ESPN

Lightning rod

On the first morning of competition on the Alabama River, the CITGO Bassmaster Tour pros were caught in a fierce lightning storm. "I believe I came as close today to getting struck by lightning as you can get without getting hit right in the top of the head," said Arkansas pro Mark Davis. "I was holding that Falcon flipping stick and going along, and it had been cracking when one hit. I don't know what it hit, but I thought it was me. I swear the shock came through that graphite rod and hit my fingers. I thought I was dead. I don't know how this could have happened. I've fished for years and seen all kinds of things happen, like the line going up in the air and the rod hissing. I'm telling you, my rod shocked me when this lightning bolt hit. It took us 30 minutes to get our composure after this happened. It really, really scared us."

Bass central
Although he grew up in California, went to college in Oregon, and now lives in East Texas, Alabama is "sweet home" for Jay Yelas. That's understandable when you consider that he won the CITGO Bassmaster Classic presented by Busch at Lay Lake in 2002 and captured the Busch BASS Angler-of-the-Year title on the Coosa River in 2003. "We're in Alabama  this is Bass Central for the whole world," he said. "The Coosa River is my favorite fishery in the country. Every place I've ever been in Alabama is loaded with big fish. I always look forward to coming here."

Ray on stage
Tournament emcee Fish Fishburne was in the process of welcoming Texas pro David Wharton to the downtown Montgomery stage on Day 1 when a surprise guest brought Wharton's catch to the scales — BASS founder Ray Scott. Wharton, who weighed in an 11-pound limit, remarked: "I would have caught bigger fish today if I'd known Ray was going to be my bass caddy." Scott was full of praise for his home state's bass fishing. "No question about it, I don't say this as a local, but … I think it's the single best fishing anywhere in the nation. And the biggest of them all has always been the Coosa, the Alabama and the Tallapoosa rivers that all converge to make this wonderful fishing hole."

Spotted bass
Most of the 50 Tour pros who fished the Alabama River spoke of the fishery's ferocious spotted bass. All said the "spots" hit baits with a vengeance, fought like pint-sized tarpon and escaped hooks like Houdini. Terry Chapman, an amateur from North Carolina, lost his rod to one of those big spots during the first day of the tournament. "He set the hook, and a big fish actually jerked the rod out of his hand," said Chapman's pro partner, Jay Kendrick. "These are some of the strongest fish I've ever seen. He lost probably a $350 rig that's down there in the river somewhere, although it's most likely down in the Gulf, or headed toward Selma by now."

Handling whoppers
Florida pro Peter Thliveros somehow managed to finish seventh despite "losing more weight than I weighed in this week. The first day, I weighed in a 17-pound stringer, and five of the fish that I lost would have totaled in excess of 20. They just came off. With these spotted bass, you can't move the hook of the jig through their mouths with enough force to get the hook to penetrate. I'm not scared to set the hook on these fish. I'm using 17- and 20-pound test, and I hit them as hard as I can physically hit them." Thliveros, who wrapped up the ninth Classic invitation of his career, missed the first 12 bass that hit one morning. "The biggest scare of all is crankbaiting," he continued. "The jaws of these fish are so powerful that they can spread the (points) of a treble hook just by flexing their mouths open. I've seen it happen a number of times. These fish are tremendous fighters. They don't give up even when you get them next to the boat. It takes two hands to land them."

Graduation day Arkansas' Mike Wurm was in a hurry as he weighed in his catch during the first round in Montgomery. Immediately after meeting with his next day's partner, he drove to the airport and boarded a plane owned by The Bassmasters TV show producer Jerry McKinnis to attend the high school graduation of his youngest daughter, Laura, in Hot Springs. "Jerry McKinnis was kind enough to let me use his plane, which was the only way I could have pulled this off," Wurm said. "I got back in Montgomery about 11:45 (p.m.) and was ready to fish this morning." McKinnis made a similarly gracious gesture to another Arkansas pro, Larry Nixon, so that he could attend a daughter's graduation during the 2002 season finale.

Wilks' constly decision
Young North Carolina pro Dustin Wilks put the finishing touches on a solid year and his third Classic invitation by earning a spot in the Top 12 finals in Montgomery. Minutes later, tournament director Trip Weldon ruled that he had violated a rule by fishing within 800 feet of the Jones Bluff Lock and Dam. His second day's catch was disqualified, dropping him to 42nd and elevating veteran Texas pro Zell Rowland into the finals. "It was kind of a confusing deal," Wilks said. "I was just fishing down the bank toward the dam, and there were no clearly marked signs except for right where the spillway is in the middle part of the dam, which you can't see from the side. So I totally didn't know." Wilks later said that buoys marking the off-limits line were underwater because of the high water on the river. "It's very disappointing," he said. "I still made the Classic, but this would have been another good Top 12 finish.

What might have been …
Fresh off his best Tour finish (fourth), Tennessee pro Jay Kendrick entered the season finale on the Alabama River with one goal  making the finals on Lake Jordan. A former resident of Birmingham, Kendrick once considered Jordan his home lake and won most of the tournaments that were held there. Unfortunately, he never got a return trip to Jordan. He finished 36th overall, with 13-14.

Jet boat men
Anticipating daring runs through skinny water and over rapids up the Alabama and Coosa rivers, Virginia pro Curt Lytle brought a Yamaha-powered jet boat to Montgomery. Imagine his surprise to find the Alabama River at flood stage, negating the need for a specialized boat for skirting shallow water. Therefore, Lytle called his wife and asked her to bring his full-size bass boat to Alabama, meeting her in South Carolina. Using his Ranger, he finished 23rd with 18-6. Jay Yelas also brought a jet boat, but did not abandon it at the sight of high water. He used the aluminum G3 to glide past the most treacherous part of the Coosa River to reach a large group of unmolested bass near the Lake Jordan Dam. After learning to run the Moccasin Gap section of the river in the boat, he returned there in his fiberglass Skeeter during the two qualifying rounds and caught enough weight to qualify for the Showdown — but more importantly, won the Busch BASS Angler-of-the-Year title.

Bad boys, bad boys
The families of Mark Kile and Alton Jones got a little unexpected surprise while staying in a hotel in Montgomery. "The first night of the tournament, Mark and I were sitting out in our boats re-tying, when a plainclothes police officer came over and told us that they were going to take down some gentlemen in (a nearby unit)," Jones said. "We were told to go inside and take our kids with us, lock the doors and just stay in there until everything cleared. I've never tied my baits on and gotten my rods ready so fast in my life. Later that night they did the raid. They did another one the next night that was about 10 times the scale of the first one. At about 2:30 in the morning, we heard all kinds of activity. I heard somebody get tackled right outside my door, and then I heard a loud voice scream, 'Freeze. Keep your hands up or I'll shoot you!' I had never heard anything like that. It was like a full-blown episode of Cops right outside our window. I was so scared, I didn't even want to look out. It was a pretty bizarre situation two nights in a row."

Harold's mishap
The day before the Tour event began, Harold Allen's week got off to the worst start possible while he was parking his boat at the Holiday Inn in nearby Prattville. "There were 30 of us lined up on this flat area adjacent to a real steep hill that falls down onto the interstate," he said. "Everybody was unhooking left and right. I had already unhooked and jacked up the front of the boat. It was bound up a little on the hitch, so I just put the truck in forward, and it came right off. I pulled away from the boat a little bit and looked in my mirror and there it went. I jumped out of the truck and ran back there real quick, but I heard it hit the bottom before I got there." Allen was horrified to find that his Skeeter boat had gone down a 300-foot, 45 degree embankment before coming to rest against a fence. The boat was largely undamaged, but its outboard and jackplate were wrenched from the stern. In a borrowed boat, Allen went on to finish fifth to qualify for the Classic. "That's the saving grace of this whole week," he added. "It's my 14th Classic and I'm real excited about it. We're going back to New Orleans. I can't wait to get to New Orleans."

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