To be honest, I was afraid we might have trouble catching a decent fish for the article. Clear Lake had just been hammered for six straight days by 130 of the top professional bass fishermen in the country and reason would have it that any fishing willing to bite had most likely been caught.

Fortunately, Skeet managed a fourth place finish in the event and didn't seem concerned in the least about catching a few quality "picture" fish. Reese has surged into the national spotlight in recent years and has to be considered one of the great success stories in professional bass fishing.

"I've been fishing full time for six years now, but a lot of people don't realize it's taken me twenty years to get here," he explained. "Clear Lake is actually where it all began. I fished my first tournament here exactly twenty years ago at the age of 13."

Since the Bassmaster circuit arrived to the west coast, Reese has dominated Clear Lake events. In a total of four Opens and one Top 150 event, he has finished second three times and fourth twice. Include his win at the Western Bass Open in the fall of 2002 and Reese has taken home 4 boats, $20,000 in cash and a 200 hp Yamaha Outboard in the last six pro/ams he has fished here!

It was just after 6:00 am as we idled Reese's Champion 196 Elite out of the 5 mph zone at the Library Park launch ramp in Lakeport. "We'll spend the day up here on the north end throwing reaction baits," said Reese. "I've got several areas that are producing fish on crankbaits and spinnerbaits."

According to Reese, fall is his favorite time to fish Clear Lake. "The fall bite can be just as awesome as the spring time bite and this is by far the best time of year to throw reaction baits," he explained. "The thing I love most about fall fishing on Clear Lake is you can pull a 20 to 30 pound bag off a single dock, even a single piling. You definitely need to cover a lot of water, but once you find the fish, there should be a bunch of em'."

We made a short run to a series of small creek channels and started working crankbaits in 1 to 5 feet of water. "The fish are stacked up in these ditches right now," said Reese. "Some are sitting in a foot or two of water on the points and I'm also catching a few fish in the center of the channels in four or five feet of water. Most of my early bites are coming off the points, then by late morning, the fish are moving out to the weed beds in deeper water."

Reese started off with a Lucky Craft LV 100 lipless crankbait in the aurora craw pattern and I tied on a perch patterned Speed Trap. Reese had all his reaction baits rigged on a Lamiglas 705 SR rod with a Pfleuger Trion Reel and 17 pound Spider Line Super Mono XXX. "During the months of October and November, I typically fish lipless crankbaits in red and chartreuse patterns," said Reese. "Early in the season, I'll use 50 pound Spider Wire to rip the baits through the grass. Once the grass starts to thin out as it has now, I'll switch back to monofilament line."

As we made our way across the first point, Reese was burning his crankbait, firing it up against the shallow tules and retrieving it at a blistering pace. "I can see you like to fish fast," I said. "I'm at my best when I fish fast and make as many casts as possible. I can tell you right now, a big part of the reason I did well in the tournament this week is because I know I made more casts than any of my competitors," he replied.

While Skeet was working over the point, I made a cast in the center of the channel and started working my Speed Trap through the grass. At one point the bait broke free of the grass and my line suddenly went slack. I swung hard and immediately knew I was into a quality fish. After a few hard runs, I had our first fish of the day in the boat and it was just shy of four pounds. "Man I could have used that one yesterday," said Reese. "I lost all three quality fish I hooked during the day and came up four pounds short of a win. I lost two close to that size along with a much larger fish in the six to seven pound class."

Not five minutes later, we were working the next ditch and I hit another four pound class fish on the exact same cast. Just when I was starting entertaining the idea that I might outfish one of the best bass fishermen in the world, Skeet hit a 3 pounder on his Lucky Craft crankbait and proceeded to put the next five fish in the boat, crushing any thoughts I had of taking him to school on his home lake.

By 8:00 am, we had a solid 18 pound limit and took a little time out for an early morning photo shoot. "I should have known this was going to happen," he said in disgust. "All I needed was a little over 15 pounds to win $50,000 yesterday and we catch it in less than two hours today." Of course I was elated knowing we had some quality fish for the article.

The bite dropped off after the photo shoot, but we managed to catch a fish every half hour or so and Reese never backed off on his frantic pace easily making two to three casts for every one of mine. To top off our day, Reese decided to hit one more creek channel near the County Park and we hit the Mother Lode bagging seven more fish from two to five pounds.

When asked how he managed to keep up such a pace for days on end, Reese replied, "I make a point of being in the gym running and lifting weights three to four days a week in the off season and I try to work out when I can while I'm on the road. I just look at it as part of the job and my performance definitely improves when I'm in good shape."

Reese averages 200 to 250 days a year on the road between fishing tournaments and fulfilling obligations to his sponsors. "The most challenging part of this job is being away from the family for three to four weeks at a time," he explained. This year will be especially tough since he and his wife Kim now have a 10 month old daughter, Lea Marie. "Believe me, this life isn't for everybody. Fortunately, I really enjoy traveling the country, seeing new places and fishing new bodies of water all the time."

So what is the key to Skeet's tremendous success? "I believe in fishing on instinct and running seasonal patterns," he explained. "Things change too much during the course of a tournament to simply rely on what you learned in pre-fish. A lot of guys will do great for a day or two fishing one spot, then they run out of fish. Fishing three and four day events takes most of the luck out of it and forces you to rely on your experience. You can read all you want and listen to the best fishermen in the world, but there's no substitute for spending time, and I mean years, on the water."

As for Clear Lake, Reese says the bite should only improve into the month of December. "As water temperatures continue to drop, the grass will die off and this will isolate fish on the hard cover, docks, rocks and tules and the bite can be tremendous. Stick to the lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits until water temperatures drop into the low 50's. By mid to late December, the jerkbait bite will dominate until water temps drop into the mid 40's or the lake gets blown out by a big storm."

Reese also wanted to send out a big thanks to his sponsors; Champion Boats, Crown Royal, Mercury, Lucky Craft, Terminator, Lowrance, Minn Kota, Lamiglas, Flowmaster and Spider Line.