONE about his victory at the Potomac River, his winning patterns there, his family’s response to the win, breaking into the Bassmaster Millionaire’s Club and his thoughts about the season going forward.
“Kim [Reese’s wife] tried to find a flight to get out here to see the last day, but couldn’t find a flight that would get her here in time,’ he said. “Instead, she watched it on the Internet with Leah and Courtney [Reese’s daughters]. Kim said she was so stressed during the week that she lost like 10 pounds being so nervous about it.”
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Being able to stand on stage with the trophy at the Capitol Clash was not even a consideration in Reese’s mind following practice. “I didn’t find much during practice, so I was hoping to get a top 50 and stay in the race with Kevin [Van Dam; who trails Reese by 107 points in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year Points Race],” said Reese. “I picked the spot I got the most bites on and went about trying to make something of what I had.” |
Reese opened with a 20-pound 5-ounce limit that surprised him, and after riding that first day limit to the day one lead; he went wire to wire with a winning weight of 66 pounds, 0 ounces to claim his first Elite Series championship. “I had to learn to fish with that lead,” he said. “It was different than my Harris Chain win in 2003, when I came from behind to win at the last minute, I had to learn to deal with the pressure of being in front.”
Despite that pressure, Reese said that he slept well each night, and he merely focused on the three patterns he used to catch his winning weight. “I caught fish on three patterns,” Reese said. “Flipping wood with a green pumpkin Berkley Power Hawg, punching grass with a green pumpkin Berkley Sabertail Burly Bug, and a Splatterback Lucky Craft BDS2 crankbait.”
Reese said he would cast the BDS2 to wood cover trying to trigger a reaction strike off of the wood cover from a distance before moving in to flip with the Power Hawg. He used the Sabertail Burly Bug to punch through the grass to fill in fish when he needed to complete his limit.
He utilized an Abu Garcia Revo STX reel for all of his applications. He spooled 30-pound Spiderwire Ultracast on his signature Lamiglas SR705 cranking stick for the BDS2; his rod of choice for the Power Hawg was a Lamiglas XFT 806 Flipping Stick with 25-pound Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon line. For punching the grass, he used 65-pound Spiderwire Ultracast with a Lamiglas Skeet Reese SRFT7108 punching rod.
Of his 20 keepers, he weighed two fish on the crankbait, five fish by punching the grass, and the rest by flipping the wood.
By virtue of his win, Reese earned $110,000, and his total pushed him over the million-dollar mark for his career earnings. Breaking into that exclusive club is something Reese is proud of, and especially proud of the way he earned it.
| “I’ve been at this for almost 10 years, and to reach this milestone in a fairly short timeframe without a lot of wins is something I am proud of,” he continued. “Some guys have done it with wins, but I have done it with consistently placing in the money, and I am really proud of that.” (In 118 entries on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail Reese has averaged
$9,404 per tournament). |
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Next on the docket for Reese is the Bassmaster Legends on Lake Dardanelle in Russellville, Ark., but while he will go there and work to do well; his mind is on September, and Lake Toho.
“It is going to be interesting,” Reese said of Toho. “I can’t relax at all, Kevin and the others are just too good, and we don’t have a lot of history to go on at Toho in the fall.” He said that he is going to go down there with the thought that he will have to stay on top of his game in order to take his place as the Angler of the Year.”
“It’s been a good run so far,” he said. “But it is not over, I want to win the Angler of the Year title, and I am focused on doing so.”
Side Note: A Champion With a Heart
Reese did something unusual when he weighed in on the final day of the Capitol Clash. Instead of just handing his fish to Bassmaster Tournament Director Trip Weldon, he dedicated each of the fish to someone special. The first fish he dedicated to his wife Kim, the second to his daughter Leah, the third to his youngest daughter Courtney, and the fourth to the son of Kevin Luebke, Mercury Marine’s Freshwater Endorsement Manager.
Luebke’s young son Nathaniel has been fighting Aplastic Anemia that has him in poor health most of the year, and the emotions surrounding the situation have touched the Mercury Pro Staff. “They [the Luebke’s] have been going through hell, and yet Kevin has been there for all of us,” Reese said. “I just wanted to do a little something to put a bright spot into their lives for a few minutes.”
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