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4:45 p.m. ET
Check-in time.
I think Ike lives by his mantra "Never give up." As the rest of the competitors head to the dock with about a minute left, Ike breaks off and then sits down to retie. He keeps casting even as his boat was easing toward the dock.
Time is up and everyone is in. Time to head in to the weigh-in.
4:40 p.m. ET
KVD just flew by, then whipped her into the bank and went to fishing. Gary is about 200 yards downstream, fishing a piling.
Here comes Gerald Swindle; there goes Gerald Swindle. He pulls up about a half-mile above us. Kelly Jordon is next. Gary catches two runts off one point. Two more come in, then a small keeper that goes back.
"I can hear the fat lady singing," Gary said. He's done.
4:30 p.m. ET
The fish are schooling in front of Ike as he fishes in front of a big crowd at the Amphitheater.
He just caught a fish that looked to be between 2.5 and 3 pounds. It's probably going to help him as he starts culling. The next cast he hooks up again, but it's a white bass.
There is only 10 minutes left and Ike is looking for some last minute heroics in front of everybody.
4:28 p.m. ET
Check in time is 4:45 p.m. With that said, it's time to start seeing some boats get close. Ike just pulled up and is working the actual check-in dock.
4:20 p.m. ET
These guys are pushing it to the limit. Typically with 10 minutes to go you would see a big part of the field making their last stand within sight of check in.
Not today. We see two boats close. One is Faircloth. The other too far to really tell.
I like it when these guys compete to the last second. At this level they all know anything can happen on the last cast.
4:10 p.m. ET
We are getting close to this round being over. The best we can figure with limited knowledge and just talking to anglers and spectators is this round is too close to call.
We are at the check-point waiting for guys to get close to check in.
It wouldn't surprise us to see someone catch one or two real close.
The spots are schooling near by giving us a show to watch.
4:10 p.m. ET
A couple more boats head north, though we're on the backside of a pocket and can't see who it might be.
The sun is blazing again.
Gary is working the same top where he caught the good one a while back.
No luck. He flips it; still nothing.
"I've had three flipping bites all day and I'm satisified they were all bream," Gary said.
The clock is ticking; where is that one more solid keeper? It always comes down to that last good one at the end and whether it shows or not. When does my turn come? When do I get to shine? On the next cast?
3:45 p.m. ET
The sun came back out and we shucked our rainsuit tops. The storm is rumbling away north, though no doubt there are more coming.
We're on the move. We go down river and then see Todd Faircloth boating upriver. Either he has a good stringer and wants to make sure he's close to home when it's quitting time, or he's scrambling for a kicker fish.
There are only a few minutes to go.
3:25 p.m. ET
A peal of thunder boomed so close that for a moment I thought it had struck a boat running up the river. It kept going, though.
I promise you it cleared off the Robert Trent Jones golf course up the road at Prattville. Time to go to the 19th Hole for a toddy.
Now Gary is fishing his way up the river toward Montgomery. Hopefully, the thunderstorm will keep heading north and get off the river. If it doesn't, there are going to be some wet, mad fishermen weighing in after while.
Gary is catching bass right along, but they're nothing as good as what he already has.
3:15 p.m. ET
Icaonelli's cameraman Justin Darling said they just culled up and he estimates Iaconelli's weight at around 12 pounds. His biggest is 4 pounds.
Outside early reports from VanDam, that's as big a bag as we've heard about all day. But Ike needs both VanDam and Reese to slip to have a shot at AOY and it doesn't sound like that's happening.
We also have Overstreet's photos back at the site, so they'll be up soon. We'll obviously know more in an hour once boats start pulling in.
3:10 p.m. ET
A raging thunderstorm just materialized over our boat, and a local guy following us just got his boat hung up on the snag where Gary caught the toad.
Gary's not happy, I'm not happy. Time out.
2:58 p.m. ET
Kicker No. 1: Gary just boated a bass of 3 pounds-plus. It was in isolated cover offshore. Gary's lure got snagged momentarily and when he got it out and it zoomed forward the 'head nailed it.
Five bass like that could put a hurting on the other guys. It's starting to sprinkle, but no complaints. It's not so hot now. Gary works the cover over and over, but that's it.
"He must have owned that top," Gary says of the good 'un he caught. For sure, it was a loner. We move on.
2:38 p.m. ET
Tommy Biffle just ran by and stopped on a point about a half-mile above us. This is about the time of day when the anglers realize that they've done about all the damage they're going to do on their best spots.
Now most of them are just picking at places where they might have caught one good keeper in practice, or had a good bite.
Here comes Keith Alan for an interview. Gary catches a small fish and Keith claims to have brought him good luck.
"It's not very big, so you must not be very lucky," Gary said.
"It's the best I could do on short notice," Keith deadpanned.
They talk about Gary's need to get a kicker or two. Reading between the lines, I'd say Gary isn't the only fisherman that Keith has visited who needs a toad. Gary catches a small keeper. Maybe Keith is a good luck charm. The little bumper doesn't help Gary, though.
2:30 p.m. ET
The bite has slowed down quite a bit this afternoon. We're not getting much news from our crew on the water, which means people aren't catching fish.
We did get a card full of Skeet Reese photos from this morning that should be in the gallery soon.
Overstreet said everyone is working their way back to Cooters Pond. He's periodically getting passed by anglers heading that way. They're sitting on Iaconelli now and not much is happening.
2:15 p.m. ET
This might not be news to you, but Skeet reports he's got a limit with a couple of decent fish and a couple he needs to swap out.
Likewise, Gary Klein needs to get a thumper or two to draw some ooohs and aaahs at the weigh-in in the Montgomery Civic Center this evening.
As KVD said yesterday, "somebody will come in with a big bag, they always do."
Instant air conditioner; Gary runs upriver and back to civilization. We can hear the traffic noise from I-65 and an ambulence screaming along. Come to think of it, let's go back to the boondocks.
1:55 p.m. ET
Swindle pulled up outside of another creek and this time started catching fish: a hybrid and a couple of smallish spotted bass. None that would help him at this point.
We've got partly sunny skies, but the wind has eased off a little, so it is getting humid. Many of the anglers that went south are starting to slowly work their way back and so are we.
Every time we stop we are passed by one or two anglers. KVD just pulled over near a small backwater and started fishing shallow cover. He looked to be pitching, something we haven't seen him doing yet today. If the weights we have him at are accurate, he's likely looking for one big bite that will make this race interesting.
I got an interesting call saying Skeet had more weight than we had been thinking. If that's true, KVD will need every ounce — the weights are that tight today.
We are off in search of Tommy Biffle. He was my pick coming into this tournament and we haven't seen him since this morning.
1:55 p.m. ET
"Little bitty old fish," said Gary Klein, using the parlance of a professional bass angler.
I don't know what it means exactly, but I know it's not good because suddenly all he's catching are 8- and 10-inch fish. We go back to square one upriver and start the circuit again.
Skeet Reese is in the distance, being trailed by an ESPN Outdoors film crew; looks like they're getting some good footage. It seems as if the fishing has slowed at this time of day all week. The sun is high and beating down.
Have the bass gone deep, or into cover?
1:35 p.m. ET
Reese is in Cooters Pond flipping the bank methodically. Cooters was expected to be a hot spot when this thing started, but really only Tommy Biffle spent any significant time there. It's basically just a backwater with plenty of places to flip and pitch. Reese has yet to upgrade on the south side.
We also got a report from Russow that Menendez only has 6 pounds.
If you're watching BASSTrakk, you've probably noticed it hasn't moved in about three hours. Signal, among other things, has it down right now, so we're going to have to live with what we can get from our crew on the water.
BASSCam is good and has a lot from Reese, who has had Keith Alan on him all morning.
1:30 p.m. ET
We almost became involved in a rat race for a bit. Swindle came running back north, so we started to follow. Unfortunately, we ran by KVD and his posse as they started to blast off. It started to get hairy there for a minute, but thanks to Overstreet's superior navigational ability we survived.
Swindle has been junk fishing and we watched him unsuccessfully work the mouth of a creek that had a nice current break. He did confirm an earlier rumor that he has 9 pounds in the well.
The funny thing was, due to pretournament chatter, Swindle thinks he's in last place. In reality, he's a lot closer to the lead than he thinks he is.
1:20 p.m. ET
Outside of Kevin VanDam, every report we get from an angler has them at 9 or 10 pounds. The two latest are Gerald Swindle and Mike Iaconelli.
We also know that Reese is officially south of Montgomery. So his solo run north lasted almost six hours and got him the same 9 or 10 pounds everyone is catching south.
This could turn out to truly be a game of ounces.
If KVD has the lead, and all the 9 or 10 pound bags are 9 or 10 pounds, it doesn't sound like there's going to be much separating 10th from third, and those places have never meant more.
I think also with KVD catching them today, we can officially narrow the race down to the same two guys for the third straight year. Reese took it in 2007, KVD in 2008 so I guess this is kind of the rubber match.
1:11 p.m. ET
Gary is back to his powerfishing routine, going down the bank, casting and winding.
All the boats that went below us are still down there someplace, and except for Tommy Biffle going by about an hour ago, we haven't seen anybody from up the way.
I'm melting; it's hot and there isn't much breeze. The sun is in and out, but mostly the latter.
In Spartan fashion, Gary quietly goes about his business, despite the muggy weather.
12:50 p.m. ET
I thought Cliff Pace's days of fishing point would be over after we left Jordan. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised to pull up on him making casts to a sloping point just off the current.
He quickly pulled up the motor and made a move. As we followed him, we found ourselves surrounded by competitors. Alton Jones was still fishing the middle of the channel where we saw him earlier. Gerald Swindle came flying by heading to the dam, but we don't have enough gas to follow.
Kelly Jordon was fishing a bank near where Alton sat.
"I came down here to fish right there," Jordon said, pointing to where Jones was fishing. "I just started flipping this bank and culled three times."
Jordon estimated his weight around 8 to 9 pounds.
In the frenzy of boats, we lost Cliff Pace, but he's been elusive all week.
12:45 p.m. ET
Gary culls another small keeper. He spotted these fish ripping into a wad of shad they had backed into a small pocket. Naturally, as soon as he got within casting distance they disappeared. Still he managed to catch three, one of them a keeper. His best fish is a 3-pound hybrid; no good.
12:35 p.m.
Skeet has finally upgraded, but not by much. He's boated a 2-pounder, adding critical ounces to his creel.
That still keeps him around 8 pounds, maybe a little more. But he still has some work to do to catch up to KVD. We know he still has a couple of dinks in his well.
The difference in those ounces will be big. In the first two days of competition, he edged Biffle by an ounce, while KVD fell below Swindle by an ounce.
Those two ounces made a big difference in the overall standings. You can bet every ounce Skeet can capture is just a little more weight off his shoulders.
12:30 p.m. ET
Randy Howell fishes another 100 yards of cover similar to that where he caught his fish without a sniff. The sun is trying to peek out here and it is getting hot…very hot.
The wind has calmed down and so has our enthusiasm. We need fresh blood, so we are headed back up the river now to find some guys we left behind earlier. We know Mark Menendez and Cliff Pace are here. Mark has had great success here in the past, so I think it is time to find out how he fares today.
12:20 p.m. ET
Gary boats a keeper that allows him to cull, but it won't help him much. Most of the bass he's been catching would't count and the ones that do are in the 12- to 14-inch range. Gary just catches his seventh keeper and culls one. He picks up a couple of ounces. The lure was snagged and when Gary finally worked it loose the little largemouth hit it.
A few minutes later, a little spot comes in the boat, and then back out again. The current seems to be slowing down quite a bit, because we were under the assumption that the current would be running 24/7 for a few days. Of course, the damkeepers at Bouldin Dam don't consult us when they do what they want to do anyway. Gary gets another dink.
12:05 p.m. ET
We left VanDam back in a small area off the main river. Howell is just upriver and told us he has been struggling.
"None of my patterns are working today and I don't know why," Howell said.
He's in a backwater area similar to the one KVD was fishing. Current is washing back in there off the main river. He disappeared behind an island and we heard a large splash and then a cheer.
"Just caught a 4-pounder," Howell said.
Unfortunately, we missed it. I'm going to blame it on the poor boat control by Overstreet, but I could tell he was disappointed too. With as few fish as we are seeing caught, that fish could have been the crown jewel of today's gallery.
We've gotten into a better position, so all he has to do is catch another. This is prime Randy Howell water back here.
11:55 a.m. ET
Skeet just went Ike. He just missed another one of those good ones and according to Larry Towell, one of our photographers, "he woke up the river with an agonizing scream."
It may have been loud, but still not loud enough for anyone else to hear since he's still about 40 miles away from the rest of the field.
Skeet has a small limit and judging from info we're getting from KVD and others, desperately needs to start culling up.
Either way, this blow by blow day is starting to get really interesting.
We have KVD leading and Skeet somewhere in the middle of the pack.
11:47 a.m. ET
Rob Russow and James Overstreet are in VanDam's hop pocket about as far south as you can go on this river from Montgomery.
He's so far we can't get a reading on what he may or may not have in his live well.
Russow just called to let us know, VanDam caught a 2-pounder and threw it back. The only conclusion you can draw from that is he has a limit and it weighs at least 10 pounds.
How much more than that and we can only guess at the moment. Once we get a chance to talk with him, we will get better info.
No one needs to be reminded that KVD has to win this event or separate himself by about four or more places to have a shot at winning the title.
Knowing KVD, we also know he's never out of it. With a mysterious limit in his boat, according to all the info we can gather at this time, it appears as if he's currently in the lead.
11:45 a.m. ET
We just got to a new place. Gary punched his Triton and we fairly flew. My britches legs were up past my knees by the time we got here. "You know it sucks when Tommy Biffle is fishing in the middle," says Gary. Sure enough, upriver Tommy Biffle is way out on a flat, fishing with nary a scrap of cover in sight That's quite out of character, but Tommy is a tricky lad and whatever he has must be good, offshore or not. He wasn't shy about fishing for offshore smallmouths at Lake Oneida in New York, and that's what brung him to this dance. Gary catches a throwback. We're drifting down a bank again.
11:20 a.m. ET
I thought Faircloth was far south, but after KVD flew by us and we gave chase almost to the dam, I probably could spit into the Gulf.
There seems to be some isolated trees that he is fishing, but it is hard to tell. It's main river stuff and there is current all over it.
He's got two of his favorite baits on and he is smothering the cover with them.
His cameraman was talking to him about the TTBAOY race, because VanDam needs to win this tournament to put some pressure on and make the race interesting. Today, he and Skeet Reese have been fishing about as far apart as you can get.
11:33 a.m. ET
Gary Klein crosses over the river to another gorgeous stretch of bank. I just got an e-mail from Gerald Crawford, ya'll. He says he wishes he was here. Not half as much as I wish you were here, Gerald, and I bet I'm not the only one who feels that way.
Gary just catches another dink. I guess the little fellows are lining the banks to take advantage of the willowfly hatch. We don't have any boats around us, a far cry from Lake Jordan.
Hey, all you Federation guys, I saw Jody Hatley last evening. Jody used to keep all the B.A.S.S. Federation and Open guys lined out and she didn't take any sass from anybody. She's still as pretty as ever and acts like she doesn't have a care in the world. I guarantee you Miss Jody would keep the 12 guys in this tournament on the straight and narrow. Am I right, boys?
11:15 a.m. ET
Skeet is making his way south. He's currently in a backwater lake about three miles above the take-off area. The map says it's called Jackson.
It must be shallow. He's asked the camera boats to stay on the river channel while he slips in and works it over.
He's still by himself, while almost everyone else is 40 miles away.
11:11 a.m. ET
We were sent on a mission to confirm Faircloth's 17 pounds as reported on BASSTrakk. Just as we were headed to look for him, he blew by us headed south.
We gave chase, running almost all the way to the dam before he stopped to fish. On the way, we passed Menendez, Howell, Pace and VanDam. Amazingly, KVD was all by himself. How often do you see VanDam with no spectator boats? He must have left them all in the dust on his 40 mile sprint south this morning.
We stopped on Faircloth and his first cast resulted in a fish catch. He said he had about 7 pounds.
I was struck by how different this end of the river is. First, the water is still clean. It hasn't been fully impacted by the influx of water like the upper river has. It's also not really high. Klein said this morning that in practice, this part of the river fell a foot or two. It might have come back up a bit, but it isn't flooded.
As I type this Alton Jones comes by and stops out in the middle of the river. There is nothing even close, but it looks like he got hung on something so there might be some brush down there. The current is absolutely ripping through here.
Also, the rain has been light and variable for the last 15 minutes or so. I was hoping we outran it to the south, but the skies have been dreary all morning. We're going to stay on Jones for a bit and then head up to where we saw that bunch of guys. KVD has a lot on the line and we are going to take a look at how he has fared.
11:08 a.m. ET
Gary just caught his fifth small keeper and then caught two dinks. He's got about 6 1/4 pounds and will start culling. He's going down the bank and trying to hit the wood cover that isn't visible. He hangs up (temporarily) every now and then, but he is getting a fair amount of bites.
The pace down the bank quickens as Gary continues to powerfish his way dowstream. Not satisified with recent results, Gary pulls up the trolling motor and we're out of there. We pull up to another bank downstream. There is a lot of junk floating by, including mats of floating grass. The water is higher, but Gary doesn't think it's had any effect on the fishing one way or the other.
"I have the sense that if I get around fish, they'll bite," says Gary. "I'll catch three or four bass, than I'll hit a dry spell, then get into a few more fish. They're aggressive enough, providing I put a lure in front of them."
11:05 a.m. ET
Skeet has a limit and continues to work his area to the north of everyone else.
He's switching through four different baits, hitting wood cover on the river channel and grass beds on some flats.
The switches are with a spinnerbait, topwater lures and soft-plastics. It could pay off for him. He just had a giant blow his topwater lure completely out of the water, but he was unable to hook up with it.
If pre-tournament predictions hold, he could get all he needs with a couple more of those bigger bites that actually catch a hook.
Currently, we just keep marveling at the fact that he ran north while everyone else ran south. Skeet's not made any bad decisions all year that we can put our finger on, so this total break with the pack may be a stroke of genius or may be something else.
11 a.m. ET
We just confirmed that Reese does have his fifth keeper, and we estimate his weight at 9 to 10 pounds. He has a 2-8 and a 3 pounder as his big fish.
Our guys also watched him miss a "a hog" at the boat. They are not pulling current from Bouldin Dam right now.
We also confirmed that Todd Faircloth has 7 pounds, not the 16 BASSTrakk has him with.
If you want more on Reese's decision this morning, check out his interview on BassCam with Keith Alan. More on what he's doing coming in a couple minutes.
10:45 a.m. ET
Gary sees a bass come up and pop a shad and quickly casts a small walking surface lure to the general vicinity. No takers. He casts his primary lure and drapes his line over a tree branch. The commotion sends a small shower of willowflies to the surface, and, within seconds, they're consumed by bream.
A couple of casts later, Gary catches a small bass that goes back. He's got four small keepers that weigh maybe 5 pounds or so. We go by a blue heron, and it doesn't fly off cussing us like they usually do. It eyeballs Gary as we move on. Then, here comes the blue heron again and lands about 12 yards in front of the boat. I think the heron likes Gary; he makes new friends wherever he goes.
10:40 a.m. ET
BASSTrakk has Todd Faircloth with 16-15. We're trying to get a hold of Overstreet and Rob, who are close to him, to confirm the weight.
If there's a worse county in America for AT&T service, I'll have to experience it to believe it.
But as soon as we can get a hold of those guys, we'll let you know about Faircloth's weight.
We have him with the only guy with a limit. Biffle has 7 pounds and Iaconelli has 6 and a half.
It still has Reese too low, but I haven't heard if he's boated his fifth keeper, so last I heard he's still at around 8 pounds on four fish. He's moved out of the canal and is back close to the place he started this morning.
VanDam is still farthest away from the weigh-in site, although Alton Jones and Randy Howell are slowly creeping his way. We still have at 2-10, but our guys haven't made it that far to confirm.
10:35 a.m. ET
Distance can be deceiving on this river. Our BASSTrakk man, Kyle Carter, reported KJ only 3 miles from us on the left. After about 10 miles we found him on the right.
The lesson we learned is that these anglers are moving around a lot. Part of it is they are still adjusting to the new conditions.
KJ has been sitting at the bottom of his boat for the last 5 minutes. A spectator said he just lost a big fish. We saw him sitting a lot at the tournament on Jordan. Hopefully, he can turn this day around.
10:22 a.m. ET
Gary moved again, this time to another creek mouth flat. He saw schooling bass here in practice, though he only managed to hook one of them and he lost it.
"I haven't been able to catch them on these flats except at the place where I started," he said.
We're drifting along and Gary is casting toward toward elephant ears.
"I darn near won a Classic in New Orleans doing this," he said.
No elephant ear pattern here, though he does manage to catch another throwback. A few casts later,
"I lost him," he said, "but it wasn't a keeper."
The next one is, a couple of minutes later. It's a 2-pounder. Then he catches another dink. It's starting to sprinkle.
10:15 a.m. ET
A dog is barking constantly over Ike's shoulder in this creek we have followed him up. The rain has changed the whole river significantly, and every spot I have seen has muddy water. Here, I can barely see the trolling motor just under the surface.
Iaconelli has been changing baits frequently, making presentations at everything: docks, wood and grass. There doesn't seem to be any current here, but floating debris has washed up here anyway and makes casting a challenge.
Our cameraman reports Ike has two medium-sized keepers and as I type this, he catches another keeper out of the floating scum that washed up near the bank.
The dog is still barking and we're going to find another angler.
10:12 a.m. ET
Gary Klein has moved upriver a few hundred yards and switched sides. Immediately, he catches a small hybrid striper.
"Just the right eating size," Gary said.
The hybrid goes back and Klein keeps moving down the bank. There's a kingfisher fussing because another kingfisher came within 100 yards of its territory. I guarantee you there are more kingfishers per river mile on the Alabama River than anywhere else in the world. It says a lot about the abundance of minnows in this river. The kingfishers are so fat they can hardly fly. If they got into the willowfly hatch that we just left, they'd have to swim around like ducks, they'd be so heavy. Gary just missed a fish, but thinks it was a dink with great expectations. We move a mile or so downstream; another willowfly hatch here, too, attended by a few dozen swallows. Gary goes fishing.
9:43 a.m. ET
Gary Klein is fishing a run where he caught a 4-pound largemouth Wednesday in practice.
"Two other largemouths of about the same size followed it to the boat," Gary said.
An hour or so ago, he started fishing where he caught a 4-pound spot in practice. Spots aren't homebodies like largemouths, so maybe at least the 'heads will be around here somewhere. Gary foul-hooks another little spot.
"I didn't think there was much to it and then the rod loaded up. No wonder," Gary said as he removed the hook from the dink's back and chunks it overboard.
9:36 a.m. ET
Iaconelli has been zooming around and we finally tracked him down. Not too surprisingly as soon as I dropped the trolling motor, Ike was off and running again. He had been fishing on the main river right across from Klein. Our intrepid reporter Colin is with him for the day, so I'll let him tell that story.
Ike as usual has boats following him, while Klein has none. Shouldn't be too hard to find him again with all the racket they make running down the river.
It's a cool morning, much more comfortable than the humidity that would be upon us if these clouds were gone. There is a good chance of rain today, meaning a good chance I'll be soaked to the bone come weigh-in. I'll bet the river continues to rise as well.
We are on the move downriver again.
9:29 a.m. ET
Reese is moving to the canal where everybody bunched up at 11 a.m. yesterday during practice.
The reason almost everyone gave that a shot is because rumor says there are a lot of tournaments won out of that canal when they're pulling water. Well, they are in the process of dropping Lake Jordan a significant amount for maintenance purposes, which means a lot of water should be moving through there the next couple of days.
Nobody was too impressed with the bite there yesterday, but Reese might have thought if he were the only guy in there, it might be worth his time.
We'll see if there's any movement when he gets there. His BASSTrakk still has him at 2-12 for the day, which is wrong.
But we have two boats on him, so we'll let you know if this move pays off.
9:23 a.m. ET
Gary fishes down the bank where he caught the two keepers, then turns around and runs it again. He's caught four bass around the willowfly hatch, counting the two throwbacks.
Now he gets another dink. The day is brightening, and so far no rain. Here's another small bass, a keeper that will be the first one culled, no doubt. That gives Gary about 3 pounds and change.
9:10 a.m. ET
Gary catches a throwback, his first fish. We are drifting down the river. He catches another dink and back it goes.
We've just passed a huge willowfly hatch.
"I bet that little fellow has some of those flies in his belly," Gary said.
Klein grew up in northern California and spent many happy years fishing the trout streams around Lake Shasta and Wiskeytown. Gary just caught his first keeper, a small spot; two casts later he catches another small keeper.
9:09 a.m. ET
Biffle has some history in this area plus he spent time here Tuesday. That knowledge is important today. With much of the prime laydowns underwater, he will be relying on memory to tell him where to throw.
The water temperature back in here has fallen 3 or 4 degrees from Tuesday to 80. I'm not sure if that makes a difference, but it's an observation. Part of the changing conditions over the last several days.
Biffle is making a move and so are we, down the river to find another angler.
9:04 a.m. ET
Our guys on Reese say he has four fish for 8 pounds, 12 ounces, but he has spotty cell service so BASSTrakk hasn't updated. Mark Menendez thinks it will take 15 pounds a day to win, but average bag will be around 10 to 12.
Reese just needs to be a little better than average. The fact that he has that much in the boat this early is a good sign for him. BASSTrakk has VanDam with one fish at a little over a pound.
The reality for VanDam is that he most likely needs to win this thing. To see the breakdown of who needs to finish where to win, go here.
8:55 a.m. ET
It looks like everybody we see is fishing creek mouths. Gary is too, but hasn't had a bite.
There are a lot of creeks and names here that loom large in B.A.S.S. history: Cooter's Pond, Bear Creek, Catoma Creek, Swift Creek, Pintlala Creek.
I used to hunt deer at Pintlala in the Bass N' Bucks hunting club with Ray Scott, Dave Precht of Bassmaster Magazine fame and company photographer Gerald Crawford. Those were the fine old times.
One day Ray got it in his head that we all needed to have two-way radios to communicate when hunting. So we all got Motorolas. Well, it got to where all Ray wanted to do was yak on the radio all the time, so the rest of us would just turn off our radios and hunt in peace unless we heard a shot, and then we'd check in.
Ray couldn't figure out what was going on. He'd ask why we hadn't answered him and we'd tell him that the planted pines must have blocked reception. Of course, I always told him that because Dave and Gerald would never lie.
"Well, I tell you what we're going to do," Ray said. "We're going to dump these radios in a grocery bag and take them back to Motorola at the SHOT Show," which is the big annual shooting sports show.
Ray did exactly that; I went with him. Those poor people at Motorola's booth never knew what hit them. Hahaha. Hey, don't say anything about this to Ray if you run into him, OK?
8:50 a.m. ET
We saw Tommy fishing here in practice and the differences in the water level is amazing. A few logs he was casting to in just a few inches of water are now completely submerged. The higher water has much more flooded cover available on the bank, but now those few fish he shook off in practice have more room to spread out. It can make the fish harder to pin down.
Biffle picks up a topwater for a few casts, but almost immediately picks back up his flipping stick. He's getting deep into the flooded cover with both his boat and lure, but we have yet to see him boat a fish.
8:40 a.m. ET
We've reached a big backwater downriver, and I can already see a competitor and spectators lined up. It's a pretty hazy morning, and the current is flowing. The water is up even from yesterday, probably a foot or two. That should make the shallow-water fishing even better.
In fact, as we are idling back in here, a spectator boat tells us Biffle aleady has four fish. You will have to confirm that with BassTrakk to be sure, but it sounds like quick work for the first hour of competition.
We're going to hang on Biffle a little bit to see if Overstreet can get a good photo before we keep heading south.
8:40 a.m. ET
Skeet has the lead at the moment, with two fish and 2 pounds, 12 ounces, according to BASSTrakk.
I still can't believe he went north. It's pretty wild to look at BASSTrakk and see a wad of boats lining the Alabama River south, and a single dot up north. Looking at how far he went and where he's fishing, I think he's sold out to the decision.
BASSTrakk says Kelly Jordon, Iaconelli and Todd Faircloth are the only other three with bass right now.
Kevin VanDam is farther downriver than anybody, well past Cooter's Pond, where it was rumored a lot of guys would end up. He's probably more than 40 miles downriver right now.
8:35 a.m. ET
Gary Klein moved from California to Texas in 1986, two years before he married his wife Jana. They have two girls, Sierra, who's 12, and Lakota, 15. Gary met Jana at a fishing tackle show. Jana had Just graduated from Texas A&M and was working for a security company at the show. Gary was smitten from the get-go.
We're running again, heading south. We pass Mike Iaconelli and Kelly Jordon, fishing the main river The water is really up and there are a lot of floaters. Watch carefully if you're running the river.
"The water is a lot dirtier than it was yesterday," Gary observes.
8:18 a.m. ET
Gary is meandering around and fishing the sides of a big sandbar. He hasn't had a touch yet. He caught some good fish here in practice and thinks it has the potential to produce a real toad.
Gary doesn't talk much, unlike some anglers, such as Mark Menendez and Mike Iaconelli. But Gary is quiet by nature, and always does as much listening as he does talking.
Right now he's trying to figure out these fool bass. No more boats have come downriver, which is sort of surprising, but there's a lot of water between us and Montgomery. The weather is overcast and there's a better-than-average chance of rain.
I hope it doesn't rain like it did Wednesday afternoon; Lord have mercy. A lot of the guys took out all their tackle and laid it out at the covered boatyard to dry. It looked like a big garage sale.
8:04 a.m. ET
The game is on and Gary Klein and I go flying down the Alabama River.
The last time Gary Klein and I fished together was in 1974. His career was just starting and he was touring the South for his boat company sponsor and visiting various dealerships. The boat dealer in Pensacola, where I was outdoor editor of the Pensacola News-Journal, asked me to go fishing with this kid from California, who was a rising star in the still-new profession of tornament bass fishing.
Gary and I went fishing on the Perdido River. Gary started chunking a Lunker Lure. No way this boy is going to catch a bass in January on a buzzbait, I thought. About five casts later, Gary sets the hook on a 5-pound largemouth. Pretty impressive, but that's what guys like Gary do; make the impossible look easy. Gary fished his first B.A.S.S. Event in 1979 and never looked back.
7:50 a.m. ET
The game is on and Gary Klein and I go flying down the Alabama River.
What a wild ride. After a long haul bouncing aroound on boat wakes, Klein stops at the mouth of a big bay. The first seven boats, counting ours, headed downriver and more can be heard coming. Gary is trying to catch schooling bass. Shad are popping everywhere. "They were schooling in here big time yesterday morning," says the Texas angler. "I caught a 4-pound largemouth here." The bass are no-shows now, but Gary expects big things here.
7:44 a.m. ET
The question of who is going north and who is going south has been answered.
One boat went north: the leader of the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, Skeet Reese.
When we talked to him yesterday early afternoon, he didn't seem to have much north. Shows what we know.
We heard he's only going about 15 miles, so maybe he has something he wants to hit early and then run south. Or maybe he just figured he's better off with half the river to himself.
Whatever the reason, he's certainly not hedging his bet and playing it safe. At least not at 6 a.m.
He could just as easily be south with everyone else in an hour, but that's a lot of traveling when he's not fishing.
It was an interesting sight watching an entire field head one direction, except one guy — the most important guy.
We have everyone on BASSTrakk, so we'll know if he heads south, and in this blog format, if we know it, you know it.
Keith Alan and Rob Russow are on the water with BASSCam cameras, Russow will be blogging frequently, Colin Moore is with Gary Klein, James Overstreet has camera in hand, and Steve Bowman and myself will be blogging from BASSTrakk — we should have things covered. If we don't, we're not worth our salt.
Launch photo gallery coming soon.
Welcome
Welcome to the Toyota Trucks Championship Week version of the live BASS blog (which will look suspiciously like the live blog we ran during the Classic.)
Our crew is in Montgomery and we're not leaving until the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the year is crowned next Friday night. Over the next 10 days, you can expect frequent posts on this live blog, especially during tournament hours, as we follow the guys on BASSTrakk.
We'll have end-to-end coverage on Bassmaster.com from the moment these guys pull their boats into the boatyard (which has already happened), to when they drive off at the end of next week. You can expect news, features, photos, and the BASS trifecta: BASSCast, BASSTrakk and the new BASSCam.
We experimented with BASSCam at the final event in Syracuse (we called it Kyte then), but it's going to be an entirely new beast this week. It will launch tomorrow (Thursday) morning, so be sure and check that out (along with our new design).
That's the overview.
Thursday is the first day of practice. We'll be on the water, trying to find all 12 and reporting back with photos, blogs and BASSCam video all day.
Let the madness begin.
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