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Florida pro goes wire-to-wire on hometown waters, fellow Raymarine pro Brandon Lester takes second

Kissimmee, FL (February 6, 2018) – Earlier this year, BASS Elite pro Bobby Lane made the decision to swing for the fences. “Rather than worry about getting paid, I decided to go out this season, stay deeper, and fish for big fish.”

This past weekend Lane’s resolution paid off, as Lane went wire-to-wire at the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Eastern Open on Florida’s Kissimmee Chain. For Lane, the win on hometown waters seemed a lifetime in the making.

“After being close so many times before, winning on the Kissimmee Chain was starting to elude me. Actually, it had become a burden. You can know too many spots, the weather starts changing, and panic can set in. Honestly, I was under a great deal of pressure right up to the end of the weigh-in on the final day,” admits Lane.

Fortunately, Lane had discovered something in practice that gave him a huge confidence boost.

“I knew I was on to something when I caught two five pounders in practice. The hurricane had blown some hydrilla away and changed other hydrilla spots—but if you could find the combination of hydrilla and holes in flat pads, Kissimmee grass, or sticks the hurricane had blown around, there were probably bass there. Didn’t matter if the hydrilla was off shore or three feet from the bank. I think the fish felt secure in the hydrilla with all the crazy weather we’ve had. They were either right in it or on the edges.”

Much of the fish-producing hydrilla was located with Lane’s electronics.

“I was running at 65 mph and could see bottom perfectly with my Raymarine Axiom Pro units. I might travel five miles, graph hydrilla on my screen, and stop and fish. I found five or six spots like that, three which paid off. Even though this is my home lake, I caught fish where I’ve never caught them before. The hurricane definitely changed the habitat. The real benefit of my electronics was being able to eliminate water quickly and keep the hydrilla lines in view on my bow unit,” says Lane.

Specifically, Lane’s Phoenix is installed with three Raymarine Axiom Pro 12 MFDs—two at the console and one on the bow.

“This is the first year I’ve fished tournament days with two units on the dash. It’s nice having two big screens running everything in full view or split screen to give me lots of info at the same time. The clarity and speed is absolutely amazing. If it looks like there’s a fish there, it’s a fish. The CHIRP Sonar, DownVision, SideVision, RealVision 3D, and how fast the mapping responds is just amazing.”

On Day 1, Lane says he didn’t get a lot of bites, but all the right ones. As boat five in the first flight from Lake Toho, Lane made it through two locks quickly, after which he caught a five pounder in Lake Hatchineha. Lane then ran to Kissimmee where he caught an 8-7 on a PowerBait Rib Toad, followed by a nine pounder on the south end of the lake. Two giant Florida bass in the livewell, he returned to Hatchineha where he boxed another five pounder. Lane made the decision to fish the last hour of the tournament on Lake Toho, where he caught a three-pounder prior to the 3 pm weigh-in.

“Day One was just phenomenal,” says Lane. He finished Day 1 in first place with a whopping 31-7 five-fish limit.

Lane repeated exactly the same process on Day 2, but didn’t find the big fish he wanted, weighing 10-9. Still, he entered the final day with a 10-pound-plus lead. Hatchineha and Toho produced an 18-pound sack for Lane on the final day, which cemented the wire-to-wire win. He finished with 60 pounds even and over $52,000 in winnings.

“The hydrilla wall pattern and those big fish saved me, which I wouldn’t have found without my Axiom units. I’m able to get solid bottom readings at 65 mph and the units are fast and responsive. It’s nothing to zoom in to the mapping with my finger or the knob and find spots just like the spots that produce fish. Bottom line is I can count on my Raymarine electronics when I need them.”

Fellow Raymarine pro Brandon Lester finished second at the event with 47 pounds, 11 ounces.

Gerald Swindle and Kevin VanDam share longtime sponsors Toyota and Quantum, as well as an amazing 9 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year titles between the two of them, and on the eve of the first Bassmaster Elite Series tournament of 2018, they were gracious enough to share their thoughts on Lake Martin, Alabama.

1.) It’s a brand new season, but what was your favorite part of the off-season this winter?

Swindle: Being in the tree with my wife LeAnn when she arrowed a great 130” whitetail buck in Illinois that I called in for her with a ‘snort wheeze’ and video taped the whole thing too.
VanDam: Christmas with all my family, and it was especially good because my nephew Steve got married immediately after Christmas, and that caused all the family to hang out even more together.

2.) Will all the rain that fell today, and is forecasted to fall throughout the weekend, make fishing better or worse on Lake Martin?

Swindle: I don’t think it will have much of an affect one way or the other, because I think the dirt and mud will settle faster than people might think.
VanDam: I think the rainy weather will make it better, because anytime you have a low pressure system fishing tends to improve, and besides that, it’s not a cold rain, it’s a fairly warm rain, dumping water into a lake that’s about 48 to 52 degrees.

3.) Name 3 lures fans can expect to see the pros use a bunch this week.

Swindle: Shad Rap, Rapala DT6 and a Damiki Rig.
VanDam: Medium diving crankbaits, finesse jig, and a Damiki Rig

4.) When Mike Terry won the B.A.S.S. event here in the early winter of 1994, he won by 14 pounds. Can anybody separate himself that far from the second place guy in this tournament?

Swindle: I don’t see that happening. In fact, I think you’re gonna see the tightest weights since the 2005 Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh.
VanDam: It’s possible – if a local like Matt Herren, Russ Lane, Greg Vinson, or Kelley Jaye gets on the motherload. Hey, it happened before here 24 years ago – so why couldn’t it happen again?

5.) How much weight will you need to average each day to make the Top 12 cut here on the final day?

Swindle: 12.5 for the Top 12, and 13 pounds a day could win.
VanDam: 12 pounds a day should do great this week.

The only thing thicker than the humidity of the 61-degree air temps surrounding Lake Martin in the darkness of the final morning of practice for the Bassmaster Elite at Lake Martin presented by Econo Lodge, was the anxiousness of the world’s best bass pros to figure out how to catch a sizeable largemouth.

“Counting the time I spent here practicing last month before the lake went ‘off limits’ – this will be my 9th day on Lake Martin in the past couple months – and I still haven’t caught a 3-pounder,” says reigning Bassmaster Classic Champion Jordan Lee.

Despite not yet catching a fat largemouth, and fast approaching monsoon-like, lightening-laced rainstorms on his cell phone’s weather radar, the always easy-going and good-natured Lee was weather-ready in his Carhartt raingear, and taking it all in stride in the darkness of 6:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.

“The cool thing is, it’s kind of anybody’s ball game here on Martin, because it’s so tough to smash ‘em consistently for three or four days here,” says Lee. “You may see a guy jump out to the lead with a 16 or 17 pound limit on Day 1, but doing that consistently here is super tough. In fact, if you can average 13-pounds a day, you’ll be real tough.”

Consistent with his ‘it’s anybody’s ballgame’ theory, is the fact Lee says nobody in the 2018 Elite Series has a huge home lake advantage on this gorgeous 44,000 surface acre reservoir, even though several Alabama pros, including himself, are on the roster.

Lee graduated from Auburn, just a short 45 minute drive from Lake Martin, following his hugely successful time in the Carhartt Bassmaster College fishing ranks, but says he spent very little time fishing here during his time on the Tiger’s campus, choosing to instead hone his skills on fisheries where weightier limits awaited.

“I don’t mean this as a negative, but Martin is probably one of the lowest winning weight lakes in our state. There just aren’t a ton of largemouth here, and the spotted bass are typically 2-pounders,” explains Lee, whose new Ranger’s front deck was covered in 10 Quantum rod and reel combos.

Five of those reels were spinning, rigged with dropshots primarily for the plentiful spotted bass population, and five were Smoke baitcasters featuring a variety of orange/red crawfish colored crankbaits — and a skirted pitching jig – just in case he encounters a piece of habitat where that 3-pounder or better that’s eluded him through nine days practice might be hiding.