Interviewer: Hey, tell me about your day.
Mike Iaconelli: Terrific day. Today is one of those days where you dream about having a day like that. Everything went perfect. All the big bites came in the boat, never missed the fish. Made the lock with minutes to spare. Caught my last 5 1/2 pounder, with one minute to go before I had to leave. I mean, it was a story book day. I don't know if it's enough, to be honest with you, it might not be. But, I got no regrets, I'm real happy with how I performed this week, and just looking forward to see what happens.
Interviewer: What was your primary pattern?
Mike: Primary pattern this week was, I fished the depression, in the back of a flat. It was basically a hole, about a 7 foot hole. The fish were in there staging, they were staging fish, stopping there before they spawn. And I pretty much used a one-two punch all week. I threw reaction baits to cover water. I threw a Laser Lure shallow diver square bill, in a custom black and blue color. I threw a black and blue, chatterbait, style lure by Longshank, called Ike's Revenge.
And then when I saw a real nice piece of cover, when I saw something that really caught my eye like a stump, or a group of sticks, I would pitch a Berkley' Ike's Finesse Jig, or a Tru-Tungsten tube, to that cover. That's what I did all week. Today, the water temperature got real cold. It got down to 50 degrees in there. So I relied primarily today on that Tru-Tungston tube. Had a quarter ounce Tru-Tungston weight, 4/0 Youvella Hook, and I fished on 20 pound Berkley Trilene, with a 7'2 Team Daiwa Mike Laconelli signature rod, and a Steez reel.
Interviewer: What's your most memorable fish of the tournament?
Mike: Absolutely the last one I caught. I told the camera guy, we got to leave in one minute. Looked down, clock said 1:54, set the hook, caught about a 5 1/4 pounder. Made a quick cull, got on the outboard, and just made it back to the lock before it closed. So that last minute fish is the one that will stay on my mind forever.
Interviewer: Now if you win this, what will that do for you? Two classic titles.
Mike: Man, that would mean a lot. It would be a big honor. Classic's the biggest title in the world. But definitely I'm going to use it for some good and hopefully I'll have a platform that I can go out and promote the sport. Introduce fishing to new people and get kids involved. So, we'll see. If it's meant to be it'll happen, if not, I'll try again next year.
Interviewer: You think you can give a thank you to BassResource.com.
Mike: Absolutely. A special thank you to Glenn, and BassResource.com for everything over the years. I've been associated with the website, pretty much my whole fishing career. So I just want to say a big thank you.
