Dave Lefebre got a gigantic bite on the first day of practice for last week's Lake Okeechobee Bassmaster Elite Series, and he thought it might've been a message from above. Whatever the case, it indirectly caused him to struggle on day 1 of the tournament.
Then he bounced back with a vengeance, climbing all the way from 100th place to finish 6th.
"I feel like I blew one," the veteran from Pennsylvania said. "That could've been a win."
He'd caught the biggest bass of his life on the first practice day – a bruiser that he estimates was in the 10 1/2- to 11-pound range (it measured 28 1/4 inches and was full of eggs). Prior to that, he'd been aimlessly drifting around the lake for a couple hours after getting a phone call informing him of the death of Kyle Mabrey in an auto accident. Lefebre and Mabrey were tight from their days on the FLW Tour and had roomed together at numerous events.
"I didn't even know where I was at the time," he said. "I got up and started fishing again, and right away I catch this fish. It was one of those deals where I thought that maybe it was (Mabrey) telling me something.
"I practiced the rest of the day in that area and tried to put something together, but I only caught little ones. Then the next 2 days I practiced in other places and found some better fish."
Nonetheless, he felt compelled to return to the place where'd he'd caught the monster when the tournament got under way, and again all he caught were little ones – he weighed a 7-07 bag.
Things got a lot better from there, though. On day 2 he went directly to a spot on the north end of the lake near the launch and boxed 21-05 to make the money cut in 44th place. The next day, he weighed a day-best 25-11 to gain another 34 places and sneak inside the Top 12. Then he moved up another four places on the windy final day with an 18-09 haul.
He had his area all to himself and he managed it like a savvy pitcher who doesn't show the opposing lineup his best breaking stuff the first time through the batting order. He stuck exclusively to quick-moving presentations (a ChatterBait with a Yamamoto Zako trailer and a Terminator swimjig tipped with a Yamamoto Twin Tail Grub) on day 2, knowing that he'd need to thoroughly pick it apart with slower stuff later on. That became a necessity on slick, cloudless day 3, when he caught everything on the new Yamamoto Sanshouo creature bait on a Texas rig.
The clouds and wind returned on the final day and the fish went back to biting the ChatterBait and swimjig. When a fish missed one of those baits, he immediately threw back with a 6-inch Senko and said he weighed two or three fish that were enticed in that manner during the course of the derby.
"After dedicating the tournament to Kyle on day 1, I felt like a moron when I caught 7 pounds and I said (on the weigh-in stage) that maybe I'd go out and get 'em the next couple days. There was definitely something going on there."
The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses on the angler who makes a significant upward move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.
