Dave Lefebre made a serious run at FLW Angler of the Year (AOY) in only his third tour season in 2005. He finished 5th, just 52 points behind winner Greg Hackney.

The Pennsylvania angler might have taken the top honor if not for a 98th-place finish at the Wal-Mart Open (Beaver FLW) midway through the season. It's too early in his career to talk about a jinx, but that Arkansas impoundment has certainly given him fits thus far.



On the flip side, 98th was actually a big improvement for him. He was 167th there last year and 120th in 2003.

"Every year I feel good going in there, and it's always my bad one," he said. "People have started to make fun of me and call me 'Beaver Lefever.' I can try to make an excuse to myself and say there's one key thing that causes me to train-wreck there, but it's always something different.

"Maybe next year I'll finally break the code. There isn't much else I can do wrong unless my boat blows up."

Better Times in Other Places

Throw out Beaver, and Lefebre's next-worst finish during the regular season was 42nd at the Ouachita River. The other four fell into the narrow range between 17th and 27th. Nothing wrong with that – a guy can make a nice living with four Top 30s every year – but he wasn't completely satisfied. There were no Top 10s and no wins.

"The door was open for me several times, but I just couldn't jump through the opening," he said. "I don't really think this way, but it's like it just wasn't meant to be. It was my best year ever statistically and it was a good year financially, but overall I look at it as just a decent year and I'll try to improve on it in 2006."

He knows he can win – he did it at Old Hickory in 2004. Now he wants to do it again.

"You want to win every single tournament you enter, but it does feel good not to be thinking about whether I'm ever going to win one," he said. "If I hadn't won one, I might be feeling like it's never going to happen, so in a huge way, I'm glad it happened early. But do I want more? Sure, we all do."

Perfection Not Necessary

Lefebre said one thing his 2004 win taught him was that victory is possible even when everything doesn't go exactly right. He had a few stumbles at Old Hickory, but he made the cut in 5th place and then clobbered the Top 10 field by nearly 9 pounds over the final 2 days.

"A lot of people might say that one was meant to be because a lot of things didn't go my way," he said. "I lost tons of fish, so it wasn't a perfect deal. Now I know that I don't have to have 4 perfect days to win."

So, what did go right that week?

"I felt I was very locked in on my pattern (crankbaits in shallow water), and I knew exactly what the fish were doing," he said. "I had backup plans that I had confidence in, and just a lot of things going on. Three or four times since then I've felt that same way, but it just didn't happen."

No More Motels

One change Lefebre will make for 2006 will be a return to his former travel accommodations. He, wife Anne and young son Mitchell will camp out at each tournament.

They're looking at both truck-mounted campers and fifth-wheel trailers. "I'm extremely excited about it," he said. "We started out that way my first year, then we kind of got away from it. We've been staying in houses and a motel here and there, but we're outdoorsy people and our son loves to camp."

It's not that he doesn't enjoy the company of his fellow anglers, but he'd just assume keep to himself during tournaments. He doesn't think all the nightly fishing banter helps his cause. "I'm really looking forward to getting away from all the talk," he said. "If you're around it, you hear it and it's hard to ignore. You overhear things whether you want to or not, and it can have an effect on your performance."

Series of New Adventures

In addition to the FLW Tour, Lefebre will also compete on the new FLW Series. He's looking forward to the Series because four of the five venues will be new to him. The only one he's visited is Old Hickory, and he has fond memories of that place.

"It'll be a bunch of new lakes, and that'll be refreshing," he said. "They might be tougher lakes, but that's okay – I seem to do better when the bite is tougher. And since there's tournaments later in the year, everything won't be about the spawn – either pre-, post- or during. There'll be a lot of new blood."

Notable

> Prodded for specific reasons why he hasn't done well at Beaver, Lefrebre offered up these: "In '04, we had a downpour the night before and it muddied up my water. I was on some giant fish on beds and they were just gone. This year, I spent too much time trying to catch 7-pounders and not enough time on other things."

> He's happy about the acquisition of Luhr Jensen by the Finland-based Rapala-Normark Group. "I've been with Luhr Jensen since they started a bass team three years ago. There were times I was using Normark baits but I couldn't say anything because of my deal with Luhr Jensen. Now I can give them the plug they deserve."

> He said the decision to fish the FLW trails in 2006 was an easy one. "No matter which tour you fish, if you work hard and do well, you'll get the exposure that you deserve. The way FLW has treated me and my family has been outstanding. The FLW people are what made the difference and they're why I've decided to go in that direction."