Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 19, 1993 TAG: 9309190052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Back in August, Fritts won the BASS Masters Classic in his rookie year as a qualifier for the event often ballyhooed as angling's World Series.
Just about the time Fritts was accepting the $50,000 winner's check, before 16,000 fishing fans packed inside Alabama's Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, B.A.S.S. had an announcement to make. Fritts would be defending his title in August at, of all places, High Rock Lake, near his home in Lexington, N.C.
There's more.
The 1993-94 tournament season, which is the road to the Classic, began at Kerr Lake. The 50,000-acre impoundment, sprawling across the Virginia-North Carolina border, is just two hours from home for Fritts, and he calls it his favorite. "When I had some spare time, that's where I'd go," he said.
But Lady Luck wouldn't just have to be smiling for Fritts to win at Kerr. She'd need to be beaming. And she was. He won the Virginia B.A.S.S. Invitational there Friday, with a three-day catch that weighed 44 pounds, 14 ounces. Standing in his shadow, in the second, third and fourth spots, were the who's who of angling: Denny Brauer, Zell Rowland and Rick Clunn, respectively.
All this for a 36-year-old angler who nearly gave up competitive fishing when he became distressed over failing to qualify for the 1992 Classic.
What turned things around and started the Fritts blitz?
Early on, Fritts earned a reputation as one of the country's top fishermen with a crankbait, but that was like being a pitcher with only a curve ball. He needed more than one tool to get a strike.
"My goal last year was to try to figure out some different ways to catch fish, to experiment with some other patterns and get away from the crankbait," he said.
But at Kerr, as well as at the Classic, it was the crankbait that lured big bass and big bucks. One particular crankbait, at that, the Poe's 400 Classic, a new lure that runs deep and stays suspended at rest.
While Brauer and Rowland turned their trolling motors on high and covered as much water as possible with a Pop-R surface lure, Fritts went deep with the Poe's prototype.
"You get this overcast sky and the lake lays down flat, the fish will move deeper," he said. "People will think they move up, but the big fish move down."
Some bass were so deep by the last day of the tournament that Fritts thrust the tip of his rod into the water to probe farther into their basement. Still more depth came from his experimental "crankin' line" by Stren, which allowed him to slim down to a sensitive 10-pound test, yet maintain enough toughness to deal with brush. He was getting strikes at 16- to 17-foot depths.
The victory by Fritts wasn't without a scare. He spent the first two days fishing Nutbush Creek, where he landed five bass on five consecutive casts. He went back Friday, caught three more and lost a 5-pounder and a 7-pounder. Then the fish quit.
"I couldn't get bit nowhere," he said.
The glitter from the Classic victory suddenly was becoming a burden. Instead of profiting from pre-tournament practice, Fritts had been off doing things like signing a sponsorship deal with Chevrolet. He hadn't established backup fishing spots.
But he remembered that big fish always hang out in Grassy Creek. At 2 p.m. he headed that way and caught three 4-pounders. That gave him the victory, with 10 minutes and 11 ounces to spare.
by CNB