Quick Bites: FLW Atchafalaya Basin, Day 2

Monsoor dominates the competition, Fukae makes Japan proud and Bowens throws away a chance to qualify for finals

Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Atchafalaya Basin, Morgan City, La.

Opening round, Thursday

Monsoor excels in monsoon … Despite fishing in some of the most unpleasant and nasty weather FLW Tour pros have faced all season, Tom Monsoor of Lacrosse, Wis., was one of the few anglers able to overcome the elements, racing atop the pro standings with a thoroughly impressive two-day catch of 32 pounds, 11 ounces. So how does a Wisconsin native come down to Cajun Country and blow away the rest of the field with driving rains and near freezing conditions, dominating the landscape for two straight days? “It’s still just fishing,” said Monsoor. “I came down here and practiced for 10 days and you really needed to do that here. The key is to keep looking and looking and looking for new areas because there aren’t going to be a lot of fish in any one spot.” Monsoor, who swam a jig and Yamamoto grub to make it to the semifinals, said that he is in the best shape he’s ever been heading into the final two days of competition on the FLW Tour. “I had five spots, but I’m down to two main areas,” he said. “But I feel like I’m set. Unless something drastic happens, I should be in great shape. Everything is falling into place.” Monsoor’s only other top-10 appearance on the FLW Tour came in 2003 when he finished in third place at Kentucky Lake.

Japanese FLW Tour rookie on a roll … Shinichi Fukae, a native of Osaka, Japan, had one of the best seasons of his career last year when he took home the 2003 angler-of-the-year award at the Japan Bass “JB” Club tournament trail in his native country. However, with plenty of success to boast about in his homeland, Fukae decided at the start of the 2004 season that it was finally time to take the huge leap to the professional bass-fishing circuit in the United States. So, with virtually no experience fishing American waters, Fukae showed up at the FLW Tour event at Lake Okeechobee last month to test his mettle against some of the finest pros in the world. To the surprise of many, not only did Fukae turn in an admirable performance in his very first FLW Tour event, but he also qualified for the finals – ultimately finishing the Lake Okeechbee tourney in fourth place. However, Fukae was far from finished making waves in America. Throughout this past week, Fukae persevered through the wind, rain and rising water levels to claim an 11th-place overall finish in the Pro Division at the Atchafalaya Basin. In short, in his first two tournaments, Fukae has netted $27,500 on a tour he’d never fished before until this year. So how does it feel? With the help of a translator, FLWOutdoors.com found out. “It’s very difficult to make the transition from Japan because American lakes are very, very big,” said Fukae. “There are only really three big lakes in Japan, and we are used to fishing with many fishermen in the same spot. Here it is much different. There is much more room to fish. Since I’ve come to America, I’ve been studying all of the lakes as much as I can. I try to get as much information as I can. I eat and sleep fishing here. Overall, I’m very happy with my performance. It’s exceeded all of my expectations.” For the record, Fukae plans to fish the entire FLW Tour season as a pro. “Yes, that is my goal,” he said.

Bowen makes mental error … Billy Bowen Jr. of Ocala, Fla., was attempting to make a huge comeback in today’s competition when the unbelievable happened. “I had five fish in the boat and I landed this 3 1/2-pounder,” said Bowen. “I immediately culled a smaller fish and threw the 3 1/2-pounder into my livewell. But after I did that, I decided that I’d mark my next two smallest fish just in case I needed to cull some more later on. I figured I’d save some time that way. But instead of putting the two marked fish back into the livewell like I should have, I threw the smaller one of the two back in the water.” It didn’t take long for Bowen to realize that he’d just thrown away his limit. “As soon as the fish was out of my hands my co-angler partner started screaming, `No, no, no,'” said Bowen. “I knew right away. I still can’t believe I did that. So, in the end, I wound up catching seven keeper fish in total but was only able to weigh four of them in.” Fortunately for Bowen, there was a silver lining. Because of the increased purse at the Atchafalaya Basin, Bowen’s four-fish catch was still enough for a top-50 finish. And why was that important? Due to tournament rules, every angler finishing in the top 50 this week automatically received a check for at least $10,000. “I’m just glad I didn’t do this at any other tournament.”

Quick numbers:

1,006-3: Total weight, in pounds and ounces, of fish caught by the pros Thursday.

371-12: Total weight, in pounds and ounces, of fish caught by the co-anglers Thursday.

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

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

22: Total number of limits caught by the pros in today’s competition.

3: Number of co-anglers who didn’t record a fish in yesterday’s weigh-in but still managed to make the cut after today’s competition.

Sound bites:

“I’m really interested in finding out where they were.”

– FLW pro Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark., joking about his willingness to interview the top 10 anglers for the “FLW Outdoors” television show to finally unlock the mystery as to where the fish were hiding out at Atchafalaya all week. Nixon, who finished in the top 10 at Lake Okeechobee, only recorded one fish this week to finish in 180th place.

“Fishing is about making decisions, and I didn’t make any good ones today.”

– FLW Tour pro David Cooke of Mooresville, N.C., on his disappointing two-fish catch in today’s competition.

“They’re done. I don’t have any more. I’ve got something else working, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.”

– FLW Tour pro Cody Bird of Granbury, Texas, acknowledging that he’s used up the last of his homemade plastic baits which propelled him into the semifinals.

“I tried to make the fish larger by jerking really hard when I got a bite.”

– FLW Tour pro David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., joking about ways he attempted to improve upon the size of his 5-pound, 6-ounce catch in today’s competition.

“The Lord only gave her so many words and she used them all up.”

– FLW Tour pro Allen Cauthen of Lancaster, S.C., poking fun at his wife during weigh-in for losing her voice.

Tomorrow’s takeoff is scheduled to take place at 8 a.m. at the Belle River Boat Launch, located at Highway 70 North in Belle River, La.