(Editor's note: This is part 2 of a 2-part story. To read part 1, click here.)
Matt Herren
"It was a 6-pounder on a bed near a dock on the last day at Smith Mountain Lake, and no, I didn't catch it. I caught the male and it had given me a fit trying to get him off there so I could catch her.
"I came back for the female twice. One time the homeowner's dog came down and jumped in the water, and the other time the homeowner walked down and stood over the fish. That fish was the difference between winning and not winning (he finished 2nd)."
Brennan Bosley
"I tied for the last $10,000 check at (the Forrest Wood Cup in) Pittsburgh, it was me and Mark Rose, and I lost the tiebreaker. On day 2 of that tournament I lost two 2-pound smallmouth, both on a spinnerbait, that would've been huge.
"One turned and made a run and came off and the other one just jumped off – it was like it had the blades in its mouth and it said, 'Hi, I'm gone' as it spit the bait back at me. My goal there was to catch a limit on one day, and I had the fifth fish on twice that day and it came off both times."
Russ Lane
"I caught one that weighed 8 1/2 the second day at Amistad on a real big swimbait, and that's probably as excited as I got all year. I'd never had a bite that ferocious.
"I could see it following the bait for about five handle-turns, then it took it and kicked into gear and turned sideways, and it was an unbelievable fight. It gave that 7 1/2-foot American Rodsmiths flipping stick all it could handle.
"I thought I was going to get big fish that day, but then (Mike) Iaconelli came in with a 15-pounder or something."
Terry Bolton
"At Clarks Hill (Eastern FLW Series) on the last day, I was trying to catch enough to stay in the cut for the (2010) Forrest Wood Cup in Atlanta. I'd only caught four the first day and I weighed three the next day, and I thought if I could catch 10 pounds on the last day, I'd make it.
"I had a limit and I stopped on a bridge coming in with about 30 minutes left. I made one cast and caught a 1 1/2-pound keeper that let me cull up some. I fished about 10 more minutes and then headed for the check-in.
"As I was idling away, I looked in the livewell and that fish I just caught was graveyard-dead and I knew it was going to come down to ounces. That cost me 4 places and I ended up making it by 1 points.
"I'd really thought that dead fish just might sink my chances."
This Amistad 10-pounder got James Niggemeyer's Bassmaster Elite Series campaign off to a strong start.
James Niggemeyer
"I caught a 10-pounder at Amistad. It was the fourth time I'd been there and I hadn't finished in the money. I'd always heard about guys catching these big stringers, and on the first day of the tournament I found a spot that I thought had potential that I hadn't hit in practice.
"I set the hook on a real subtle bite and I thought I was hung up in the bush because it didn't move, but it turned out to be one of those Amistad giants. It started going off to deep water, toward the creek channel and headed to the main lake.
"It was about 15 feet away when I first saw color, and I remember it being so big and white. Being the first Elite event, that put me on good footing for the year and gave me some momentum to build on."
Skeet Reese
"At Amistad, either the first or second day of practice, I got one that was right around the 10-pound mark. Then I ran back on the first day of the tournament and on my second cast, I hook the exact same fish with the exact same markings.
"It jumped twice and them made one more run under the boat and came off. It's not too often you catch a beast like that in a tournament, and losing it sucked.
"Then there was one at (the Elite Series postseason at the Alabama River) that's really going to haunt me. On the last morning I watched a 4-pounder do everything in its power to eat a (Lucky Craft) Gunfish. It crushed it and the bait disappeared, but when I loaded up it was going.
"It's not like it just swirled out of the water – it did everything it could do to eat it. I was that one bite away from winning the Angler of the Year."
Greg Hackney
"I fought a fish that was 7 or 8 pounds for what seemed like 5 minutes on the 3rd day at Amistad. It jumped like 3 feet and I felt like I was doing a good job of playing it down. It was on a jig, and I brought it to the boat and it had completely given up, then it just came off.
"It laid there on top of the water for what seemed like a long time and it was just out of reach. It was one of those fish that could've changed my whole year as far as the Elite Series goes. It would've given me over 30 pounds that day, which would've put me in the Top 12, and that would've given me a better start in the AOY race.
"That's the way this sport works – a lot can hinge on one bite, good or bad."
Larry Nixon
"On the first day of the (Eastern FLW) Series at Dardanelle, it was about 12:30 and I hadn't had a bite all day. I was in an area where I'd caught a few cranking in practice, but that wasn't working out too good.
Larry Nixon was struggling at the Eastern FLW Series event at Eufaula until he caught a 6-pounder.
"There was some good 2 1/2-foot grass there, so I went to the rod box and pulled out a flipping stick and a Berkley Power Hawg and caught a 3-pounder. Then about 10 pitches later, I caught a 6-02.
"That 9 pounds was a pretty good stringer – it was a tough tournament – and the 6-02 was the big fish that day. It put me on a pattern I hadn't been on in practice and I ended up finishing 14th."
Brent Chapman
"I caught a 6-09 smallmouth at Wheeler on a Storm Wiggle Wart that took me from about a 20th-place finish to finishing 3rd. I had a place where I was starting in the morning, a good current break, and it's a place where I was trying to get one or two 3-pounders to get myself ahead.
"I caught a 3 1/2-pounder on the other side, so that gave me like 10 pounds on those two fish. That early-morning momentum kind of snowballed and led to the rest of the day being good, too."
Clark Wendlandt
"The last day at Champlain I'd made the long run to Ticonderoga and with about 10 minutes to fish, I caught my biggest fish of the day flipping. It was a 4-pounder, and I felt like when I caught that fish, that's when I'd won the (FLW Tour) Angler of the Year."
Shaw Grigsby
"On the final day at Smith Mountain I was (sight-fishing) for a big one and I couldn't get it to go. I left it and was trolling out of the pocket there's a giant pig. I saw her before she knew I was there, I make a great cast and she peels over and eats it.
"She was every bit of 7 or 8pounds and would've probably moved me up from 6th place to maybe 2nd. I was fighting her and she was coming to the boat, and then she starts shaking her head and pulls off.
"I could've had several giants that day if things had worked out, but that one really hurt my feelings."
– End of part 1 (of 2) –
