Quick Bites: Forrest Wood Open, Day 1

Fukae maintains stranglehold on AOY title, record total weight broken for single day of FLW tournament action, and limits galore for pros and co-anglers alike

Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Opening round, Wednesday

Fukae guns for improbable AOY title … OK, so let’s get this straight. In his very first season on the FLW Tour, Shinichi Fukae – a bona fide rookie using any definition – has already amassed $75,000 in winnings and three top-10 finishes in the first five tournaments of 2004. While that feat alone would be cause for much celebration, the fact that the native of Osaka, Japan, had barely fished American waters until this year makes his string of incredible achievements even more amazing. But the fact that Fukae headed into the Lake Champlain event in first place overall in the prestigious 2004 FLW Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year race was quite simply one of the most amazing individual achievements ever recorded on the FLW Tour. But would the pressure of the AOY race finally get to Fukae on Champlain – the last and most important event of the regular season? Hardly. Despite the fact that he’d never seen Lake Champlain before, Fukae turned in an impressive 17-pound, 4-ounce sack to finish the day in 17th place. By comparison, Greg Hackney of Gonzales, La., who was in second place in the AOY contest heading into the Champlain event, could only muster a 14-pound, 13-ounce stringer in today’s competition. Already trailing Fukae by 33 points, Hackney needed to do much better than today’s 71st-place finish overall if he was to have a realistic chance at catching the frontrunner. The rest of the competition has some major ground to make up as well. Mike Surman of Boca Raton, Fla., who came into Champlain in third place in the AOY race, trailing Fukae by 50 points, also finished tied for 71st place today. Tracy Adams of Wilkesboro, N.C., who trailed by 74 points, turned in a 61st-place finish. In short, barring a complete collapse, Fukae will make history Thursday afternoon as the first foreign-born competitor to win the FLW Angler of the Year title.

Record-breaking performance … If you ask anyone in the bass-fishing community what he thinks of Lake Champlain, he’ll most likely tell you it’s one of the greatest fisheries in the United States. However, after today it would be pretty difficult to argue that Champlain is not THE greatest fishery in the nation, if not the world. After roughly eight hours of fishing, FLW anglers returned with an eye-popping 4,481 pounds and 3 ounces of fish. The pros caught 2,650 pounds, 13 ounces in today’s competition alone. Previously, the one-day record for a pro total – accumulated on Lake Champlain in 2002 – was 2,349 pounds (which dwarfed the previous record in 1999 on Lake St. Clair of 2,124 pounds and 14 ounces). It also seems pretty clear that the four-day catch record is about to fall as well. Currently, the four-day record (also recorded at Champlain in 2002) stands at 8,379 pounds and 10 ounces.

Limits galore … In a typical FLW tournament, a five-fish limit weighing 13 total pounds usually puts you in pretty good position to make a run at the top 10. Not so if you were fishing Lake Champlain today. In fact, had you recorded the aforementioned totals during Wednesday’s competition, you would have found yourself in 121st place and hopelessly out of contention. So just how good was the fishing today? The pros turned in an astronomical 189 five-fish limits out of a possible 200. The co-anglers recorded another 127 limits. In short, if you didn’t turn in a limit, it’s a pretty good bet that you started packing your belongings already.

Quick numbers:

4,481-3: Total weight, in pounds and ounces, of fish caught by the pros and co-anglers on Wednesday.

2,650-13: Total weight, in pounds and ounces, of fish caught by the pros Wednesday, eclipsing the old record by more than 300 pounds.

974: Total number of fish caught by the pros in today’s competition.

837: Total number of fish caught by co-anglers.

67: Total number of pros who caught 15 pounds of fish or more in Wednesday’s action.

32: Lake Champlain tournament finish Shinichi Fukae needs to achieve to be guaranteed the 2004 FLW Angler of the Year title.

0: Number of foreign-born competitors to ever win the FLW Angler of the Year title.

Sound bites:

“Today they chased it, jumped over it and did everything but eat it.”

– FLW pro Harmon Davis of Marlow, Okla., lamenting the lack of bites in today’s competition, which led directly to his 194th-place finish.

“You can’t say enough about it. We go to a lot of places. But you’ll never fish anything like Lake Champlain.”

– FLW Tour veteran Guido Hibdon of Gravois Mills, Mo., echoing the sentiments of nearly every angler to walk across today’s weigh-in stage.

“There’s an old proverb I learned on Lake Champlain. He who throws expensive Japanese baits will lose very expensive Japanese baits to northern pike.”

– FLW Tour co-angler Rob Newell of Tallahassee, Fla., on attracting too many of the wrong type of fish in today’s competition.

“I know, he’s my roommate. I tried to break his arm last night.”

– FLW Tour co-angler Greg Gulledge of Monticello, Ark., on trying every trick possible to catch his friend, Keith Pace, for the Co-angler of the Year title. For the record, Gulledge’s first-place finish in today’s competition allowed him to make up nearly 30 points. Unfortunately for Gulledge, Pace enjoyed a commanding 80-point lead heading into the Champlain event.

FLW action continues at tomorrow’s takeoff, scheduled to take place at 6:30 a.m. Eastern at Mooney Bay Marina, located at 15 Mooney Bay, Plattsburgh, N.Y.