By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

The name of the event is Heavy Hitters, but some extremely valuable fish can nonetheless be caught on light tackle.

Mark Rose proved that today as he used spinning gear and a small worm to rope a 9-02 giant in the Bass Pro Tour event at Florida's Kissimmee Chain of Lakes that's both a regular points tournament and a big-bass derby. It was the biggest fish caught so far and it'll earn the Arkansan a $25,000 bonus if it holds up through the second half of Group B's Qualifying Round on Wednesday.

Skeet Reese leads the group after catching a dozen scoreable bass (2 pounds or heavier) that combined to weigh 43-08. Reese, Rose and David Walker were all within a couple of pounds of each other with 5 minutes left in the day, but Reese caught a 4-13 to ensure that he'd hold an advantage going into the second day.

Rose is 2nd with 32-09 (11 fish), followed by Walker with 37-05 (13). From there, it's a big drop down to 4th-place Jeff Kriet (25-00 on seven fish), and another substantial gap to David Dudley in 5th (seven fish for 20-12).

Current produced by heavy recent rains has been the dominant factor of the tournament through the first two days. Reese, who blanked during the first of the day's three 2 1/2-hour periods, scored repeatedly after moving to the mouth and lower stretches of a creek as it delivered a strong flow to Lake Toho.

His haul was topped by a 5-01 specimen and he had four others within a half-pound of that mark. A Lucky Craft 1.5 crankbait produced 10 of his scoreable fish and he caught one each on a worm and a swimbait.

"I'm glad I made the decision to jump in there; I'd never been there before," Reese said. "When I saw the current at the mouth and saw some fish schooling, it gave me an idea that something was happening in there and my intuition paid off."

Rose said he had a "decent" practice and figured that a finesse-based approach might be effective on the system's highly pressured fish. It certainly worked as his small baits produced some big bites, including one true Florida lunker that was more than twice the size of any other fish he caught.

He didn't know he'd connected with a monster until it jumped about 20 feet from his boat.



Major League Fishing/Josh Gassmann
Photo: Major League Fishing/Josh Gassmann

A finesse worm thrown on spinning gear produced the biggest fish of the day for Mark Rose.

"It was a lot of fun – it was exciting and it had my heart rate up," he said of his tussle with the 9-pounder. "It reminded me of the old (intro to) the Bassmasters TV show when that fish jumped and Larry Nixon looked up and said, 'Oh, my gosh!'

"I knew it was a good, solid fish right away, but I'd caught some heavy 3s and 4s and they felt good, too."

Walker came into the event on a tough run, having finished 47th or lower in the last seven BPT events dating back more than a year. He said he was a bit perplexed as to what he should do when the day started.

"Practice was pretty random, to be honest, and I had too many plans and I felt a little confused," he said. "I didn't know exactly where I wanted to start and I wasn't sure which plan I needed to stick with, but it worked out.

"It was just one of those days where stuff started gelling for me and I'm tickled with it. It'd been too long."

He started hooking up late in the first period and caught fish steadily through the remainder of the day. A crankbait and a finesse worm both produced well for him.

His best fish weighed 4-06 and he had one other that topped 4 pounds.

Only one other competitor really saw where I was fishing and what I was doing; other than that, I had it to myself," he said. "I stuck with it because I knew I might not get to fish it again with the way things change. I decided to stay there and catch fish and have a good day.

"I know where I'm going to start (on Wednesday) and I know what I'm going to throw. If it works, great. If it doesn't, I'll go do something else."

Weather Forecast

> Tues., June 9 – P.M. T-Storms - 91°/75°
- Wind: From the SSE at 5 mph

> Weds., June 10 – Scattered T-Storms - 89°/75°
- Wind: From the ESE at 9 mph

> Thurs., June 11 – Thunderstorms - 87°/72°
- Wind: From the E at 9 mph

> Fri., June 12 – Partly Cloudy - 89°/72°
- Wind: From the E at 10 mph

Group B Qualifying Round 1

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish.)

1. Skeet Reese -- 12, 43-08 -- 5-01

2. Mark Rose -- 11, 38-09 -- 9-02

3. David Walker -- 13, 37-05 -- 4-06

4. Jeff Kriet -- 8, 25-00 -- 4-12

5. David Dudley -- 7, 20-12 -- 4-01

6. Jonathon VanDam -- 7, 20-01 -- 4-15

7. James Elam -- 5, 19-13 -- 6-11

8. Chris Lane -- 6, 19-10 -- 4-12

9. Jeff Sprague -- 6, 18-14 -- 4-15

10. Takahiro Omori -- 5, 18-06 -- 4-15

11. Fletcher Shryock -- 5, 15-07 -- 4-12

12. Stephen Browning -- 6, 15-06 -- 3-08

13. Alton Jones -- 5, 15-06 -- 3-14

14. Jason Christie -- 5, 15-01 -- 4-10

15. Adrian Avena -- 4, 13-08 -- 6-00

16. Mark Daniels, Jr. -- 2, 12-05 -- 7-15

17. Andy Morgan -- 3, 12-03 -- 7-05

18. Luke Clausen -- 3, 11-04 -- 5-12

19. Greg Vinson -- 4, 9-10 -- 3-00

20. Keith Poche -- 3, 9-02 -- 3-15

21. Tommy Biffle -- 2, 8-02 -- 5-00

22. Bradley Roy -- 3, 7-15 -- 2-14

23. Britt Myers -- 2, 7-10 -- 5-06

24. Mark Davis -- 3, 7-01 -- 2-07

25. Bobby Lane -- 3, 6-14 -- 2-11

26. Russ Lane -- 2, 5-09 -- 3-03

27. Josh Bertrand -- 2, 5-05 -- 2-11

28. Ish Monroe -- 2, 5-00 -- 2-10

29. Brett Hite -- 2, 4-06 -- 2-04

30. Paul Elias -- 1, 4-01 -- 4-01

31. Greg Hackney -- 1, 3-10 -- 3-10

32. Timmy Horton -- 1, 2-15 -- 2-15

33. Andy Montgomery -- 1, 2-10 -- 2-10

34. Jason Lambert -- 1, 2-10 -- 2-10

35. Terry Scroggins -- 1, 2-08 -- 2-08

36. Ott DeFoe -- 1, 2-03 -- 2-03

37. Shin Fukae -- 1, 2-01 -- 2-01

38. Cody Meyer -- 0, 0-00 -- 0-00

39. Randall Tharp -- 0, 0-00 -- 0-00