Quick Bites: AOY edition, Chevy Open, Day 2

Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Detroit River, Trenton, Mich.

Opening round, Friday

Dudley do right … When a professional sportsman is in the zone, it seems as though he can do no wrong. And that was the case Friday with David Dudley, winner of last month’s Tour event on Loudoun-Tellico, winner of the 2003 Cup, winner of the 2002 Ranger M1 Millennium tournament and FLW Outdoors’ all-time leading money winner. Against all odds, he overcame an 86-point deficit in the points race to leapfrog from fifth in the standings to completing his FLW crown with a one-point win in the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year race (click to read the press release). It’s as though drama follows Dudley around in the same way that tournament wins do. In order for the Lynchburg, Va., pro to round out his trophy collection, he needed a decent Chevy Open finish plus four other pros ahead of him in the standings to drop the ball on the Detroit River – and that’s exactly what happened. The Nos. 1 and 2 contenders at the outset of the tournament – Andy Morgan came into the event with a 24-point lead over Glenn Browne – seemed to be competing in some bizarro-world contest to see who could end the regular season on a worse note: Morgan finished 192nd and Browne 197th. Improbably, both of them put up goose eggs Friday, which may have been the result of mechanical problems, but neither fished well on day one either. The third- and fourth-ranked anglers, Luke Clausen and Bryan Thrift, fared a bit better, but still left the door wide open for Dudley; Clausen ended the tourney in 106th place, while Thrift was only slightly better at 105th. “I didn’t think it would get to my head, but it did,” Clausen, a past Cup winner, said. “I made some terrible decisions out there.” Thrift, the 2007 Duracell Rookie of the Year, said: “I kind of knew I was going to screw up one day this year; I was just hoping it wouldn’t be today.” Though a quartet of pros faltered, make no mistake about it: Dudley earned the coveted title. His 38th-place finish was enough to edge past his only real competition in the end: 16th-place Brent Ehrler, also a past Cup winner. One look at Dudley’s staggering resume in 14 years of professional fishing – over $2.3 million earned across 25 top-10 finishes, including five wins – and it’s clear it was only a matter of time before he was anointed AOY. “It’s awesome. I wanted this title more than anything,” Dudley said. “Angler of the Year is the most prized title you can have.” As for his narrow margin of victory, Dudley proudly defended his brand-new title: “One point, half a point, a tenth of a point – it’s still Angler of the Year.” Indeed it is, and it means Dudley can add another $25,000 in earnings, plus a new Ranger boat, to his spoils.

Blaylock best back-boater … Fifth-year co-angler Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark., has been making waves on the FLW Tour for some time, but today he made one of his biggest splashes yet by earning the 2008 points title. Though Blaylock finished the Chevy Open in 70th place, he’s had such a stellar season overall that the middling finish didn’t hurt his chances. The Co-angler of the Year amassed an amazing three top-10 finishes from the back of the boat on the Tour this year alone: Lewis Smith Lake (8th), Beaver Lake (1st) and Fort Loudoun-Tellico (2nd). In total, the young stick has notched 17 top-10 finishes in FLW Outdoors competition, including four wins, and earned over $156,000.

Love at first bite … The couple that fishes together, stays together – even in the finals of the last event of the 2008 FLW Tour regular season. In what is almost certainly a first in FLW Outdoors history – if not all of tour-level tournament bass fishing – a husband and wife have both qualified to fish in the finals of an FLW Tour event. Co-anglers Hector and Diane Delagarza of Garland, Texas, fished their way to a top-10 finish Friday as well as a shot at the top prize for back-boaters in the Chevy Open: $40,000. Hector will start the final day of co-angler competition in fourth place, while Diane will fish from the No. 6 boat. “This is something we’ve talked about (happening) many times,” he said. “It’s just so exciting.” And Diane confirmed the intensity of the moment: “Oh my God! I’m shaking and my knees are knocking … wooh, lordy!” But befitting any happily wedded couple, each was quick to compliment the other. When asked who the better angler is, Hector immediately said, “She is.” And Diane said of her husband, who also won big-bass honors today with a 6-pound, 4-ounce smallmouth, “I’m so proud of him.”

Fantasy Fishing, up close and personal … For many FLW Fantasy Fishing fans, part of the allure of the game is being able to live vicariously through a roster of top-notch pros while never having to leave the comfort of a desk chair. But Brent Bridgeman of Redding, Calif., is taking the fantasy sport to the extreme: He actually came to the Chevy Open in person to check in on his roster, though that wasn’t his only motive. The longtime Ranger boat owner hopes to fish on the FLW Tour as a co-angler next year. “I flew in from California,” he said. “I wanted to show my face to everybody, get to know people and find out about sponsorships, because I’m a good fisherman.” Bridgeman said he won his first tournament at age 13 while fishing in a team event with his father, Lee, who has a small bait company. Now, 20 years of fishing assorted tournaments later, he said, “I want to go for the big money … and FLW Fantasy Fishing is what made my mind up.” Big money is what drove Bridgeman, who had been playing fantasy NASCAR, to FLW Fantasy Fishing when someone told him about the $7.3 million potential purse. “I’ve been a Player’s Advantage member since before the first tournament started,” he said. So how is he doing so far in fantasy land? Bridgeman said he hasn’t won a prize yet, but he was sitting in about 6,000th place after Loudoun-Tellico, which is far from being out of reach of the $1 million grand prize considering how many people play the game worldwide and how many bonus points are up for grabs between the Chevy Open and the Forrest Wood Cup. And halfway through this event, he said his fantasy team for the Detroit River ought to improve his overall standings.

Explosive bait … Believe it or not, the occasional angler crossing weighmaster Charlie Evans‘ stage will have a little fun with the FLW Outdoors president. Case in point: the gift pro Woo Daves of Spring Grove, Va., gave Evans today. “I was talkin’ to (tournament director) Bill Taylor, and he told me he’s been kickin’ your butt out fishin’ lately,” Daves said. “So I decided I was going to give you one of my special lures; I only have one left.” The trickster then handed Evans “a lure” doctored up to look like a stick of dynamite and bearing the words “Hillbilly Fish Finder.” Both men were having such a blast with the gag onstage that Evans forgot his primary duty for a moment and had to call the angler back to the scale, saying, “I got so excited about that lure, I forgot to punch you in.”

Quick numbers

10: Number of largemouth bass weighed in by pro Sam Newby (111th) of Pocola, Okla., over the opening two-day round of the Chevy Open. This number would be insignificant if not for the fact that the Detroit River, which links lakes St. Clair with Lake Erie, is known as one of the world’s premier smallmouth fisheries, and anglers fishing tournaments here weigh in smallies almost exclusively.

3.03: Approximate average weight, per fish, of bass weighed in by the Pro Division in the opening round.

4-15: Weight, in pounds and ounces, of at least two identical bass weighed in by day-two pro leader David McCrone of Minnetonka, Minn., as he took a shot at the Snickers Big Bass award.

Sound bites

“I just built a new house, and I’d like to decorate the walls with those.” – seventh-place pro J.T. Kenney of Port Charlotte, Fla., on why he’d love to earn “one of those big cardboard checks” by the end of the Chevy Open.

“I can’t deny I’ll have a home-field advantage.” – 2006 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C., assessing his chances at the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup, which will take place in his backyard on Lake Murray. Though Gagliardi finished the Chevy Open disappointingly in 149th place, he still had enough points to earn a berth into the championship.

“Just to give you an idea of how rough it can get out there (on Erie): I got hit with a wave in my right ear, and it hit me so hard, I think water came out my left ear.” – 2007 Co-angler of the Year Jess Caraballo of Danbury, Conn., continuing the long tradition of tall tales told by fishermen.