Former Federation Angler Scores Narrow Victory in the Big Easy
With three grizzled veterans hot on his heels, the 31-year-old New Jersey pro held up to the pressure of being the leader entering the final round of professional bass fishing's marquee event to score a narrow victory in the 33rd annual Bassmaster Classic.
In the battle of the Big Easy, Iaconelli's battled for every bit of his triumph.
Iaconelli brought a five-bass limit weighing 10 pounds, 14 ounces to the scales Sunday, for a three-day total of 37-14, to electrify the New Orleans Arena crowd of about 11,000 and score a 1-pound, 12-ounce victory over Gary Klein of Texas (36-2). Another Texan, Harold Allen, finished third with 34-3, followed by legendary Florida angler pro Roland Martin (31-9) and Virginia's Curt Lytle (31-3).
To the winner of fishing's Big Show go the spoils to the tune of $200,000 and a piece of fishing immortality.
"As confident as I am and as sure as I was that I would do this eventually, I'm in shock," said Iaconelli, who was competing in just his fourth Classic. "When I realized that I had won, I looked down at my mom, and I'll never forget the look on her face. What a feeling."
Iaconelli entered this Classic with extraordinary confidence in one particular area in the Venice region of the Delta that he had located during an official six-day scouting period a month ago. When he visited the shallow, grassy lagoon during the lone practice day on Wednesday and shook off a dozen strikes in about an hour, Iaconelli grew even more assured about his chances.
"I can sum my feelings up in two words," he said, "Yeah, baby!
Iaconelli fished his first Classic in New Orleans in 1999, when he finished sixth as a representative from the BASS Federation tournament system. That performance gave him the confidence to launch his career as a full-time touring pro.
His Classic success came on a trio of Mann's lures - a Stone jig, Super Finesse Worm and prototype Swim Worm.
The two soft-plastic baits combined to help Iaconelli catch the most pivotal bass of the week, with about five minutes remaining in his fishing day, when a 33/4-pound fish swirled at (and missed) the Swim Worm before then inhaling the Super Finesse Worm.
"What a perfect punctuation to the day," he said.
For Klein, 45, the 2003 Classic will be remembered as another one that got away. He has come close in three of his 21 Classic appearances.
"Second place sucks," he said candidly. "I'm just being honest. But all this is going to do is make me more determined when we start next season."
Klein said his opportunity to win the tournament slipped away Saturday, when he lost a 4-pound bass and a 3-pound bass. "That was my opportunity to close the door, and I missed it," he said.
In a bizarre incident Sunday at about 11 a.m., a camper on shore shot a gun over Klein's boat, he said.
"I was driving my boat south in Bayou Camp Town and a man in a camp on the west side of the bayou was aiming a long gun at our boat," Klein wrote in a voluntary statement to the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office. "As we passed by, he shot over my boat."
Allen said having to leave his best fishing hole early might have cost him a shot at winning. He had been fishing in an isolated canal when a man in an airboat pulled up and told him it was private property and to leave. The same man had told him another canal where he was fishing Saturday was also private property. Allen said there were no signs at either canal indicating they were private property.
"I was pretty messed up mentally," said Allen, who did not catch another bass for more than two hours after being asked to leave the canal. "I feel like we might have had sort of a chance to win this thing or maybe finish second if things had not gone the way they did."