Record crashing Classic

It began with an all-out assault on the record book, continued three days through mixed, sometimes violent weather and it finished with the youngest contender in the field emerging as the winner. The anticipated pattern did not work; the defending champion had to fight hard to keep from missing the final day's cut; and a new jig that wobbles like a crankbait nearly won it all.

In short, if you were beginning to think of the Bassmaster Classic as routine, it's time to reconsider.

The 2006 edition of bass fishing's premier event, held this year on West Lake Tohopekaliga and the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Fla., provided more than its share of drama and surprise, perhaps none more surprising than the winner himself, Luke Clausen. The 27-year-old Spokane, Wash., pro wasn't on anyone's radar even though his short résumé already included a major championship victory. All he did at Toho was lead from start to finish, set one-day and total winning weight records (five bass limit) and pocket his second $500,000 check in less than 18 months.

Clausen opened with 29 pounds, 6 ounces, easily surpassing the 21-8 record set by Paul Elias during the 1993 Classic on Alabama's Lake Logan Martin. Actually, three other pros also broke that record the same day — Preston Clark, Edwin Evers, and Kevin Wirth — and Terry Scroggins broke it the second day. Clausen's total for three days, 56-2, also broke the record of 55-10 set by Davy Hite in 1999. Virginia pro Rick Morris finished a distant second with 51 pounds, and he was followed by Ron Shuffield in third with 47-14; Terry Scroggins with 46-15 in fourth; and defending Classic champion Kevin VanDam in fifth with 44-8.

Still a third record, the biggest bass ever caught in Classic competition, also went down in flames that wild first day. In 1976, Ricky Green set the standard with an 8-pound, 9-ounce lunker, but Preston Clark broke that on his fourth cast of the day when he caught a 9-pounder. And as if that were only practice, Clark added an 11-10 monster at 9:30 a.m. That same day, Rick Clunn, who won his second Classic here in 1977, brought in a 10-10; and Edwin Evers caught an 8-15. Unfortunately, a fourth record also was set during the opening round by Michael Iaconelli, who was disqualified from his second Bassmaster Classic in three years. In 2004, he was disqualified for fishing off-limits. This year he was out on Day 1 for unsportsmanlike conduct. Iaconelli tore out his light pole, deliberately bent it and threw it overboard. The American flag was still attached, and an ESPN cameraman filmed the entire episode. The New Jersey angler was quickly dismissed by Ranger Boats, one of his primary sponsors.

Many of the 51 competitors arrived in Florida believing this would be a sight fishing bonanza, and some went so far as to predict that either the one-day or total weight tournament records set here by Dean Rojas in 2001 might be broken. During the official three-day pre-practice allowed to the pros, the water temperature registered a chilly 52 degrees, but as the Classic began, the temperature had risen into the mid-70s and bass were on the move.

Rojas, of course, used part of his Classic practice day to check his 2001 spots, but he reported seeing only small fish. Tommy Biffle, who in pre-practice had traded his jig for a plastic frog and promptly nailed one bass over 10, another over 9 and saw a third topping 7, immediately headed back to that spot but never had a bite.

Kevin VanDam, who had the chance not only to win a second consecutive Classic but also to win four BASS events in a row, admitted his chances of doing either were slim due to the conditions, even though he'd caught a 9-pounder in practice. Sight fishing is not his strongest game, he said, but that wouldn't stop him from fishing as hard as he could to retain his crown. The only pressure he felt actually came from his own burning determination.

Because sight fishing was expected to be the primary pattern, most planned to concentrate in Toho because of its size and different vegetation types as compared to Kissimmee. However, when the wind began blowing hard out of the north and clouds moved in that first tournament morning, most of the sight fishing opportunities vanished in minutes.

That left the door open to a handful of seasoned anglers who were not only familiar with Florida fishing under such conditions, but who likewise were not dependent on sight fishing. One was Kevin Wirth, who fished in far south Kissimmee and torched the arrowhead weeds for 22-5. He never saw any of his bass, even though he was working water less than 3 feet deep. The key was inching his Berkley Minnow through the roots of these plants really slow.

But Wirth's hefty sack was only good enough for fourth place the first day. Oklahoma pro Edwin Evers came in with 23-10. Unlike Wirth, he was dropping anchor and fancasting a plastic frog through the greenery. The two things he had in common with Wirth were that both fished slow and neither could see their fish, even in shallow water.

Preston Clark, a Palatka, Fla., air conditioning salesman, came in with 29-1, and though he was a relatively unknown angler in the field, he certainly did not lack for experience. He's a close friend and frequent tournament partner of veteran Terry Scroggins, and he qualified for this Classic in his rookie year on the Bassmaster Tour. Clark spotted some fish in Lake Toho during the Wednesday practice day and went to them first thing Friday morning.

He couldn't see them under the dark skies and rippling waves, but he pitched out his Big Critter Claw (Zoom) anyway and on his fourth cast hauled in a 9-pounder — his second fish of the morning. At 9:30 a.m. he returned to the spot and on another blind cast hooked a fish that looked as big as a whale. When he had it safely livewelled, Clark sat down for 10 minutes to calm his nerves. That bass weighed 11-10. At 9:30 a.m., on the first morning of his second Bassmaster Classic championship, Clark had more than 21 pounds of fish in his livewell.

As impressive as Clark's performance was, however, it was overshadowed by Clausen, whose catch tallied 29-6 and gave him the lead. He had 27 pounds in his livewell by 10:30 a.m., including a 7 1/2-pounder on his very first cast and three over 7 in the first 10 minutes. Of the 300-yard long area he'd isolated in practice, he covered just 40 yards before he left.

Clausen was fishing a Mann's HardNose plastic worm around isolated cover, simply dropping the lure into openings in the cover in water less than 4 feet deep. Because he didn't have any real giants like Clark, but rather five very solid fish, it indicated his area was probably more dependable over the long haul than anyone else's.

Rick Clunn, for example, sat in fifth place after the first day with 20-12, but one bass, a 10-10 fish that hit his Trickster spinnerbait, accounted for more than half that total. Former Classic champion Davy Hite was sixth with 20-9, but he likewise had one big fish (7-11) that accounted for much of his total weight.

VanDam came in with a disappointing 14-2 that put him in 25th place and decided he hadn't started eating his lucky cookies early enough. He couldn't find the larger bass he'd found in practice, and so he threw a spinnerbait and flipped both a 10-inch worm and a Strike King Zero for his fish. Even though he was far behind Clausen, in true KVD fashion he felt he still had a chance and decided to go for broke the next day. When VanDam says it will take a 25-pound bag to get back into the hunt and that he can catch that much, it's not a boast. He's walked the walk enough over his long career that everybody knows he can do it.

That includes Clausen, but if the Western pro felt any apprehension or concern as Day 2 opened, he never showed it. If anything, he seemed to work even harder. In fact, he had his five fish by 10:30 a.m., and even though they weighed less than half (14-15) of his previous day's total, he increased his lead to more than 4 pounds. That's because Ron Shuffield and Terry Scroggins, who came in with 21-0 and 28-6 respectively, decided to play and pushed Clark to fourth after he managed just 10-2. Likewise, Rick Morris climbed into the Top 5 with the day's third heaviest catch of 18-14.

Clark, who was fishing Lake Hatchineha (between Toho and Kissimmee), admitted he had spent too much time sight fishing. He described making 50 casts to a bed without a strike. However, after dropping his bait 6 inches to the right, he caught both a male and a female in four casts. He also hinted that he had three other patterns he hadn't even tried. Clark, like Scroggins, considers Toho home water. And after Scroggins came in with his giant haul, most observers thought either could pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat the last day.

Scroggins felt he'd blown the Classic with his poor first day performance when he'd flipped a Yamamoto Senko and a Zoom Trick Worm into thick Kissimmee cover and caught only five small fish weighing 10-14. This time he'd gone into one area and in two hours boated a 9-5, a 7, and two more around 5 pounds. He'd isolated a 5 acre section of mixed vegetation, but only fished a small part of it.

In that regard, this Classic showed just how critical site selection can be in comparison to lure selection. A wide variety of soft plastics were working, both on the surface as well as near the bottom, but most of the leaders were finding concentrations of fish in relatively small areas.

Only Rick Morris seemed to be breaking this pattern. He was fishing the Kissimmee River below Lake Kissimmee with what is quickly becoming the year's hottest lure, the Chatterbait. It's a jig with a blade attached to the line-tie eye that causes the lure to wobble like a crankbait; Morris was using a 3/8-ounce white model with a chartreuse trailer to target suspended bass by swimming it 4 to 5 feet deep along the outside edges of shoreline bulrushes. On the first day he was culling by 9 a.m., and on the second day, with the wind shifting to the south, he'd caught three over 6 pounds in just over an hour.

Clausen, for his part, admitted he never expected the Classic to play out as it was, but also emphasized it didn't mean anything until Sunday afternoon. The changing wind was muddying everybody's shallow water, and he was happy to have the 6-pounder that had anchored his 14-15 catch that day. In Kissimmee he was fishing Jack's Slough, rigging the HardNose worm on a drop shot in the pads.

Although he was more than 4 pounds behind (39-15 to Clausen's 44-5), Shuffield thought he could win. He'd been in 10th after the first day with 18-15, but he had no idea his area held the quality of fish it did. At 1:15 p.m., for example, he landed a 5-pounder. Seven minutes later he caught an 8-8, and 10 minutes after that he lost a 9-pounder.

He was in Kissimmee fishing lily pads with a Gambler worm and Cane Toad as well as with a Stanley Ribbit frog. Shuffield felt certain that if he got the bites, he could win this Classic. He'd been close to winning before, and here he was, with yet another opportunity.

VanDam had swung for the fences as promised, but came up a few pounds short. This was elimination day in which the field was cut from 51 to the Top 25, and at one point during Day 2, KVD had fallen as low as 37th. Realizing time was slipping away, the champ moved north back into Lake Toho and put on a clinic with the Strike King Zero and the plastic worm, bringing in 14-15 and climbing into 12th. For two days he had 29-1; the cutoff weight turned out to be 26-3.

Sunday's weather threw the cruelest curve of the week. Heavy thunderstorms postponed the launch an hour. And later, as the wind shifted from the south back to the northeast, temperatures began falling rapidly. Several anglers reported waterspouts moving across Kissimmee; in 10 minutes a 6-inch chop turned to 2-foot waves.

Clausen had made the 36-mile run into Kissimmee and by 10:30 a.m. had three bass, giving him an unofficial total of 50 pounds, 9 ounces. His ESPN cameraman had fallen out of the boat at 8 a.m., but after pulling him back on board, Clausen went right back to fishing. He never veered from his pattern of fishing for bedding bass he couldn't see; in the 30 mph wind, he simply kept his rod tip low and reeled slowly. He brought in five bass weighing 11-13 for his 56-2 total.

His final day total included a 5-13 lunker (the heaviest of the day) that sealed his win. It had actually hit on his first cast in his primary area, but he'd missed it, and it didn't strike again for 25 more casts. After the 5-13 he added three more good fish in the next 20 minutes. More than anything, Clausen thought, his win came as a result of understanding the area he was fishing.

VanDam did not surrender his crown without a last ditch effort. Pledging to "go after gorillas," the Michigan pro tied on a spinnerbait and went to work; his 15-7 was the day's heaviest catch but left him nearly 12 pounds behind. VanDam voiced disappointment in his performance, but his feelings were nothing like those felt by Shuffield, who managed just three bass weighing 7-15 and dropped to third. He'd had his chances — 13 total bites — but he'd lost the fish.

Morris took second, but he, too, experienced a finicky bite in the rapidly changing weather. All of his fish actually came on a keeper hook he'd put on the Chatterbait. A lot of fish hit, he said, but never actually swallowed the lure.

Scroggins captured fourth, after being forced to move because of the muddying water. He'd been fishing an outside weedline where he had found larger fish but had to go inside to escape the wind — and all he found were smaller fish.

Clark caught only one bass after moving from his primary water in Toho down to Kissimmee where he gambled on larger bass. In the rough weather, his pattern failed. His one bass weighed 5-1, however, and a limit of fish weighing anything close to that would have changed the results considerably.

Overall, there is no doubt it was Luke Clausen's week; leading from start to finish and setting two Classic weight records despite constantly changing conditions.

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