Short Sacks 11-13 To Climb From 6th To Victory

Popular opinion heading into the Mississippi River Bassmaster Elite Series was that four consecutive limits – no matter what they weighed – might be worth $100,000 at the flood-ravaged Iowa fishery. Kevin Short was one of two anglers to accomplish that feat, and his near-11-pound average brought him his first tour-level victory.

The Arkansan sacked 11-13 today to rise up from 6th place and claim the top prize with a 4-day total of 43-03. His bag was the second-best of the day, and he abandoned his flipping pattern and picked up a crankbait to catch it.

He edged out runner-up Kelly Jordon by 10 ounces. The Texan began the day in 8th place, but sacked a day-best 12-05 to finish with a 42-09 total.

Day-3 leader Billy McCaghren slipped to 3rd with a two-fish bag that weighed 6-03 and ended up an ounce behind Jordon. The water in his primary area – which he had to himself throughout the tournament – dropped about a foot today and the Arkansas rookie came up one keeper shy of victory. He had that fish on, but it broke off on a log.

Oklahoma veteran Tommy Biffle, seeking his second win of the year and second of his career at this venue, weighed three fish for 6-06 today and dropped from 2nd to 4th with a 40-00 total. Stephen Browning, the third Arkansan who finished in the Top 5, caught his fourth straight limit and finished 5th with a 39-10 total (8-10 today).

Here's a quick look at the final Top 12:

1. Kevin Short: 43-03
2. Kelly Jordon: 42-09
3. Billy McCaghren: 42-08
4. Tommy Biffle: 40-00
5. Stephen Browning: 39-10
6. Shaw Grigsby: 38-12
7. Steve Kennedy: 38-02
8. Takahiro Omori: 36-12
9. Scott Campbell: 36-04
10. Alton Jones: 33-08
11. Gerald Swindle: 31-13
12. Mike McClelland: 29-05

The Top 6 all spent the tournament in Pool 18 (one lock up from the launch in Fort Madison), which offered slightly clearer water than Pool 19. Steve Kennedy was the only competitor to lock down to Pool 17 today, and it resulted in an 8-09 bag that moved him up three places to 7th.

The dominance of the Arkansans was at least partially due to their experience on the Arkansas River. Both Short and Browning mentioned on stage that the venue fished much like the Arkansas did in years past (that river has undergone a transformation in recent years due to the introduction of zebra mussels).

The victory moved Short up to 10th in the Toyota Tundra Angler of the Year (AOY) standings with just one event left. Following the stop at New York's Oneida Lake in August, the Top 12 will advance to the two-event postseason series in Alabama in September, at which the AOY will be determined.

Biffle is now 13th on the points list and Grigsby is 15th.

Short Somewhat Subdued

Three hours after the conclusion of the weigh-in, Short said the thrill of victory had yet to overcome him.

"I'm not even sure that I really understand that I've done it yet," he said. "The whole day has been kind of surreal – I didn't lose any fish, I didn't miss any fish, the ride up was fine, the ride down was fine, everything was just cheesy.

"I told my cameraman when we were sitting inside the lock, I said, 'Dude, it's been such a great day that I'm not real concerned about (the outcome).'''

He fished the same backwater area that he'd shared with Jeff Kriet the 3 previous days and got five keeper bites. He made one cull at the end of the day after locking back through – the first fish he'd caught from the launch pool.

He started the day with a deficit just an ounce shy of 5 pounds, but none of the five anglers who were in front of him managed more than three fish.

"This is one I can check off my list of the things I wanted to get done. Even to this day, in the 4th year of the Elite Series, there are only a handful of guys who have one of those blue trophies. And now I'm one of them."

A combination of flipping and throwing a spinnerbait and a crankbait produced for him throughout the week. Details of his winning pattern, as well as those of the other top finishers, will be posted soon.

2nd: Jordon Laments Day-3 Loss

When the day began, Jordon had no inkling that he'd come within 10 ounces of victory. Once that occurred, it caused him to think back to the previous day, when he lost a 3-pounder and weighed only four fish.

"Second place is always the first loser, but that (lost fish) started going through my mind," he said. "He started coming at me and he was in the current, and I could not reel fast enough. It was the only fish I lost the whole tournament.

"In that respect, I feel tickled to death to come that close. This was a grinder tournament where the little breaks meant a lot, and you had to execute to make it happen. Billy broke off a fish that would've won it for him. He's a super-nice guy and a lot of people were pulling for him, but it just didn't go his way."

Alton Jones abandoned the place they'd been sharing today, so he had the run of the spot. After flipping up a few fish from deeper water than he'd probed all week, he resorted to a crankbait and caught the vast majority of his weight in the final hour.

"The water actually changed a little bit and got a lot clearer. (Going to the crankbait) was a huge adjustment, but it was a little bit too late."

3rd: McCaghren Bummed

McCaghren's finish was easily his best to date, but that didn't soothe the pain of having victory slip away.

"I'm extremely disappointed because I had the opportunity to win today," he said. "The water dropped out of my spot and the fish were gone, and I lingered there a little too long. I felt like I could leave and figure out where they were because they couldn't have gone far, but other guys were fishing close by and I didn't want to intrude on them.

"That wasn't a place that had enough water to begin with that it could withstand that, and I was a little slow to adjust."

He got all three of his keeper bites from a nearby location that had deeper water. There were a few bites that he missed, but he's fairly certain those fish were unworthy of going to the scale.

He said the one that broke off was in the 3-pound class.

"I pitched my Beaver right up into a 'V' where two logs crossed, and he got me underneath one of the logs. I rolled him up for just a second, but then the line broke."

4th: Biffle not Thrilled

Biffle wasn't pleased to end the day two places lower than he started.

"I'm mad about it, but it's over," he said. "If you'd told me before the tournament started that I'd finish 4th, I would've been happy with that. But the way it turned out, I'm not real happy."

His flipping bite completely shut down with the lower water level today and he used a small crankbait to catch the three fish he weighed. Those were the only keeper bites he got – the biggest was close to 3 pounds – and he hauled in about 10 shorts.

"I'd flip and then pick up the crankbait and throw it on the same stuff. I started catching a couple on the crankbait, so I started throwing nothing but that.

"It just got a lot tougher, and it looks like it was that way for everybody."

5th: Browning Stayed Clean

Stephen Browning rode a main-river junk-fishing pattern to his second Top 5 of the year (he was 4th in the season opener at Amistad).

"I can't complain," he said. "It was probably as clean of a tournament as I've fished in 15 years of doing this. I never lost a fish that hurt me, even though I did have a dead one the first day that cost me one place.

"I was thankful that nobody else played around (on his stretch of river) because I don't think there were enough fish to last three or four guys for 4 days."

His day got off to a strong start, possibly due to the water having cleared somewhat, but the action didn't last.

"I had a limit at 10:00, but then the keepers went away."

Additional Field Notes

Following are some notes from the 6th-through 12th-place finishers, taken from the weigh-in.

6th: Shaw Grigsby
"The whole week I flipped a Strike King Rage Craw and the fish loved it – they just ate it up. I think I just kind of ran out of fish. This whole week was so fun. I was catching 20-plus fish every day – some good ones and some babies. When I'm getting that many bites, I'm having fun. This is a great place to fish."

7th: Steve Kennedy
"I had Pool 17 all to myself and it seemed like every tree had fish. Some new fish moved up and without any company, I had a blast. It was unbelievable."

8th: Takahiro Omori
"We fished so hard in that little bitty lake (in Pool 19), over and over. I stayed about half the day and then left to look for some new places. Some places cleared up and I thought if I catch five, I might win the tournament."

9th: Scott Campbell
"Fish still bit, but there weren't as many there. It was really slow until 11:00, then there was a stretch when I got a dozen bites in an hour, then after that it was slow again. It was one of those deals where you were looking for active fish in 6 to 8 inches of water. If they were there, they bit."

10th: Alton Jones
"I thought (staying in Pool 19) was the best chance I had to catch a decent stringer and I caught about 20 bass, but the one I weighed in was the first keeper bite I had. We're all going to Oneida to see who's going to come out on top (in the points race) going into the postseason. We're taking a 6-week break, but I'll be thinking about it every single day."

11th: Gerald Swindle
"I seem to be focused a little better – I've got my mind right and I'm in the groove. It's kind of like throwing a baseball or a football – if you've got your rhythm, it comes easier. I got a lot of bites today, but not many keepers. Just getting a bite can be tough around here."

12th: Mike McClelland
"My biggest thing was during the course of practice I was going through areas real quick and throwing a Spro frog to cover a lot of water. I didn't get a lot of bites, but it showed me some areas that had fish. Then (during the tournament) I went to my signature series 5/16-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait, and that's what I caught the majority of my fish on."

Notable

> Day 4 stats – 12 anglers, 3 limits, 1 four, 3 threes, 2 twos, 3 ones.

Day 4 (Final) Standings

1. Kevin Short -- Mayflower, AR -- 20, 43-03 -- 305 $100,000
Day 1: 5, 10-10 -- Day 2: 5, 11-04 -- Day 3: 5, 09-08 -- Day 4: 5, 11-13

2. Kelly Jordon -- Mineola, TX -- 19, 42-09 -- 295 -- $25,000
Day 1: 5, 12-01 -- Day 2: 5, 11-01 -- Day 3: 4, 07-02 -- Day 4: 5, 12-05

3. Billy Mccaghren -- Mayflower, AR -- 17, 42-08 -- 295 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 13-01 -- Day 2: 5, 10-10 -- Day 3: 5, 12-10 -- Day 4: 2, 06-03

4. Tommy Biffle -- Wagoner, OK -- 17, 40-00 -- 285 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 13-01 -- Day 2: 4, 06-12 -- Day 3: 5, 13-13 -- Day 4: 3, 06-06

5. Stephen Browning -- Hot Springs, AR -- 20, 39-10 -- 280 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 12-03 -- Day 2: 5, 10-12 -- Day 3: 5, 08-01 -- Day 4: 5, 08-10

6. Shaw E Grigsby -- Gainesville, FL -- 17, 38-12 -- 276 -- $13,500
Day 1: 5, 12-08 -- Day 2: 5, 10-00 -- Day 3: 4, 10-04 -- Day 4: 3, 06-00

7. Steve Kennedy -- Auburn, AL -- 19, 38-02 -- 272 -- $13,000
Day 1: 5, 10-07 -- Day 2: 5, 10-04 -- Day 3: 5, 08-14 -- Day 4: 4, 08-09

8. Takahiro Omori -- Emory, TX -- 15, 36-12 -- 268 -- $13,500
Day 1: 5, 14-10 -- Day 2: 3, 06-00 -- Day 3: 4, 08-07 -- Day 4: 3, 07-11

9. Scott Campbell -- Springfield, MO -- 17, 36-04 -- 264 -- $12,000
Day 1: 5, 11-08 -- Day 2: 5, 12-00 -- Day 3: 5, 09-12 -- Day 4: 2, 03-00

10. Alton Jones -- Waco, TX -- 15, 33-08 -- 265 -- $11,500
Day 1: 5, 12-00 -- Day 2: 5, 12-01 -- Day 3: 4, 07-08 -- Day 4: 1, 01-15

11. Gerald Swindle -- Warrior, AL -- 16, 31-13 -- 257 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 11-05 -- Day 2: 5, 09-11 -- Day 3: 5, 08-14 -- Day 4: 1, 01-15

12. Mike McClelland -- Bella Vista, AR -- 13, 29-05 -- 254 -- $10,500
Day 1: 4, 08-05 -- Day 2: 3, 07-07 -- Day 3: 5, 11-02 -- Day 4: 1, 02-07

Big Bass

Day 4: Takahiro Omori -- Emory, TX -- 4-09
Day 3: Zell Rowland -- Montgomery, TX -- 4-08
Day 2: Cliff Pace -- Petal, MS -- 4-04
Day 1: Randy Howell -- Springville, AL -- 4-05
Day 1: John Murray -- Phoenix, AZ -- 4-05

Toyota Tundra Angler of the Year Standings

1 Kevin VanDam -- Mich. -- 1812
2 Skeet Reese -- Calif. -- 1795
3 Alton Jones -- Texas -- 1742
4 Gary Klein -- Texas -- 1618
5 Aaron Martens -- Ala. -- 1590
6 Michael Iaconelli -- N.J. -- 1587
7 Kelly Jordon -- Texas -- 1576
8 Todd Faircloth -- Texas -- 1570
9 Randy Howell -- Ala. -- 1568
10 Kevin Short -- Ark. -- 1554
11 Mark Menendez -- Ky. -- 1534
12 Cliff Pace -- Miss. -- 1526
13 Tommy Biffle -- Okla. -- 1510
14 Brent Chapman -- Kan. -- 1504
15 Shaw Grigsby -- Fla. -- 1482
16 Kevin Wirth -- Ky. -- 1478
17 Gerald Swindle -- Ala. -- 1476
18 Byron Velvick -- Texas -- 1473
19 Casey Ashley -- S.C. -- 1469
20 Steve Kennedy -- Ala. -- 1441
21 Russ Lane -- Ala. -- 1438
22 Bobby Lane -- Fla. -- 1432
23 Matt Herren -- Ala. -- 1430
24 John Murray -- Ariz. -- 1423
25 Takahiro Omori -- Texas -- 1419
26 Greg Hackney -- La. -- 1417
27 Jeff Kriet -- Okla. -- 1397
28 Mike McClelland -- Ark. -- 1384
29 Mark Tucker -- Mo. -- 1374
30 Fred Roumbanis -- Okla. -- 1363
31 James Niggemeyer -- Texas -- 1362
32 Boyd Duckett -- Ala. -- 1360
33 Bradley Hallman -- Okla. -- 1359
34 Jami Fralick -- S.D. -- 1354
35 Stephen Browning -- Ark. -- 1353
36 Davy Hite -- S.C. -- 1352
37 Matt Reed -- Texas -- 1346
38 Billy Mccaghren -- Ark. -- 1336
39 Timmy Horton -- Ala. -- 1333
40 Denny Brauer -- Mo. -- 1324
41 Terry Scroggins -- Fla. -- 1301
42 Bill Lowen -- Ohio -- 1291
43 Brian Snowden -- Mo. -- 1287
44 Dean Rojas -- Ariz. -- 1281
45 Marty Stone -- N.C. -- 1280
46 Greg Vinson -- Ala. -- 1267
47 Jason Williamson -- S.C. -- 1261
48 Rick Morris -- Va. -- 1247
49 Todd Auten -- S.C. -- 1241
50 Terry Butcher -- Okla. -- 1231
51 Edwin Evers -- Okla. -- 1227
52 Rick Clunn -- Mo. -- 1217
53 Dave Wolak -- N.C. -- 1215
54 Pat Golden -- N.C. -- 1213
55 Jason Quinn -- S.C. -- 1211
56 Bernie Schultz -- Fla. -- 1197
57 J Todd Tucker -- Ga. -- 1195
57 Mark Tyler -- Okla. -- 1195
59 Mark Davis -- Ark. -- 1169
59 Dustin Wilks -- N.C. -- 1169
61 Jared Lintner -- Calif. -- 1166
62 Jeff Connella -- La. -- 1152
63 Kotaro Kiriyama -- Ala. -- 1151
64 Britt Myers -- S.C. -- 1150
64 Brian Clark -- Texas -- 1150
66 Chad Griffin -- Texas -- 1149
67 Morizo Shimizu -- Japan -- 1145
68 Kenyon Hill -- Okla. -- 1137
69 Chris Lane -- Fla. -- 1136
70 Vince Fulks -- Okla. -- 1111
71 Jim Murray -- Ga. -- 1085
72 Derek Remitz -- Ala. -- 1079
73 Matthew Sphar -- N.Y. -- 1065
74 Marty Robinson -- S.C. -- 1061
75 Scott Campbell -- Mo. -- 1056
76 Pete Ponds -- Miss. -- 1047
77 Wade Grooms -- S.C. -- 1019
78 Peter Thliveros -- Fla. -- 1017
79 Charlie Hartley -- Ohio -- 1013
80 Ish Monroe -- Calif. -- 1005
81 Guy Eaker -- N.C. -- 1003
82 John Crews -- Va. -- 985
83 Ken Cook -- Okla. -- 977
84 Jimmy Mize -- Ark. -- 971
85 Paul Elias -- Miss. -- 938
86 Mark Burgess -- Mass. -- 909
87 Jeff Reynolds -- Okla. -- 905
88 Clark Reehm -- Ark. -- 901
89 Scott Rook -- Ark. -- 895
90 Zell Rowland -- Texas -- 891
91 Luke Gritter -- Mich. -- 879
92 Elton Luce -- Texas -- 875
93 Grant Goldbeck -- Md. -- 872
94 Mike Wurm -- Ark. -- 853
95 Jeremy Starks -- W.Va. -- 841
96 Yusuke Miyazaki -- Texas -- 821
97 Brent Broderick -- Ohio -- 729
98 David Smith -- Okla. -- 688
99 Jon Bondy -- Canada -- 495
100 Kevin Langill -- N.C. -- 484