“I figured if I could end this tournament with a top 20, I’d be doing good,” Reese said. “To climb up and do better each day was a good feeling for me.”

Reese had a decent number of bites and some good-sized fish the first day of practice, but as the days wore on, the bites came less and less frequently. He tried throwing different baits each day, but to no avail. He ended his three-day practice with a few key patterns he would take into the tournament.

“The first bite I got onto was throwing the LV-100 around Kissimmee grass points,” Reese said. “I was able to catch keeper fish, but could never get the big ones. I looked for bed fish as well, and threw a Chatterbait and flipped. I did a lot of different things in practice and ended up sticking with the LV-100 and the flipping bite in the canals. There were some bed fish I wanted to try and catch, but I had such a bad draw out the first day, I didn’t end up making it to them on Thursday.”

Missing those bed fish didn’t end up hurting Reese however, as many of the anglers in those canals were not able to get those fish to bite.

Reese started each morning throwing the LV-100 on Lake Harris, one of the nine lakes in the chain. After fishing with it throughout the morning and catching a few keepers, Reese would make the long run to the canals and begin flipping.

“It was interesting how things turned out,” Reese explained. “The first day, I didn’t get into the canal until noon, and I fished until about 3 p.m. I was able to catch a limit and cull a few times. On day two, I got there around 10 a.m., and it was the same deal. I didn’t think I’d be able to catch anymore fish in there on day three, but turns out I caught more fish on Saturday than I did the other two days of the tournament. I just couldn’t seem to get any fish that had any size to them.”

According to Reese, this wasn’t a tournament for guys who like to run around to different areas. Staying in one particular place was key and fishing slow was a must. Forcing himself to do that all week allowed Reese to finish 17th with a total three-day weight of 33 pounds, 13 ounces.

“It’s a solid start to the year,” Reese said. “If I can come out of Florida with two top-20 finishes, that will be just like getting two top-five finishes back home. Florida has temperamental lakes, and if you can survive, you’re doing well. If I can maintain top 25s all season, I’ll have another good year.”

Takahiro Omori finished his week Saturday after making the cut to 50, finishing in 40th place. Omori weighing in a good bag of 14 pounds, 2 ounces on Thursday, and followed that up with an 8-pound, 2-ounce bag on Friday and 6 pounds, 8 ounces on Saturday. Omori’s three-day total was 28 pounds, 12 ounces.

Finishing in 47th was Lucky Craft’s Gerald Swindle, who weighed in a three-day total of 26 pounds, 7 ounces. Fishing slow was key for Swindle this week, but the windy weather played a major role in his tournament.

“On day one, the wind wasn’t so bad, and I was able to rely on the flipping bite like I wanted to and like I had practiced,” Swindle said. “I was able to weigh in a decent bag of 12 pounds, 15 ounces. However, on day two, I thought I’d go back to the same spots and flip some more, but the wind was just too bad. Once the wind picks up here, you just can’t catch them. I had to go with my back up plan.”

Swindle traveled upriver on day two and was able to catch a 9 pound, 1 ounce limit flipping a Zoom Trick worm. He was pleased after his primary area was a no-go. On day three, Swindle returned to the river to do the same thing and was only able to bring in four fish. Fishing slow is hard for the Alabama resident, and the wind doesn’t help matters.

“I can’t fish slow and it frustrates me,” Swindle said. “I normally don’t fish slow anyway, but the wind makes it that much harder for me. When the wind picks up, you can’t hit isolated spots like you want to while flipping. When it wasn’t windy, I would flip a real lightweight worm, but when the wind picked up, it was blowing my bait all over and wouldn’t even let it sink once it did hit the water. I was fighting it all day.”

Swindle thought he’d be able to fish the Lucky Craft Gunfish on the Harris Chain of Lakes, but found the topwater bite was nonexistent when he arrived. He hopes for a better tournament with the topwater plug this weekend on the Kissimmee Chain.

“If the warm air comes back, I’m going to look for that good Gunfish bite on the outside edges,” Swindle said. “I’ll be focusing on trying to catch those big ones. We need the wind to slack off, and if that happens, this next tournament could be really good.”

Rounding out the Lucky Craft pros this week was Texas resident, Kelly Jordon. Jordon wasn’t able to make the cut to 50 with a two-day weight of 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Jordon finished 108th.

Bass Pro angler Rick Clunn just missed the top-50 cut with a total weight of 20 pounds, 14 ounces. The legendary angler used some crankbaits in practice, but couldn’t get that bite going. He was able to catch a few in practice on the Lucky Craft LV-500.

“I had one day during practice that was the type of day I needed,” Clunn said. “I caught a 10-pounder, and that’s a whole days catch here. I never had another bite like that in the tournament. All I could do was make a lot of casts and hope to put it in front of one. I did that, because I had plenty of bites. I probably caught 15 keepers a day, but I never had the one good bite you need here to put you over the top.”

Clunn brought in 11 pounds, 3 ounces on day one and 9 pounds, 11 ounces on day two for his two-day total of 20 pounds, 14 ounces.

Congratulations again and Good Luck.