Quick Bites: Forrest Wood Open, Day 4

Martin claims unofficial title of Mr. Lake Champlain, Blaukat’s chances gone with the wind, and Grigsby benefits from Baumgardner’s tough finish

Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Final round, Saturday

Martin excels on Champlain once again … When the FLW Tour first came to Lake Champlain in 2002, Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., finished in fourth place and took home a check for $39,000. Two years later, Martin was convinced that if everything fell into place, he could improve upon his previous Lake Champlain finish. However, heading into today’s finals, Martin found himself behind the rest of the pack in seventh place. And with six of the top competitors in the nation already ahead of him in the standings after the semifinals, it appeared as though it was going to be an uphill battle to land in the big money. But Martin persevered, hauling in a hefty 17-pound, 12-ounce limit – a full 2 pounds more than the second-best catch of the day – to snatch the title in dramatic fashion. “It’s exciting. I just stayed focused and worked as hard as I could,” said Martin, who culled at least five fish in the final hour of today’s competition. “I’m in another place right now. It’s one of the most special wins of my career.” And thanks to some hefty tournament prize money inflation, Martin walked away this time with a check for a cool $200,000. Oh how times have changed on the professional bass-fishing circuit.

Martens okay with bittersweet outcome … Although Aaron Martens of Castaic, Calif., would have loved to have won the title on Lake Champlain, he said he was more than happy with the $100,000 “consolation” prize for landing in second place. “Here, coming in second place is almost as good as coming in first,” said Martens, referring to most FLW regular-season tournaments that award $100,000 for first place. “I’ll take this anytime.”

Newton proves he’s a rookie no longer … Fishing in only the third FLW tournament of his career, Jonathan Newton of Rogersville, Ala., showed that he has what it takes to fish against the nation’s best – using a two-day stringer of 30 pounds, 3 ounces to capture third place and a check for $50,000. Ironically enough, had it not been for the prodding of good friend and fellow FLW competitor Andy Morgan, Newton just might have had to settle for listening to today’s weigh-in on the Internet. “It’s just been a great week,” said Newton. “But had (Morgan) not talked me into coming to this tournament, I never would have been here. It feels great.”

Zero sum game … Heading into the finals, Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., knew that he needed to finish in third place or higher to net an automatic berth into this year’s $1.5 million FLW Championship, which goes out to the top 48 anglers in the year-end standings. Unfortunately for Baumgardner, who was in 49th place heading into today’s finals, he wasn’t able to do it. With a total catch of 26 pounds, 11 ounces, Baumgardner ultimately finished in seventh place, winning a check for $26,000. “I’m already looking forward to next year,” he said.

Other side of the coin … So who was the beneficiary of Baumgardner’s seventh-place finish? None other than Chad Grigsby of Colon, Mich., – the angler who missed out on this week’s top-10 cut by a mere 7 ounces. “I’ve been the bubble boy all week,” said Grigsby. “Coming into this tournament I felt very comfortable that I could make the top-10 here. But I also figured that if I came up short, I was really going to need some help to make the championship. And I got it. I was really bummed I didn’t make the finals, but this kind of makes up for it.” Unfortunately for Grigsby, as a result of his 48th-place finish, he will be paired against reigning 2004 FLW Angler of the Year, Shinichi Fukae, in the first two days of the championship. “It’s going to be tough,” said Grigsby. “But I only have to out-fish him for two days. And I did just that this week.”

Blaukat’s chances for title left blowing in the wind … Day-three leader Randy Blaukat knew heading into the finals that it was his tournament to lose. Although his lead was precarious, Blaukat had turned in one the most consistent performances of the entire tournament, landing catches of 17 pounds, 11 ounces; 16 pounds, 12 ounces; and 16 pounds, 2 ounces respectively over the first three days of tournament action. However, the wind didn’t cooperate when it mattered most. “The pattern I was fishing required more wind today,” said Blaukat, who was fishing a jerkbait on flats all week. “The wind wasn’t strong enough for my jerkbait pattern, but it was just strong enough so I couldn’t see the fish on the beds (for sight-fishing). I really wish it had been either dead calm today or the wind had blown 20 mph. But it was right in the middle.”

Quick numbers:

8,614-1: Total weight in pounds and ounces of fish caught by the pros and co-anglers during this weeks’ Lake Champlain tournament. The combined weight set an FLW record, beating the old record of 8,379 pounds and 10 ounces recorded on Lake Champlain in 2002.

3,602: Total number of fish caught by the pros and co-anglers during this week’s Lake Champlain competition.

560: Number of total miles FLW finalist David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., covered during this week’s tournament.

540: Total prize money in thousands paid out to the top-10 pro anglers in today’s finals.

523: Updated career earnings in thousands by Scott Martin at FLW Outdoors events.

48: Final rank in the 2004 FLW year-end standings for Chad Grigsby of Colon, Mich. – the last angler to qualify for this year’s championship.

46: Days remaining until the start of the 2004 FLW Championship.

Sound bites:

“I told Reed I was going to catch him a birthday fish and this is it.”

– FLW pro Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., upon weighing in his fifth and final fish which won him the tournament title and $200,000 on Lake Champlain.

“I didn’t catch one fish during the first 2 1/2 hours of fishing today. This is the toughest day I had here all week here.”

– FLW Tour pro and day-three tournament leader Randy Blaukat of Lamar, Mo., lamenting how the wind completely messed with his pattern when it mattered most in the finals.

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“I think 90 percent of the fish are on beds now. It’s really hard to find fish anywhere else.”

– FLW Tour pro Aaron Martens of Castaic, Calif., commenting on the overwhelming concentration of spawning bass on Lake Champlain.

“In practice, I was catching 50 fish a day. But it just got worse and worse for me each day of the tournament. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

– FLW Tour pro Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., taking a Zen-like approach to his eighth-place finish.

“We have arrived, I guess you could say.”

– Legendary bass-fishing personality and FLW namesake Forrest L. Wood on the tremendous growth that the sport of bass fishing has undergone throughout the past 10 years.

FLW action continues Aug. 11-14 at the 2004 FLW Championship, scheduled for Logan Martin Lake in Birmingham, Ala.