Lefebre wins Walmart FLW Tour on Lewis Smith Lake
Category: press release
Mar 29th, 2015 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Mar 29th, 2015 at 12:00 AM
FLW Tour pro Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pennsylvania, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Sunday weighing 19 pounds, 5 ounces to win the Walmart FLW Tour at Lewis Smith Lake presented by Evinrude. Lefebre’s four-day total of 20 bass weighing 65-5 gave him a 1-pound, 14-ounce margin of victory over second place pro Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas, in the nationally-televised event that featured 154 of the best professional bass-fishing anglers in the world competing for the top cash award of up to $125,000.
“I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so excited to go fishing today,” said Lefebre, an 11-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier. “I wasn’t even thinking about winning the tournament, I just wanted to move up a few spots and cash a nice check. Today was one of the biggest surprises of my entire career.”
Lefebre said that he caught most of his fish this week fishing in the backs of creeks. His plan was to start each day by targeting spotted bass, then move to the largemouth once the sun came up and the temperatures warmed.
“In the mornings I was throwing a white- or albino-colored ½-ounce Fish Head Spin with a Yamamoto D-Shad superglued to it,” Lefebre said. “My goal was to catch one or two keeper spotted bass early and then go looking for the keeper largemouth. The largemouth were in the back of the pockets keying on the blueback herring spawn. The key was to find the pockets that the blueback were in.
“I caught most of my largemouth on a Rapala BX Waking Minnow,” Lefebre continued. “I caught 24 pounds in practice flipping, and I really thought that I would be fishing this tournament with a big jig. But on the last day of practice I started messing around with a few other baits and that’s when I started to get confidence in that BX Minnow. I could make super long casts, and a lot of the fish would track it for 20 feet before they would bite it. The BX is what got me here.”
Lefebre’s strategy paid off, as he managed to weigh in both species each day of the tournament. Of the 20 bass that Lefebre brought to the scale, eight were spotted bass and 12 were largemouth.
“I had an awesome day – two or three of the best things that have ever happened in my career happened to me today – but I really didn’t think that my 19 pounds would win it. Lewis Smith Lake is one of my favorite lakes in the world to fish, and to come down here and get the win is just the best.”
The top 10 pros finished the tournament:
1st: Dave Lefebre, Erie, Pa., 20 bass, 65-5, $125,000
2nd: Clark Wendlandt, Leander, Texas, 20 bass, 63-7, $30,000
3th: Jason Reyes, Huffman, Texas, 20 bass, 62-4, $25,000
4th: Tracy Adams, Wilkesboro, N.C., 20 bass, 61-3, $20,000
5th: Scott Martin, Clewiston, Fla., 20 bass, 60-12, $19,000
6th: Livingston Lures pro Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., 20 bass, 59-10, $18,000
7th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 19 bass, 59-10, $17,000
8th: Drew Benton, Panama City, Fla., 20 bass, 57-14, $16,000
9th: Clayton Batts, Macon, Ga., 17 bass, 50-15, $15,000
10th: John Cox, Debary, Fla., 15 bass, 45-15, $14,000
A complete list of results can be found at FLWFishing.com.