FISH LIKE TOM BRADY
4
EDITOR’ S NOTE
FISH LIKE TOM BRADY
Idon’ t remember at exactly what moment during the 2017 Super Bowl we all realized what the outcome would be, but at some point in the fourth quarter one of my FLW co-workers, watching in a hotel in Guntersville, Ala., after the final day of the FLW Tour opener, said out loud what everyone was thinking:“ He’ s going to win it.”
Of course, if you subscribe to this magazine, then you live on this planet, and consequently you know who“ he” is. Tom Brady, the New England Patriots’ quarterback, brought his team back from a 25-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons and win the biggest sporting event of the year.
The Patriots’ comeback included a 91-yard drive in the final minutes, a two-point conversion and an overtime touchdown. It would have been impressive in any football game, but it’ s already a legendary performance for having happened in the Super Bowl.
Yes, Tom Brady was nearly perfect in those final minutes. But let me tell you, I’ ve seen some equally impressive performances on the FLW Tour. From Scott Suggs dominating the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita and winning $ 1 million to Greg Hackney dropping 30 on the scale at Pickwick, the bass pros on Tour have found ways to amaze me in all my 10 seasons with FLW.
The most recent performance that stands out occurred about a year ago at the fifth FLW Tour stop of the season on Kentucky Lake. Jason Lambert reminded folks that just owning a couple of big-screen depth finders doesn’ t make you a ledge master. More pixels don’ t guarantee you can hang with the big boys.
Lambert set a Kentucky Lake FLW Tour record by catching more than 97 pounds over four days and capped off the win with a 29-pound day-four limit. Stout.
Now, I was out there on day four, following around runner-up Brandon Hunter and a few others in the top 10, and it was one of the most grueling days I’ ve experienced on the water – clear skies, air temperature in the upper 90s, no breeze. My laptop overheated to the point that it wouldn’ t function. I wanted to crawl under the Ranger console to hide from the sun.
Lambert had already spent three practice days and three competition days in the sweatbox, and he still had to catch fish and hold off a ledge-fishing murderer’ s row that included Hunter, Mark Rose, Jayme Rampey, Scott Canterbury, Bryan Thrift, Jacob Wheeler, Brad Knight, Terry Bolton and Andy Morgan. So, yeah, it wasn’ t the Forrest Wood Cup, but there was enough pressure to turn coal into diamonds. Plus Lambert was trying to finally win a major multi-day FLW tournament on the Tennessee River. He’ d been close several times before, and no one doubted his ledge skills, but he still hadn’ t won. He had something to prove.
With all that in play, Lambert closed it out with one of the most impressive ledge-fishing performances of all time, catching 29 pounds by targeting bass that had been pressured so heavily by other anglers that the fish had broken off from the bigger schools. And Lambert absolutely pounded them.
Pardon my string of sports clichés here, but what FLW fans saw was a guy with an opportunity to show out on the biggest stage, in a scenario where he was expected to deliver, and who gave a performance above and beyond what anyone anticipated. Doesn’ t that sound a little Tom Bradyish? It wasn’ t just Lambert’ s chops as a ledge fisherman that prompted us to slap his mug on the cover of this issue and run a feature about how he fishes ledges. We wanted to capture the most striking aspect of his success – the fact that we’ ve reached a point where all tournament pros understand the ledge-fishing game, but guys like Lambert still consistently do it better.
So, no, it’ s not just another article on finding and catching ledge bass. We’ ve published that one about a dozen times. This one’ s different. It’ s better – like Lambert.
Curtis Niedermier, editor-in-Chief
Publisher Irwin L. Jacobs
editor-in-Chief Curtis Niedermier
Production Manager / Graphic Designer Michelle Dowling
assistant Managing editor Chad Love
Senior editor Kyle Wood
associate editor Jody White
editor emeritus Colin Moore
Field editors Rob Newell & Matt Williams
Contributors Joe Balog, David A. Brown, Steve Calhoun, Bryan Hendricks, Dan Johnson, TJ Maglio, Sean Ostruszka, Joe Sills, Paul Strege
Graphic Designer D. W. Reed II
Graphic Designer / Illustrator Matt Pace
Director of advertising Al Chapman | 270.252.1628
Senior Web Content Manager Jesse Schultz
Social Media and Communications Specialist Chris Burgan
Letters to the editor FLW Bass Fishing 30 Gamble Lane, Benton, KY 42025 flwfishing @ flwfishing. com
Chairman & CeO Irwin L. Jacobs
President of FLW Marketing Division Trish Blake
President of FLW Operations Division Kathy Fennel
Chief Financial Officer Dave Mahler
Vice President, Controller Tommy Boaz
Vice President of Marketing Patterson Leeth
Vice President of Operations Dave Washburn
FLWFISHING. COM I May-juNe 2017