Quick Bites: FLW Tour Lake Champlain, Day 4

Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Final round, Saturday

Championship field set … It’s finally official – the 48-man list of who made it to the 2006 Forrest L. Wood Championship is now complete. Competing as the No. 1 seed is, of course, the newly minted Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year Anthony Gagliardi, who edged out Matt Herren by 23 points to claim the title. Entering the championship from the final No. 48 slot is Ishama Monroe, who scored only one point more on the season that the first man out, No. 49 David Fritts. Some notable inclusions are last year’s winner George Cochran, who was barely in at No. 47 heading into this tournament but ultimately finished the season ranked 41st. His fellow former champions David Dudley and Luke Clausen also made the cut despite not being in the top 48 heading into the Lake Champlain tournament. … The man on the bubble at the beginning of the week in the No. 48 spot was Takahiro Omori, who took a mighty tumble all the way down to 90th, far out of the championship. Bubble-dweller Carl Svebek fell from 49th to 72nd, while Dave Lefebre jumped from 50th to 38th to earn a championship slot. … Notably absent is last year’s championship runner-up Chad Grigsby, who will not advance this year with a 61st-place year-end ranking. In fact, of the top 10 finishers at last year’s championship, only five of them will return this year for a repeat. … Notably included is No. 47 Toshinari Namiki, who ended last season ranked No. 2. Namiki plans to head back to Japan and will not fish the FLW Tour next season, but he was not in the top 48 heading into this week’s event and thus considered it his final tournament. He’s in by a hair, though, in the next-to-last qualifying spot.

Bolivar gains rookie of the year title … Recently, FLW Outdoors announced the creation of the Gain Rookie of the Year award, and the inaugural recipient of that award is California pro Gabe Bolivar, whose exceptional season included making a run at the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title. Bolivar ultimately finished the season in seventh place and performed with remarkable consistency throughout the year, finishing outside check range only once with a season peak of 22nd place on Pickwick in March. Bolivar’s consistency is telling given the fact that he is a West Coast angler largely unfamiliar with the FLW Tour’s 2006 slate of lakes up until now. “It’s really special,” Bolivar said of winning the tour’s first rookie of the year award. “It’s an honor for sure. I came out my first year and fished a tour that was totally strange, and to come away with some sort of title, I can’t put it into words. I don’t put a lot of trophies up, but that’s definitely one that I will.” … The rookie of the year title is just icing on the cake for Bolivar, who set out for the season with one goal in mind: making the championship. “I’m really looking forward to the championship,” he said. “This whole year, I’ve been trying to play it safe and survive, but you’ve got nothing to lose there. I’m looking forward to just going to a tournament and letting it fly.” For the first round of the FLW Tour’s unique bracket-style competition at the championship, Bolivar will face off against No. 42 pro Gary Yamamoto.

Rookie Montgomery No. 1 co-angler … Bolivar may be the Gain Rookie of the Year, but another rookie having a phenomenal season is co-angler Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C. Montgomery entered the FLW Tour as a first-timer this year and walked away with an end-of-season No. 1 ranking to emerge as the co-angler of the year. Montgomery’s whale of a year included three top-10 finishes, the best of those being a runner-up finish on Kentucky Lake last month. To take the co-angler of the year title, he had to get past Judy Israel, a fierce competitor from the back of the boat at every fishery, and Alex Ormand, who held the points lead heading into this week’s event on Lake Champlain. “I thought I’d blown it after the first day,” said Montgomery, who ended day one on Champlain in 116th place. “But I caught them decent the second day.” Indeed, Montgomery jumped from 116th to 60th on day two, securing his title by a scant nine points over Israel. … He says he owes a lot of his success to pros Chris Elliott and Chris Baumgardner, who showed him the ropes of fishing as a pro on the FLW Tour – something Montgomery hopes to do next season if finances allow it. “They showed me some ways to catch them on different lakes, especially Baumgardner,” Montgomery said. “He told me a couple of deals that helped me catch them behind my boaters.” … Catching fish behind a boater is something Montgomery only does on the FLW Tour. He’s an accomplished Stren Series pro who is currently ranked fourth in the Northeast Division. If Montgomery does indeed transfer to the pro side of the FLW Tour next year, look for his accomplishments to keep piling up.

Birmingham bound … When No. 3 pro Dion Hibdon entered this week’s event on Lake Champlain, he was mired back in 75th place in the points standings and knew he’d have to execute this week if he wanted to qualify for the championship. After all, Hibdon has tasted success on Logan Martin Lake, site of this year’s big event – he won the Bassmasters Classic there back in 1997. In fact, the Hibdons and Logan Martin Lake are so connected that he recently coaxed his sister into buying a home there. “She’s lived in Birmingham since I won,” Hibdon said. “Her husband enjoys fishing, and we talked them into buying a house on the lake.” Well, she’d better be washing her sheets, because brother Dion is coming for a visit – thanks to his top-three finish this week, he’s headed to the championship as the No. 43 seed. “I’m excited about it,” he said of returning to the site of his former glory. “It’s a great area, and I love the lake.” When asked if he thought he could duplicate his success there, he answered yes. “You can ask any of the 48 guys, and they’d all say, `Oh yeah,'” he said. “If they qualified, they think they can win.” Himself included.

Martin skips around … Scott Martin came to Lake Champlain this week determined to take home another win, and though he ultimately finished fourth, he can take pride in the top-10 finish that resulted from a painstakingly detailed strategy. Martin knew that to win the event, he would have to have different fishing holes for days one, two, three and four. Sure enough, he pulled up to his day-four hole and found fish there – fish he’d kept waiting for eight whole days. It was all part of Martin’s master plan, a scheme that might have worked had he not stumbled on day three. “I panicked a little bit,” he said. “I couldn’t see, and I didn’t take good notes to know which fish were still there. I took a gamble to prepare for today, knowing I had those fish on the south end.” … Not only were Martin’s day-four fish still hanging around, he weighed in one fish today that was a first for him – a largemouth on Lake Champlain. While many anglers brought in largemouths this week, Martin stuck with the smallies, like he always has here to great success. “I found that fish late yesterday and actually hooked it and lost it,” he said. “But I lost the tournament by not taking good notes and wasting a fish the second day – but I’m happy with it.”

Quick numbers:

1-6: Winner Tracy Adams’ margin of victory over Kevin Vida.

3: Difference, in ounces, of Adams’ opening-round two-day stringer and his final two-day stringer, demonstrating a remarkable – and winning – consistency.

1: Times Adams had finished in the money this season before today’s $100,000 windfall.

100: Percentage of pros who caught a five-bass limit on day four.

3: Number of this week’s top-10 pros who advanced to the championship.

Sound bites:

“What’s the matter? You think we’re wimps?” – Hibdon to TV host Keith Lebowitz, who said after day one that nobody else would make the long and rough ride to Ticonderoga to catch fish. Hibdon and Adams, at least, fished the area all four days.

“That’s the biggest thrill of my life.” – Proud papa Jerry Williams, on making the top-10 cut alongside his son, Keith, who finished eighth to Jerry’s ninth.

“This is the perfect end to a great year for me.” – Gagliardi on winning Angler of the Year.

“I want to keep going and going.” – No. 5 pro Shinichi Fukae, pointing to the Energizer bunny on his jersey to describe his future on the FLW Tour.