Jacksonville native Peter Thliveros fishes his way into the record books
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong weren’t the only Americans making history on Sunday. Peter Thliveros of Jacksonville, Fla. used a 14-pound, 6-ounce catch to capture the first-ever ESPN Great Outdoor Games Bass Fishing Championship in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Not surprisingly, Thliveros – a regular on the FLW Tour – was excited about his victory in the inaugural television event.
“This ranks as one of the most important wins of my career,” said Thliveros, who earned $5,000 for his first-place finish. “We want to take this sport to the next level and I think we did that. We hope we represented our sport well.”
Thliveros, who finished second in the qualifying round, also demonstrated the most consistency after posting the best two-day total of any angler in the tournament with an overall catch of 26 pounds, 3 ounces.
Unlucky 13 turned out to be the magic number for second-place finisher, Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla. who turned in a silver medal performance with a 13-pound, 13-ounce catch. Martin, who finished third in the qualifying round, said he was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of Saranac Lake when compared to the southern waters of Florida.
“I really liked this lake because it was so different,” said Martin, who earned $4,000. “I’m used to fishing shallow water but these deeper lakes are a lot of fun. The scenery was beautiful and these smallmouth bass are a lot of fun to catch. Overall, it was a nice change of pace.”
Randy Blaukat of Lamar, Mo. earned $3,000 with a third-place finish and a catch of 11 pounds, 13 ounces.
“It was just a great day,” said Blaukat, who entertained the crowd with ESPN video footage of himself falling in his boat while trying to land a fish without a net. “I caught some smallmouth bass in the morning and I had some good luck in the afternoon. I couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
Steve Daniel of Clewiston, Fla. finished fourth with a 10-pound, 4-ounce catch. And like his fellow anglers, Daniel had nothing but good things to say about northern fishing.
“I really love this area,” said Daniel. “I caught a lot of fish today. The people are great. It’s been something really special.”
Carl Svebek III of Sam Rayburn, Texas came in fifth place with a catch of 9 pounds, 12 ounces. Although Svebek had finished first in the qualifying round, he said he was not disappointed.
“I had a great time,” said Svebek. “And that’s all you can ask for.”
Thliveros, who caught most of his fish flipping and pitching zoom baby brush hogs and black and red flake flipping tubes, said his day didn’t start off as well as he had hoped.
“When I started off this morning I just did an about face… everybody thought I forgot something back at the ramp,” said Thliveros. “But I just wanted to make sure I fished the ramp first. Because if I didn’t, I knew I would be thinking about it all day. Unfortunately, I only caught one small fish there.”
Thliveros then decided to start fishing the locks.
“But every time I pulled up to the lock, I would get some bad news,” he said. “This one time I pulled up and this husband and wife team says, `You should have been here and hour ago… the fishing was great. That’s the way it went for me until about 10:30 this morning. I decided to go to the grass beds because that’s where all the big fish were. Everything happened really fast after that.”
Five other anglers invited to bass fishing tournament did not survive Saturday’s cut: Stephen Browning of Hot Springs, Ariz. (sixth place); Randy Howell of Trustville, Ala. (seventh place); 2000 Land O’ Lakes FLW Angler of the Year, Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, Texas (eighth place); Guido Hibdon of Gravois Mills, Mo. (ninth place); and Keith Green of Arkadelphia, Ark. (tenth place).
Although the prize money was only disclosed for the top three places, ESPN officials said that all anglers, regardless of finish, would received a minimum of $300.