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CLAUSEN FINISHES OFF WIRE-TO-WIRE
BASSMASTER CLASSIC WIN
Washington State Pro Scores 5- Pound Plus
Victory on Lake Kissimmee
Feb. 26, 2006 - ISSIMMEE, Fla. - On a day when weather
wreaked havoc on his closest pursuers, Luke Clausen of Washington
state put the finishing touches on a rare wire-to-wire victory
Sunday in the 36th annual CITGO Bassmaster Classic on Lake Tohopekaliga.
Fishing fans who couldn't watch the win in person saw it on ESPN
beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.
A cold, steady rain and relentless 20 mph winds shuffled the
leaderboard in the final round, but Clausen managed to catch
a third consecutive limit. His catch of 11 pounds, 13 ounces,
gave him a total of 56-2. That was enough to hold off hard-charging
CITGO Bassmaster Elite Series angler Rick Morris of Virginia,
who had a total of 51 pounds, and Ron Shuffield of Arkansas,
who had 47-14.
Clausen became just the seventh angler to post a wire-to-wire
win in Bassmaster Classic history. He also set the record for
heaviest winning Classic weight, which formerly was 55-10 and
held by Davy Hite. A capacity crowd of 10,019 at the Orange
County Convention Center watched Clausen receive the most important
trophy in professional fishing.
"It hasn't really sunk in yet," said the 27-year-old,
who was the youngest Bassmaster Classic competitor in this year's
tournament and won $500,000 with the Classic title. "It's
like you're in the middle of a dream. It's surreal."
Clausen's biggest career achievement centered around fishing
isolated vegetation in 3 to 4 feet of water in the southeastern
corner of Lake Kissimmee. He said he fished a 6-inch, junebug-colored
Mann's HardNose worm along the lake bottom.
"I probably had the strongest area of the lake and I understood
it better than the other guys," Clausen said. "That
was why I won."
Meanwhile, Morris, 44, made a charge from fifth place into the
runner-up position with a final-round catch of 13-11. His success
came on a Chatterbait and War Eagle spinnerbait. Unlike the other
Bassmaster Classic contenders, he concentrated his efforts in
the Kissimmee River.
"It would have been nice to have had the Classic as my first
(BASS) win," said Morris, who has fished BASS for 14 years.
Morris qualified for the Bassmaster Classic by finishing second
in the CITGO Bassmaster Open Championship in December 2005. "I
seem to be second quite a bit. I guess you have to finish second
before you can be first," he said.
Shuffield, 50, made a gallant run in his 15th Classic appearance,
but dropped from second to third with a final-round total of
7-15. The same lures and area in Lake Kissimmee that produced
his 21-pound limit on Saturday weren't much of a match for Sunday's
drastic weather conditions. He only weighed in three bass and
reported missing 10 other strikes.
"It just wasn't my day," Shuffield said. "I always
said that when it's your time to win a tournament, you can't
help but win."
Tournament favorite Terry Scroggins, 37 years old and one of
two Floridians in the field, fought his way into a nail-biting
fourth-place finish. The angler's intimate knowledge of the tournament
waters allowed him to sandwich two solid performances (10-14
and 7-11) around a second-round charge of 28-6 to finish with
46-15. He fished on Lake Kissimmee with a prototype Zoom crawfish
imitation around deeper pads and hydrilla.
"I lost this tournament on the first day," he said.
"Nothing I did that day seemed to work out."
Defending Classic champion Kevin VanDam capped off a remarkable
comeback after opening in 25th place. He rebounded with limits
of 14-15 and 15-7 to finish in fifth place with 44-8. Last year,
VanDam won the Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh with the a record-low
winning Classic weight of 12-15.
Clausen took Sunday's Purolator Big Bass award with a 5-13 largemouth.
Total attendance enjoying the weigh-in for the three-day event
was 21,742. In total, more than 62,000 fishing fans attended
some facet of the 2006 Bassmaster Classic.
The 2006 CITGO Bassmaster Classic is hosted by the Kissimmee
Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Central Florida Sports
Commission.
BASS is the worldwide authority on bass fishing, sanctioning
more than 20,000 events through the BASS Federation annually.
Guided by its mission to serve all fishing fans, BASS sets the
standard for credibility, professionalism, sportsmanship and
conservation, as it has for nearly 40 years.
BASS stages bass fishing tournaments for every skill level and
culminates with the CITGO Bassmaster Classic. Through its clubs,
youth programs, aquatic resource advocacy, magazine publishing
and multimedia platforms, BASS offers the industry's widest array
of services and support to its nearly 550,000 members. The organization
is headquartered in Celebration, Fla.
For more information, contact BASS Communications at (407) 566-2208
or visit www.bassmaster.com/classic
Click here to download on-the-water photos of Day 3 or click
here for weigh-in photos at ESPNoutdoorsmedia.com. If you do
not have a user name and password, click here to apply.
2006 CITGO Bassmaster Classic 02/24-02/26 Lake Toho, Kissimmee
Fla.
(PRO Division) Standings Day 3
Angler
Hometown
No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$
1. Luke Clausen
Spokane Valley, Wash. 15 56-02
0 $501,000.00
Day 1: 5 29-06 Day 2: 5
14-15 Day 3: 5 11-13
2. Rick Morris
Lanexa, Va.
15 51-00 0 $45,000.00
Day 1: 5 18-07 Day 2: 5
18-14 Day 3: 5 13-11
3. Ron Shuffield
Bismarck, Ark.
13 47-14 0 $40,000.00
Day 1: 5 18-15 Day 2: 5
21-00 Day 3: 3 7-15
4. Terry Scroggins
Palatka, Fla.
15 46-15 0 $31,000.00
Day 1: 5 10-14 Day 2: 5
28-06 Day 3: 5 7-11
5. Kevin VanDam
Kalamazoo, Mich. 15
44-08 0 $25,000.00
Day 1: 5 14-02 Day 2: 5
14-15 Day 3: 5 15-07
6. Preston Clark
Palatka, Fla.
11 44-04 0 $25,000.00
Day 1: 5 29-01 Day 2: 5
10-02 Day 3: 1 5-01
7. George Cochran
Hot Springs, Ark. 15 43-10
0 $21,500.00
Day 1: 5 15-01 Day 2: 5
16-11 Day 3: 5 11-14
8. Kevin Wirth
Crestwood, Ky.
15 42-00 0 $21,000.00
Day 1: 5 22-05 Day 2: 5
13-04 Day 3: 5 6-07
9. Jimmy Johnson
La Crosse, Wisc. 15
41-14 0 $20,500.00
Day 1: 5 10-03 Day 2: 5
17-13 Day 3: 5 13-14
10. Larry Nixon
Bee Branch, Ark. 15
39-13 0 $20,000.00
Day 1: 5 19-08 Day 2: 5
9-15 Day 3: 5 10-06
11. Edwin Evers
Talala, Okla.
14 38-15 0 $15,000.00
Day 1: 5 23-10 Day 2: 5
11-09 Day 3: 4 3-12
12. Dean Rojas
Lake Havasu, Ariz. 15 38-00
0 $14,500.00
Day 1: 5 17-00 Day 2: 5
9-05 Day 3: 5 11-11
13. Jeff Coble
Manson, N.C.
15 36-15 0 $14,250.00
Day 1: 5 16-15 Day 2: 5
14-10 Day 3: 5 5-06
14. Tommy Biffle
Wagoner, Okla.
14 36-12 0 $14,000.00
Day 1: 5 15-05 Day 2: 5
10-14 Day 3: 4 10-09
15. Ishama Monroe
Hughson, Calif. 14
36-10 0 $13,750.00
Day 1: 5 19-02 Day 2: 4
7-01 Day 3: 5 10-07
16. Davy Hite
Ninety Six, S.C. 15
36-06 0 $13,000.00
Day 1: 5 20-09 Day 2: 5
7-12 Day 3: 5 8-01
17. Aaron Martens
Leeds, Calif.
15 34-13 0 $12,900.00
Day 1: 5 15-01 Day 2: 5
11-06 Day 3: 5 8-06
18. Mark Tucker
Saint Louis, Mo. 15
34-12 0 $12,800.00
Day 1: 5 16-12 Day 2: 5
10-09 Day 3: 5 7-07
19. Jeff Kriet
Ardmore, Okla.
14 34-00 0 $12,650.00
Day 1: 5 20-03 Day 2: 5
8-05 Day 3: 4 5-08
19. Greg Hackney
Gonzales, La.
14 34-00 0 $12,650.00
Day 1: 5 18-09 Day 2: 4
7-10 Day 3: 5 7-13
21. Rick Clunn
Ava, Mo.
12 33-00 0 $12,400.00
Day 1: 5 20-12 Day 2: 3
6-05 Day 3: 4 5-15
22. Scott Rook
Little Rock, Ark. 15 32-15
0 $12,250.00
Day 1: 5 17-02 Day 2: 5
9-05 Day 3: 5 6-08
22. Jay Yelas
Tyler, Texas
13 32-15 0 $12,250.00
Day 1: 5 13-03 Day 2: 5
15-02 Day 3: 3 4-10
24. Skeet Reese
Auburn, Calif.
10 30-06 0 $12,100.00
Day 1: 5 15-08 Day 2: 5
14-14 Day 3: 0 0-00
25. Gerald Swindle
Hayden, Ala.
10 27-00 0 $12,000.00
Day 1: 5 8-10 Day
2: 5 18-06 Day 3: 0
0-00
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Purolator Big Bass
Day
1 Preston Clark
Palatka, Fla.
11-10 $1,000.00
2 Terry Scroggins
Palatka, Fla.
9-05 $1,000.00
3 Luke Clausen
Spokane Valley, Wash. 5-13
$1,000.00
Purolator Big Bass of Tournament
Preston Clark
Palatka, Fla.
11-10 $2,000.00
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals
Day #Limits #Fish
Weight
1 49
247 722-08
2 44
245 587-08
3 16
103 200-04
----------------------------------
109
595 1510-04
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