FYI - Rookie crushes pro field, collects $100,000 at Big O
 

200 pros and 200 co-anglers weighed in a total of 3,209 bass weighing 6,429
pounds

Forget pounds, Scheide wins by a ton
FLW rookie crushes pro field, collects $100,000 at Big O

Pro Ray Scheide earned $100,000 for winning the FLW Tour event on Lake
Okeechobee.

CLEWISTON, Fla. * Due to its sugar industry, the hamlet on the south shore
of Lake Okeechobee known as Clewiston, Fla., calls itself the ³Sweetest Town
in America.² It¹s a fitting venue for an easygoing, down-to-earth Wal-Mart
FLW Tour rookie like Ray Scheide to win $100,000 in his first tour-level
fishing event.

But beneath his veneer of sweetness, Scheide possesses the competitive fire
of a champion. In Saturday¹s final day of the FLW season opener at
Okeechobee, the 33-year-old pro from Russellville, Ark., muscled his way
into a five-bass limit weighing an impressive 21 pounds, 9 ounces. That
pushed his two-day, final-round total to a massive 36-1, overwhelming his
closest competitor, Chris McCall, by exactly 13 pounds.

³This is unbelievable,² he said. ³I can¹t wait to call my wife.²

How Scheide, who led Friday with a 14 1Ž2-pound stringer, managed to hook
into more than 20 pounds of bass Saturday when no one else could muster more
than 12 1Ž2 pounds is no secret. He just found the big ones, simply enough.

³I found an area the last day of practice where I caught an 11-pounder,²
Scheide said. ³It looked awesome. It had every type of grass that you need.²

The area he fished all week was a quarter-mile stretch of hyacinth mats
along Pelican Bay, east of South Bay. The location played right into his
strength, which is flipping. The cold front that blew down from the north
the last two days pushed many big female bass in the area off the spawning
beds, leaving them scrambling for cover and warmth beneath the thick mats.
From there, it was easy pickings for Scheide.

³They were trying to spawn,² he explained, ³but when a cold front comes in,
they¹re going to go to the nearest thick cover. The colder it got, the
bigger the females were that came up in there. They were pre-spawn fish,
full of eggs, fat.²

Scheide used the same technique Saturday that gave him the lead Friday. He
flipped a Gambler cricket with a 1 1Ž2-ounce tungsten weight to penetrate
the wind-thickened hyacinth mats, let the bait drop, then pulled it back up
to just beneath the hyacinths and twitched until he got a bite. His first
bass was a 6-pounder, and his biggest weighed over 7 pounds. He caught all
of his 21 pounds by 10:30 a.m.

³They just couldn¹t stand it when I did that,² he said. ³They just attacked
it.²

Fishing in such heavy cover, Scheide used 65-pound braided line and only
lost two fish all week. After he hooked them, he had to troll through some
muck to go get them, but he rarely broke any off.

³That¹s what¹s fun about this. You¹ve got to put it into four-wheel drive to
go get her,² said Scheide, who obviously had some fun Saturday. ³They aren¹t
getting away if I can get them up in that mat. I never let up; I just kept
at it.²

The cool-headed Scheide, a Wal-Mart BFL Okie Division standout whose
previous best pro finish was second place in a 2002 EverStart Series Central
Division event, didn¹t seem at all surprised by his hot start out of the FLW
Tour chute. For him, it was all about preparation.

³I had a good practice and a perfect week,² he said. ³This has been a dream
of mine forever. I hope I can make a habit of this.²

McCall takes second

The sentimental favorite at Okeechobee, McCall caught a limit weighing 9
pounds, 11 ounces Saturday, pushing his final-round total to 23-1 and second
place. He collected $35,000 in prizes, but for the pro from Jasper, Texas,
it was hard to put a value on his experience this week. His mother passed
away while he was competing Wednesday, but McCall persevered.

³We want to thank everybody for all their thoughts and prayers,² he said,
accompanied by his wife. ³It¹s the best week of fishing I¹ve ever had. It¹s
a great start, especially after missing the championship last year by three
places. You couldn¹t ask for a better start as far as the fishing goes.²

McCall, a second-year FLW pro, caught two of his bass Saturday on a
spinnerbait, and the other three he caught by sight-fishing with Gambler
baits.

³Those three right at the end helped,² he said. ³This really changes
everything. I don¹t really have to worry about making it from one tournament
to the next anymore.²

Dudley cashes in again

Fishing Machine, Manteo Machine, Cash Machine * whatever you call him, David
Dudley just keeps the hammer down. The richest pro bass angler in history
collected yet another check Saturday, this time for $20,000, after weighing
in a limit and finishing third at Okeechobee with a final-round weight of 22
pounds, 11 ounces.

The competitive Dudley, however, wasn¹t exactly satisfied with his own
performance * which probably belies his penchant for winning.

³I could have finished second, but I couldn¹t have caught (Scheide¹s)
weight,² said Dudley, who admitted that he might have made a mistake on the
locations he fished in the finals. ³I was just sight-fishing and I caught
what I could catch, but I didn¹t even see enough good fish to catch him.²

Fukae fourth, Lefebre fifth

Also sight-fishing for the bulk of the week was Shinichi Fukae, a Japanese
angler of the year from Osaka. He finished in fourth place and collected
$16,000 with a total weight of 20 pounds 7 ounces in the finals. This was
also his first FLW tournament.

Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pa., finished in fifth place, worth $14,000, with a
final-round total of 19 pounds, 7 ounces. He said he had trouble finding
fish until later in the day throughout the tournament, but Saturday started
fast for him.

³I got a big one right off the bat today, and I haven¹t been able to get a
morning bite all week,² said Lefebre, whose limit weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces
today. ³But this is exciting. (Okeechobee) was a great start for me last
year, too.²

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pro finishers at FLW Lake Okeechobee are Billy Bowen
Jr. of Ocala, Fla., with a final-round total weight of 13 pounds, 9 ounces
(sixth place, $11,000); Dean Rojas of Grand Saline, Texas, with a weight of
13-7 (seventh, $10,000); James Parker of Fayetteville, N.C., with a weight
of 9-6 (eighth, $9,000); day-one leader Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark.,
with a weight of 8-2 (ninth, $8,000); and Rick Lillegard of Atkinson, N.H.,
with a weight of 4-1 (10th, $7,000).

The top seven pros all caught limits Saturday, and six of the 10 finalists
caught limits both days of the final round.

Overall, Lake Okeechobee version 2004 was an FLW Tour record-breaker. The
expanded field of 200 pros and 200 co-anglers weighed in a total of 3,209
bass weighing 6,429 pounds, 11 ounces, smashing the previous Okeechobee
record of 2,568 bass weighing 4,862-7 set in 2002 by a field of 175 pros and
175 co-anglers.

The second FLW Tour stop of the season is scheduled for the Atchafalaya
Basin near Morgan City, La., Feb. 11-14.



Mike Kirouac

www.BonerRods.com