Quick Bites: FLW Old Hickory Lake, Day 4

Lefebre wins going away, Hibdon finds redemption and another Japanese angler makes some noise on the tour

Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Old Hickory Lake, Gallatin, Tenn.

Finals, Saturday

Lefebre cruises to victory … Having already recorded three top-five finishes on the FLW Tour over the last 10 tournaments, sophomore sensation Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pa., wasted little time adding another notch to his already blossoming career. Boasting a two-day catch of 27 pounds, 7 ounces, Lefebre easily manhandled the top-10 pro field in the finals, walking away with his first FLW title as well as a check for $100,000. The fact that the final weigh-in ultimately proved to be anticlimactic – Lefebre entered the finals already holding a 6-pound-plus lead – was of little concern for the Pennsylvania native. “This is just awesome. It’s unbelievable,” said Lefebre, who outfished his nearest competitor by almost 9 full pounds over the final two days of tournament action. “You can’t put it into words. You really can’t explain it.” Although the oddsmakers would have made Lefebre one of the biggest favorites in recent memory heading into the finals, the frontrunner said he was sweating it out until the final fish was weighed in. “I really wasn’t nervous until my friends started calling me last night,” he said. “They all thought I was a lock to win. But I really wasn’t sure what I’d catch. Today was the first day I felt any real pressure all year. I just relied on my equipment and tried to keep focused on what I needed to do. You can’t control the uncontrollables. I kept telling myself that all day.” Perhaps just as important, Lefebre’s win also put him back into contention for the year-ending FLW Championship. “This is the biggest win of my career,” said Lefebre, who now stands in third place overall in the 2004 FLW Tour Angler of the Year race. “It really means a lot to me.”

Hibdon hits his stride … After struggling mightily on the FLW Tour for the better part of six months, Dion Hibdon of Stover, Mo., once again showed the world that he hasn’t lost his touch. With only a 4-pound, 9-ounce stringer to his credit heading into the final day of competition, Hibdon put his fishing skills into overdrive Saturday, landing the biggest stringer of the finals to leapfrog all the way into second place. “This was a real turning point for me,” said Hibdon, who won $35,000 in prize money. “I have fished really (poorly) since last fall. So it was very gratifying for me to finally have a tournament like this. I had a lot of fun out there today.” Although Hibdon is recognized as one of the greatest anglers in the world, he acknowledged that even the best anglers have their doubts from time to time. “The mental aspect of this sport is very important,” he said. “I know I’m a heck of a fisherman, but you go through slumps like this and you really start to wonder. I think practice fishing with my dad (fishing icon Guido Hibdon) really helped to calm me down this week. I’m very happy with the way things worked out.” Hibdon said his turnaround performance at the Old Hickory tournament was important for another reason. “I really want to make the FLW Championship,” he said. “I think I was in triple digits (in the standings) heading in here. So this is really going to help me out.” Only the top 48 anglers in the year-end standings qualify for the 2004 FLW Tour Championship.

Asian sensation … With fellow countryman Katsutoshi Furusawa having already wrapped up the co-angler title on Old Hickory Lake a day prior, Morizo Shimizu of Suita, Osaka, proved that Japanese pro anglers are a force to be reckoned with as well. Using a total two-day catch of 15 pounds, 12 ounces, Shimizu vaulted all the way from eighth place in the semifinals to third place overall on the final day of competition to capture a check for $20,000. “I’m very happy,” said Shimizu. “I had a good week.” With a host of Japanese anglers making impressive showings all year, only one question remains: Will the FLW Tour find it necessary to finally hire a translator? Stay tuned.

Cajun comeback part II … Although Greg Hackney of Gonzales, La., didn’t win the tournament title, his impressive catch of 11 pounds, 1 ounce in the finals was good enough to put a smile back on his face. After all, with a meager catch of only 1 pound, 13 ounces in the semifinals, it appeared as if Hackney’s first-ever top-10 appearance was going to be one to forget. But in the end, the Louisiana native engineered a hard-fought fourth-place finish good enough for $16,000 in prize money. “I knew coming into the finals that I only had one place to go and that was up,” said Hackney, who was languishing in 10th place heading into today’s competition. “It’s been an amazing week, that’s for sure.” To say that Hackney had a rollercoaster ride over the past four days would be an understatement. After recording a dismal 3-pound, 3-ounce catch on day one, Hackney turned around and landed a behemoth 26-pound, 8-ounce stringer on the second day of competition to climb from 122nd place to sixth place overall. Then, just when things started to look up, Hackney only brought one fish to the scales on Friday. “Fishing is a guessing game,” he said. “Sometimes you guess right and sometimes you guess wrong.” Overall though, Hackney had little to complain about. Not only did he record his highest-ever finish on the tour, but his day-two catch also represented the biggest comeback of his career. “It was an up and down week to be sure,” he said. “But I had a lot of fun.”

Quick numbers:

230,000: Total amount of cash awarded to the top-10 field at Old Hickory Lake.

84-8: Total weight, in pounds and ounces, of fish caught by the pros Saturday.

8-15: Total weight, in pounds and ounces, of Lefebre’s margin of victory in the finals.

5: Number of pros making their first top-10 appearance.

2: Total number of limits caught by the pros in the finals.

Sound bites:

“He doesn’t understand legend.”

– FLW Tour pro Rick Clunn of Ava., Mo., describing why it’s difficult to explain to his 5-year-old son Sage why his father doesn’t always do well in every tournament.

“I tried that technique the rest of the day, but all I did was lose more crankbaits.”

– FLW Tour pro John Murray of Phoenix, Ariz., on his risky technique of trying to intentionally snag a crankbait on a fallen tree in order to get a bite from some fickle largemouth bass.

“Everywhere I go there is a language barrier.”

– FLW Tour pro Marcel Veenstra of Brighton, Mich., joking about his lingering accent from growing up in New Jersey.

“I didn’t have a real good top-10 (finish), but I had a real good tournament.”

– FLW Tour rookie Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla., on fishing in his first-ever FLW final while finishing second-place overall in the 2004 Angler of the Year race despite just his first season on the tour.

“Hopefully I’m back on my horse.”

– FLW Tour pro Dion Hibdon of Stover, Mo., expressing relief that his fishing slump on the FLW Tour finally appears to be over.

“After Thursday, I was thinking I was going to catch a 6-pounder on every cast.”

– FLW Tour pro Greg Hackney of Gonzales, La., acknowledging how pumped up he was for the rest of the tournament after landing a whopping 26-pound, 8-ounce catch on day two.

FLW Tour action continues March 31-April 3 at the Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake, located near Rogers, Ark.