Chris Lane captured the third Bassmaster Southern Open victory of his career Saturday, and this one came by a large margin. He caught a tournament-best 28-05 bag for a 72-08 total at Florida's Harris Chain of Lakes to prevail by more than 14 pounds over FLW pro Cliff Pirch.
“I caught fish on several soft plastics, including 7-inch Gambler Sweebo worms, Gambler Cane Toads and the Gambler Big Easy, but I found my bass with a chartreuse Luck-E-Strike RC2 crankbait,” said Lane, whose previous Open triumphs came at Okeechobee in 2010 and 2006. “I used it as a search bait. When I found bass with it, I’d pick up the soft plastics and really work the area over.”
The win gave the native Floridian a provisional 2013 Bassmaster Classic berth – he needs only to compete in the other two Southern Opens to claim it. He qualified for this year's Classic via his performance on the 2011 Elite Series.
Despite having a 5-pound lead going into the final round, Lane had a scare on Saturday morning. After catching a couple of small keepers, his co-angler caught two bass weighing a combined 15 pounds on consecutive casts.
“I was rattled,” Lane admitted, “but I knew what I had to do. I was making mistakes and I needed to slow down.”
Below are the totals for the 12 anglers who competed on the final day.
1. Chris Lane: 72-11
2. Cliff Pirch: 58-01
3. Keith Carson: 55-13
4. Kevin Hawk: 53-10
5. Tim Frederick: 48-10
6. Marcus Parker: 48-03
7. Daniel Lanier: 45-00
8. Luke Gritter: 44-13
9. Will Evans: 43-03
10. Robert Grosso: 41-13
11. Marty Brown: 39-08
12. Keith Poche: 38-04
