MURRAY, Ky. – On Saturday, Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pa., weighed 23 pounds, 15 ounces of bass — the heaviest limit of fish at the FLW Tour bass fishing tournament on Kentucky Lake. Lefebre didn’t duplicate that effort Sunday, but it turns out he didn’t need to. At the end of the day, Lefebre’s five bass worth 19 pounds, 5 ounces gave him a total four-day weight of 77 pounds, 3 ounces as well as a championship trophy and $125,000.
“This feels good,” said Lefebre, who hasn’t won an FLW Tour event since 2004. “I can’t believe it because the Potomac (River) and (Lake) Champlain are the two I look at and say, ‘Those are the ones I have a chance to win.’ And after the Potomac, where I let one get away, this one is a shocker to me.”
Lefebre said he started the final day of competition the way he had previous days — about a mile from the takeoff ramp fishing a swimbait. In past days, he fished that area until he had a limit at about 8:30 a.m., but on Sunday the bite wasn’t as good and he left the spot with three fish at 7:30 and made a 12-mile run to look for more fish. He fished a Tabu 1-ounce brown jig with purple tinsel tipped with a green-pumpkin Yamamoto trailer on ledges and inlets into the main river channel.
Lefebre then gambled and returned to his starting spot, an area he said he had never fished after he left it in the morning. The move proved fruitless and he relocated. Lefebre then returned to his starting area again at 1 p.m.
“The wind had calmed down just a little bit and I was able to make the exact cast I wanted to make,” Lefebre said. “It was substantially different conditions, and I think it was the first cast that I caught the 5 ½ (pounder).
“I tried a million different things today,” Lefebre added.
Lefebre said he caught 15 to 20 keepers during the course of the day, and his three biggest fish he weighed Sunday came on a swimbait and the other two were caught on a jig.
Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., posted a total weight of 70 pounds, 11 ounces to claim second place. Baumgardner won $33,287 for his efforts.
The remaining top 10 pros finished the tournament in:
3rd: Kyle Mabrey, McCalla, Ala., 20 bass, 68-4, $28,720
4th: Jim Moynagh, Carver, Minn., 20 bass, 67-2, $23,753
5th: Jay Yelas, Corvallis, Ore., 20 bass, 67-0, $18,987
6th: J.T. Kenney, Palm Bay, Fla., 20 bass, 64-15, $16,377
7th: Todd Hollowell, Fishers, Ind., 20 bass, 63-6, $15,173
8th: Jacob Wheeler, Indianapolis, Ind., 20 bass, 61-8, $14,220
9th: Jacob Powroznik, Prince George, Va., 20 bass, 60-1, $13,267
10th: Ron Shuffield, Bismarck, Ark., 20 bass, 59-3, $12,313
Overall there were 50 bass weighing 148 pounds, 14 ounces caught by pros Sunday. The catch included 10 five-bass limits.
Casey Martin of New Market, Ala., won the co-angler division and $25,000 Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 51 pounds, 6 ounces followed by Terrance Smith of Fishers, Ind., in second place with 15 bass weighing 42-14 worth $7,134.
In FLW Tour Major tournaments, pros and co-anglers are competing for valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup. The top 35 pro and co-anglers in the point standings from the six FLW Tour Major tournaments will qualify.