Skeet’s – Reflections on California

Skeet Reese – Reflections from the West Coast

Skeet capped the West Coast tour of the Elite Series with a second-place finish on the California Delta and a fourth-place finish at Clear Lake, with both lakes providing challenging tests.

Unseasonably cold weather put a damper on expected big bags at the Delta and created some havoc at Clear Lake. Bass were in pre-spawn mode, with a variety of baits thrown by anglers in each tournament.

Skeet’s runner-up finish in the Delta was, in his words, “devastating.” He missed winning by two ounces and thought he had it won until champion John Crews plunked more than 20 pounds on the scale.

Skeet didn’t discuss the Delta loss in detail until last week after the Clear Lake event, when we caught up with him for a day on the water. Here is his recount of the Delta and Clear Lake tournaments:

Delta Blues

“I was really excited because I thought it would set up perfectly for my new S.K.T. crankbait, especially with the new colors of Magic Craw and Delta Craw that I designed. Typically this time of year they’re biting crankbaits pretty well, but the water temperatures still are cold and the fish weren’t active or chasing.

“I cranked and cranked and cranked and couldn’t make it happen. I wound up flipping with creature baits and Chatterbaits around the grass.

“It was devastating (to lose). I fished well the last day, made good adjustments and got the bites. I lost a few fish I know would have culled my smallest fish.

“What was disheartening was when I got back to check-in at the tanks and started talking, and thought I’d won. I was pretty sure I had (Greg) Hackney and Ike (Mike Iaconeli) beat, and Crews said he thought he had about 17 pounds or so. I figured even if he had 18 or 19 I still had him beat. So I thought I had it won. Everyone did. My wife was freaking out and everyone wound up thinking I had it won.

“I’m standing there on stage and John weighs in before me, and I hear 20 pounds and something ounces, and I was like, ‘Oh, —-.’ That threw a major wrench into everything and I was trying to comprehend it. People were trying to talk to me and I’m just out of it … I didn’t like the sound of that 20-pound thing.

“I had no idea how big of a lead I had on him going into the day. I’m trying to do the math, trying to figure it out and they said I needed 19 pounds and 13 ounces to win. I knew that was a lot of weight and thought I had about 19 pounds.

“I knew it would be really, really close. I saw the scale say 19-11 and it just crushed me. Crushed me. That wasn’t a fun moment.”

Reese has experienced bitter disappointment before, notably at the 2007 Bassmaster Classic and the 2009 “post-season” for the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year award. But another close call didn’t take away the sting.

“Second sucks,” he said. “I’ve had enough of them and it never gets easy. I fished well and made good decisions. I lost some fish and any one of them wins it. I look at it as timing. He caught a 5-pounder on his last flip.

“But I don’t like getting beat on these big fish heroics. I look at my career and tournaments I could have won by someone not catching one in last 20 minutes, and I could have had an amazing track record. But I don’t.

“I fished the way I needed to fish, wanted to fish and had to fish. I made good decisions and did everything right. I put myself into position to win. If get beat by someone with a last-second fish or whatever, then it was their time to win. I know if I keep positioning myself like that then I’ll get a win again.”

Clear Lake

“At Clear Lake for me it was swimbait, swimbait, swimbait, swimbait and … a swimbait.

“It was knowing that on the lake this time of year, that’s the way to catch the 7- to 10-pounders. The lake fished differently because the water level’s a lot higher and the fish were more inside than outside (in deeper water).

“I knew a jerkbait probably would catch a bunch of them and it set up perfect for a Pointer 100 or a Slender Pointer 112. But knowing what lives here and the history, I had to with the swimbait. I ran a lot of my history and knowledge of where they live. But it didn’t start coming together for me until Day 2 when I realized they were positioned differently, on the inside (closer to shore) instead of outside.

“I’ve been so conditioned to the lake being lower the last few years and the fish being out more on the points, breaks, docks and end of the tule areas. I tried to force that but it wasn’t going on. It’s high this year and they flooded inside already. I didn’t prefish the canals or creeks, and that’s my fault.”