BY DAVE HURLEY
LAKEPORT – The saying goes that ‘Close only counts in horseshoes or hand grenades,’ and this idiom clearly applies to bass fishing as Chad Frie of Livermore took home the top prize during the Reese Fishing Clear Lake Big Bass Battle by 0.01 of a pound – the difference between an hourly $1000 prize or the fully rigged Ranger Z519R boat package powered by a Mercury® 225 HP ProXS and outfitted with a Power Pole Move trolling motor, Power Pole Blades, and Lowrance electronics valued at over $90,000.
The Big Bass Battle is the brainchild of Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Skeet Reese who designed a format for multiple cash payouts throughout the day on even hourly weigh ins for a single fish starting at 8:00 pm and ending at 3:00 pm both days. The top ten largest bass every hour were awarded cash prizes for a total of 140 cash prizes ranging from $1000 for first to $100 for 10th every hour for a total payout of $21,175 per day. An amazing 487 anglers descended upon Clear Lake in search of the one big fish.
Frie and partner, Vince Borges of Phenix Rods, searched for a pattern during three days of pre-fishing, leading Borges to say, “We found a few different patterns worth pursuing, but it was blowing 30 mph on Saturday morning, changing the conditions. We saw fish suspending, and once we got set, Chad went to the Bill Lewis DR24 Citrus Shad crankbait on 12-pound fluorocarbon, and on his first or second cast, he hooked up with turned out to be ‘the fish.’ This bass came up and rolled, tried to jump, and ran under the boat. When I netted the fish, and it was in the boat, the crankbait just came out. We knew that Chad Sweitzer had weighed in a 9.14-pound largemouth during the 3rd hour, and we initially though Frie’s bass was in the 8-pound plus range. Not wanting to keep the fish in the live well too long, we weighed in on a Bubba Scale, and it came out at 9.3 pounds. When we took the fish to the weigh scale, it just edged out the previous big fish by one hundredth of a pound, the narrowest of margins. So now it was a matter of trying to find a bigger one and hoping this fish would hold on to the top place.”
Frie added, “When the fish was weighed in, a loud exclaim of ‘Oh My,’ came out from the weighmasters as it barely bumped Sweitzer’s bass. It was a matter of waiting through the next 9 hourly weigh ins, and Vince started checking the live app every few hours on Sunday morning before moving up to every 20 minutes during the last few hours. We got the call to come in to sit on the Hot Seat during the final hour, and it was an amazing to experience and absorb the energy from the crowd from that perch. When the final weigh in was done, there were hugs and high five’s all around.”
Both Frie and Borges gave high marks to the format attracting so many anglers along with the community events of a complimentary dinner and get together at the Konocti Harbor Resort and a cornhole tournament at the Shannon Mercantile Winery with food trucks, live music, Shannon wines at the tasting bar, and free beer provided by Crooked Goat Brewing. The Skeet Reese Big Bass Battle is just the innovative type of tournament to create a level playing field along with plenty of opportunity for fun. Frie added, “Skeet Reese and his group did an amazing job of promoting the event, coordinating sponsors, establishing a unique format, and bringing the bass fishing community together. This is just the type of event to reinvigorate the bass fishing industry.”