OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – Family, friends and fans who turned out at the Wal-Mart FLW Series final weigh-in to cheer on the legendary Hibdon clan sure got what they came for.
Guido and Dion Hibdon served up some homegrown fishing and fun to the crowd at the Wal-Mart parking lot. At times it was hard to tell whether it was a bass tournament weigh-in or the Hibdon comedy hour.
The Hibdons’ good-natured ribbing even included a few swipes at longtime friend and top-10 qualifier Larry Nixon.
When it was time to get down to business and show off some fish, the Hibdons didn’t disappoint.
First Guido brought the crowd to a roar with his 17-pound catch. Then Dion brought the crowd to their feet with his dominating 19-pound, 9-ounce catch, which clearly gave him the $100,000 win with a four-day total of 71 pounds, 8 ounces.
“This feels good,” Dion Hibdon said. “Things finally went my way all week without a hitch. When everything lines up like that, it really makes you feel special.”
As reported all week, both Hibdons fished deep, concentrating on bluff points and offshore rock ledges and faces. Most of their bites came from about 20 feet, but some were caught as deep as 35 feet.
Their primary lure was a brown 1-ounce Luck `E’ Strike football-head jig with a Guido bug trailer on the back, tied to 15-pound-test Seaguar.
“I mainly fished from PB-II down to the dam and up into Gravois a little,” he reported. “The wind laid today, and I could get out there and really fish. For the first time all week, I could actually feel my bites, and I discovered I’ve been getting a lot more bites this week than I thought I was, I just couldn’t feel them; I caught so many fish today, it was unreal.”
Nixon takes second
Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark., made a last-round charge at Hibdon with a 17-pound, 1-ounce catch today to finish second with a four-day total of 65-5 worth $50,000.
Similar to the Hibdons, Nixon was fishing deep rock ledges in 25 to 35 feet of water.
Nixon’s primary lure was a 5/8-ounce Eakin’s football-head jig, peanut butter and jelly color, with a Berkley Chigger Craw (green pumpkin) on the back tied to 14-pound-test Vanish fluorocarbon.
“The fish changed a little each day,” Nixon said. “Some days they were right up against the bluff walls where I could pitch to the rocks, and other days they were pulled out over the points where I had to back out and cast to them.”
Wendlandt finishes third
Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas, finished the event in his best position of the week, third, with a four-day total of 62-12 worth $40,000.
Wendlandt rallied with a 16-15 catch today.
His two main patterns all week were “walking” a big spinnerbait along rocky bluff banks and cranking square-billed crankbaits alongside floating boat docks.
“The key for me was using really big baits,” Wendlandt said. “I think the fish here were eating those big gizzard shad, and I wanted a really big profile in the water.”
Along the bluffs, Wendlandt used a 3/8-ounce spinnerbait with a big No. 6 Colorado blade, and around the docks he used a Lucky Craft BDS 4 crankbait and a Brian’s Bees B3 square-lipped crankbait.
He used 15-pound-test Ande monofilament and a Pflueger 6-to-3 ratio reel for both techniques.
“I wanted to keep the baits way up high near the surface so they bulged the surface, and the faster reel helped with that.”
Of the two techniques, the dock pattern ended up being the more dominant pattern, especially in the afternoon.
“I’d catch a limit on the spinnerbait early and then go to the docks for quality in the afternoon.
Father Hibdon finishes fourth
Guido Hibdon of Gravois Mills, Mo., showed off a solid 17-pound limit to his hometown crowd today en route to finishing fourth with a four-day total of 61-13 worth $30,000.
Despite his own success, the elder Hibdon was full of pride for his son.
“Trust me, I’m way more tickled for him to win than I would be for myself,” he said. “We all like to win, but to see my son win here on this lake in front of this crowd is pretty incredible. You can’t love anybody more than I love him – he’s a special guy.”
In terms of Guido’s pattern, it was very similar to Dion’s – deep jigging along submerged rock faces and ledges in 20 to 40 feet of water – from the toll bridge to the dam.
“It’s pretty much a reaction bite,” Hibdon described. “I’d pull the jig off a rock shelf, and when that 1-ouncer went zipping by those bass, they’d either bite it or get out of the way.”
Lefebre finishes fifth
Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa., ended up fifth with a four-day total of 58-1 worth $20,000.
Lefebre’s primary pattern for the week was swimming a jig on shallow docks.
He opted for a 9/16-ounce Mizmo jig with a variety of trailers on 16-pound Gamma Fluorocarbon.
“I liked the 9/16th jig because I was skipping it a lot, and that heavier jig really gets up under there,” he said. “I used a pump-and-drop type retrieve when swimming the jig back to the boat.”
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros in the FLW Series event at Lake of the Ozarks:
6th: Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., four-day total of 57-14, $19,000
7th: Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala., 57-9, $18,000
8th: Matt Herren of Trussville, Ala., 57-1, $17,000
9th: Troy Eakins of Nixa, Mo., 52-13, $16,000
10th: Marty Sisk of Evansville, Ind., 48-4, $15,000