Professional Angler's Association

HOME COOKING: Jordon Leads Team to TTBC Victory

May 6, 2008

LAKE FORK, Tex. – Kelly Jordon, team captain, a former Lake Fork guide, and one of the moving forces behind the organization of the Toyota Texas Bass Classic, led his team to a dramatic victory here Sunday with a total winning weight of 228 pounds.

Although Jordon had the largest individual total catch of the tournament, 85 pounds, 8 ounces, as well as the heaviest catch the last afternoon, 22-08, team members Lance Vick, David Smith, and David Walker certainly contributed their share, including a 6-pounder by Vick and a 5-8 by Smith in the last five minutes that sealed the win.

The team of Bobby Lane, Byron Velvick, Ben Matsubu, and Chad Brauer finished second with 219-12, while Team 16, consisting of Chad Morgenthaler, Stacey King, Brian Penso, and Matt Reed grabbed third with 183-0. Last year’s Classic winner, Terry Scroggins and his team of Shaw Grigsby, Russ Lane, and Craig Downing dropped to fourth with 180-04; and Mike Iaconelli’s team, with Cliff Pace, Randy Howell, and Danny Correia finished fifth with 146-0.

“It wasn’t easy,” emphasized Jordon, whose team brought in 54-4 for the afternoon. “I only caught seven or eight keepers while David had just three. I caught three bass off beds, and David caught one. The rest were caught on a Lucky Craft D-20 (splatterback color) in deep water.”

Vick and Smith’s two last-minute fish came from a spot Vick, a guide on Fork, fishes often and from which he had lost his biggest bass of the tournament on the first day of competition.

“Deep water bass are what got us to the finals,” added Walker, “but we had to keep checking the shallow fish, as well, because they want to come shallow. As it turned out today, I’m sure glad we kept checking.”

Lane’s second place team may forever wonder if victory escaped them because Lane and Velvick ran out of gas while heading one last spot that had produced well throughout the tournament. Thinking they would spend their day fishing shallow, Velvick had only put 20 gallons of gas into his boat to keep it lighter.

Instead of fishing shallow, however, they did a lot of running and cranking deep water. Running out of fuel forced them to transfer their fish and tackle into a following camera boat and miss hitting their final spot.

“In our best spots the bass were 22 to 25 feet deep, and we used Norman DD-22 crankbaits and long casts to get to them,” noted Lane, whose 11 pound, 12 ounce lunker earned big fish honors for the Classic and won him a Toyota Tundra truck valued at $48,000, plus a $6,000 pair of custom-made Lucchese boots.

“We probably bought a hundred deep diving crankbaits this week,” the Florida pro continued, “and we left at least half of them on the bottom or in the trees. I lost a big bass today that might have made the difference.”

Morgenthaler’s team caught more than 40 bass during the afternoon, all from relatively shallow water less than 15 feet deep. Led by Stacey King, whose five fish weighed 21-12, they flipped and pitched jigs and soft plastics to standing timber to target post-spawn fish.

“The key was fishing very slow,” said King, “and even so, we probably used up our water.”

Terry Scroggins’s team fished “shallow and deep and anywhere in between,” but just did not get any big bites when they needed them most. They brought in just 25-8 for the afternoon.

Michael Iaconelli and his team likewise struggled between deep and shallow water, targeting both pre-spawn and post-spawn fish in 15-foot depths with a variety of jigs and crankbaits. Like Scroggins, Iaconelli felt they may have worn out their spots.