He’s back

After a three-year hiatus, David Fritts is back in the winner’s circle doing what else … cranking

David Fritts had a good feeling going into the season-opening Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on Florida’s famed Lake Okeechobee. Low water levels and cold water temperatures made for ideal crankbait conditions on the “Big O.” And that made Fritts, who is regarded as the sport’s best crankbait fisherman, the favorite to win the tourney’s $100,000 top prize.

After four days of intense fishing, Fritts had an even better feeling, one that he hadn’t had in more than three years.

“I don’t know what to say,” the humble pro from Lexington, N.C., told the standing-room-only crowd inside the giant weigh-in tent at the Clewiston Wal-Mart Supercenter after winning a record fourth FLW Tour title. “It’s been since 1997 since I had this feeling.”

That was the record-setting year when Fritts and Operation Bass Chairman Irwin Jacobs shook up the bass fishing establishment and put competitive angling on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers.

The FLW Tour, then in its second season, paid out more money than any other tournament trail in history, and Fritts made more money than any angler before him, winning three events, including the 1997 FLW Tour Championship, and more than $300,000.

Until he got to Lake Okeechobee this year, that unforgettable 1997 season had been the last time Fritts won a bass tournament.

“To be honest,” Fritts said, “since 1997 we’ve really only had one or two tournaments where crankbaits were really working.”

Fritts caught his fish on a variety of crankbaits in the rim canal, which separates the main lake from the earthen levee that surrounds it. Water depths range from a couple of feet to 20 feet and there are numerous ledges and rock piles.

“I was running the length of the rim canal from Clewiston out to Pahokee,” Fritts said. “I was back and forth. Every day was different. I had about eight different places. The key was fishing around rocks in shallow water close to deep water.”

Much of his effort was concentrated around cuts in the rim canal that lead to the main lake. When there was wind, bait would be swept through the cuts and bass would wait in ambush.

Fritts just did qualify for the semifinal round by finishing in 10th place after the first two days. On day three he finished second to qualify for the championship round. All of the top five pro anglers fished either in or adjacent to the rim canal during the tournament.

Fritts won the tournament with a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds. His catch included the biggest bass of the final round, which weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces. The area where he caught that stringer was the same spot he fished when he won a Golden Blend tournament in 1991.

Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., who was the top angler after the first two days, finished second, just 15 ounces behind Fritts. It was VanDam’s second runner-up finish in as many FLW Tour events. He finished second at the Forrest Wood Open on Lake St. Clair in Detroit in 1999.

Kim Stricker of Howell, Mich., who was second after the first two days, finished third with four bass weighing 12 pounds, 6 ounces. Mark Hardin of Canton, Ga., who had the biggest stringer of the tournament at 24 pounds, 15 ounces on day three, was fourth. He also had 12 pounds, 6 ounces but lost a tiebreaker to Stricker. Kelley Williamson, a chicken farmer from Purdy, Mo., fishing in his first FLW tournament, finished fifth with 4 pounds, 3 ounces.

Like Fritts, all of the top five anglers used crankbaits. VanDam threw a 1/2-ounce Strike King Diamond Shad in the Clewiston channel, which leads to the main lake. Most of the others used Bomber 6As and 7As and Norman Deep Little Ns. Fritts said he used different crankbaits every day, with a Wiggle Wart receiving the most use. On the final day, he said he caught his bass by using an “old, old handmade wooden bait.”

The final weigh-in came down to Fritts and VanDam. With one bass left, VanDam’s weight was 12 pounds, 15 ounces and Fritts was at 10 pounds, 11 ounces. When Fritts pulled out his 6-pound, 5-ounce largemouth the crowd went wild. Then it hushed as VanDam stepped to the scales needing a fish weighing 4-2 to win. He came up 15 ounces short and Fritts pumped his arms in celebration.

“I really didn’t think I had enough to win,” said Fritts, whose fourth career victory moved him out of a tie with Steve Daniel of Clewiston, Fla., and Rick Clunn of Ava, Mo. The $100,000 check also moved Fritts into second behind Clunn on the career money winner’s list. Fritts has won more than $481,000. Clunn has won $682,600.

“I caught my limit by 8:20 a.m., but it took me a while to get them to bite. You had to finesse them,” Fritts said. “I knew when the wind stopped blowing, the water stopped running through the canal and it was going to make fishing tough for everyone. I really thought I needed a 4-pound bite [to win] but I couldn’t get one. I mean I had from 8:20 to 3 o’clock to catch one. I caught some fish, but I never could cull one.”

VanDam hooked plenty of fish, but he couldn’t keep them hooked.

“I just had one of those days when it just didn’t happen for me,” said VanDam, who earned $35,000. “I definitely had enough bites to win, I just couldn’t get them in the boat.

“It was real important to make the lure bounce off the rocks or snag the shrimp grass on the bottom. When you’d rip it out of the grass, you’d get bit. The problem was the fish weren’t aggressive and they weren’t really feeding. When you ripped the lure out of the grass, they’d swat at it and wouldn’t get hooked good. I lost two at the boat. With most of the others, I’d get two cranks and they’d get off.”

Stricker fished crankbaits around rocks in 4 to 6 feet of water along a productive stretch of shoreline. The key to his bite was bouncing the baits off the rocks.

“I fished that bank so many times, I learned exactly which rocks had the better fish,” said Stricker, who won $20,000.

“We all knew going out this morning that whoever got the big bite would win,” said Hardin, who caught a limit the final day, but no fish bigger than 3-9, to win $16,000. “I put every fish that bit in the live well, I just never got a big bite. And I really didn’t have any other place I could go where I had that much confidence.”

Williamson, who tends to 220,000 chickens at home when he isn’t fishing, was at Lake Okeechobee for the first time. He weighed in only two bass on the final day, but still earned $14,000. He also won the Energizer Keeps on Going award for being the finalist who came from the farthest back on opening day – 35th place – to make the top five.

“What I had going, it just wasn’t quite enough. It wouldn’t go four days,” Williamson said. “For a tournament like this, you need more than one spot.”

Spots were limited and boats were stacked up in the rim canal to take advantage of the crankbait bite the first two days. Fritts acknowledged that he was able to fish more effectively once the 175-boat field was cut to 10 boats.

It should be noted that Lake Okeechobee is not known as a crankbait lake. The lures of choice on the Big O’s grass-filled shallow waters are spinnerbaits and soft plastics such as worms and jerkbaits. As Tennessee pro Craig Powers said, “I can guarantee you that parts of this lake have seen more crankbaits this week than any other time during the last 10 years.”

A lack of crankbaiting experience might explain why no Florida pro cracked the top 10. Daniel and fellow Clewiston pro Scott Martin, both FLW winners in 2000, placed 55th and 64th respectively.

When the 350 anglers arrived in Clewiston for the start of the FLW Tour’s sixth season, they found Lake Okeechobee at its lowest water level in a decade in part due to efforts to help bring back essential grasses.

The South Florida Water Management District controls the water levels in the lake and the state agency had essentially used Okeechobee as a reservoir for many years, storing water to meet the needs of coastal cities and agricultural interests.

Those years of artificially high water took their toll on the lake’s bulrush, eelgrass and peppergrass. According to state fisheries biologist Don Fox, wave action caused by the high water during windy weather ripped up the vegetation. That wave action also dirtied the water, preventing new grass from growing.

That grass would have provided essential habitat for young bass and the fish on which they feed. Fox warned that the lake’s bass fishery would collapse if water levels were not lowered and finally, last May, the water district dropped the lake level 2 feet. An extended drought dropped the level another 2 feet, making Okeechobee 5 feet lower than it was during the 2000 FLW Tour event that Daniel won.

The low water is helping the lake’s grass come back, although Fox noted that it will take three to five years of careful management before the bass population fully recovers. In the meantime, the low water on Lake Okeechobee has made it difficult, and often dangerous, to run around. Submerged rock piles have taken their toll on outboard lower units.

Additionally, many traditionally productive areas cannot be accessed with the low water. The result is that many anglers have been concentrating their efforts in the rim canal that was dug to build the levee that prevents the lake from flooding.

The rim canal has a resident population of bass, and several weeks of cold weather had reduced water temperatures on the main lake to the low 40s, pushing even more bass off the spawning flats and into the rim canal. The timing was perfect for Fritts.

Fritts felt so good about his chances that at registration the evening before the tournament he confided to Sammy Lee, the national promotions director for Ranger Boats, that he would win the tournament.

“Only eight times in the 15 years that I’ve known David has he told me that,” Lee said. “Six times he’s won. The other two times he was second.”

Fritts made a steady move to the top. David Walker of Cannon, Ky., the 1999 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year, led the first day with a stringer weighing 22 pounds, 14 ounces including the big bass of the tournament at 9 pounds, 10 ounces. VanDam was second. Walker made the top 10 cutoff, but finished sixth on day three.

Andrew Arnold of Princeton, Ky., caught only one fish on day three, but that was the only one he needed. His bass weighing 5 pounds, 3 ounces won him the Co-Angler Division title and $15,000. Michael Brown of Chatsworth, Ga., was second with 4 pounds, 2 ounce and won $6,000.

Arnold admitted he had his doubts. Five co-anglers weighed in after he did, but none could beat out his lone bass.

The top 10 co-anglers included two women, Tammie Muse of North Little Rock, Ark., and Wanda Rucker of Cocoa, Fla., who a few years ago on Lake Okeechobee became the first woman to ever win a Red Man Tournament Trail event. Unfortunately, neither lady was able to weigh a fish their final day and they finished ninth and 10th respectively.