Fishing News - 10/1/00

        From BASS

WILKS WINS LOWE'S W.C.F. OVERALL TITLE AT MOBILE

Reese, Browning Take Top Honors in Boating, Fishing

MOBILE, Ala., Oct., 1 - Team Yamaha's Dustin Wilks of North Carolina watched both the boating and fishing titles slip away from him Sunday, but any disappointment disappeared as he took overall honors in the $225,000 Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse World Championship Fishing bass and boating event.

Wilks, 23, the youngest pro in the select 15-man field, lost the fishing contest by a mere 4 ounces in the morning and then fell from second to fourth in the afternoon's timed boat-handling competition held on a course set up off of the bow of the battleship U.S.S. Alabama moored in Mobile Bay. But that was enough to give him 66 points, which enabled him to hold off Arkansas' Stephen Browning (63) and Shaw Grigsby of Florida (59) in the coveted overall competition.

"This is the biggest check I've ever won, and I'm real excited about it," said Wilks, who took the $50,000 top prize. "This is probably the biggest week of my life."

Under the Lowe's W.C.F. format, the pros fish for bass in the morning before taking their stock bass boats for an afternoon spin around a timed course. Fishing accounts for 60 percent of their overall score, with their boat-handling skills credited with 40 percent.

Wilks nearly added another $25,000 to his earnings with his charge at the fishing title. In fact, he might have thrown the winning bass back into the Mobile Delta. Wilks decided to release his fifth bass because it was questionable whether or not it measured the necessary 12 inches. "It just barely measured on my (measuring) board, but I didn't want to take a chance on it," said Wilks, who would have lost the fish and incurred a 1-pound penalty if it wasn't of legal length.

Instead, Team Lowrance's Browning won fishing portion with a three-day total of 19-7. Wilks was second with 19-3, followed by Texan Gary Klein (15-8) of Team Ford Trucks.  "Alabama has really been good to me," said Browning, whose success came on an in-line spinner and War Eagle spinnerbait. "I won my first tournament in Alabama, and to win against the quality group of fishermen in this event means a lot to me."

An estimated crowd of 7,000 fishing fans witnessed Browning's heroics and then watched California's Skeet Reese wrap up the powerboating competition.

As it turned out, Reese didn't need to even get into the cockpit of his Mercury-powered Team Flowmaster/BC Powders Champion boat. His previous two daily runs of 49:48 (the fastest lap in Lowe's W.C.F. history) and 50:85 seconds (1:40:33) held up to win the boating title and $25,000. South Carolina's Davy Hite, running a Evinrude-powered Team Kobalt Triton, finished second with 1:41.58, followed by Team EAS Nutritional Supplements' Shaw Grigsby, who drove his Mercury-powered Triton to a combined time of 1:42:33.

It was a satisfying win for Reese, who finished dead last in the boating division of the inaugural W.C.F. event. "I made some mistakes, and I know I can run even faster, but I've had a great week," said Reese, who has the lightest-powered outboard (a 200-hp Mercury EFI) in the field. "I'm happy to win this thing and get Champion the credit it deserves, along with Mercury."

Reese was also the recipient of the Kobalt Tools Quick Lap award.

Arkansas's Mark Davis, who finished fourth in the fishing competition, won the Lowe's Weekend Project Big-Bass Award for his catch of a 3-pound, 11-ounce largemouth.  The BC Powders Fisherman's Headache Award was split between Texan Jay Yelas and Dean Rojas of Arizona. When Yelas's boat broke down Sunday, Rojas rescued him and gave him a ride to the weigh-in. The pair split the $1,000 prize.

Lowe's W.C.F. events are sanctioned by the Bass Anglers Sportsman's Society and the American powerboating Association. B.A.S.S. sanctions the fishing portion and the APBA oversees the boathandling.

         B.A.S.S. Web site: http://www.bassmaster.com.

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