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FEATURED PRODUCT
Hometown: AUBURN, CA
Birthdate: 06-30-1969
Classic Appearances: 12
BASS Tournaments Won: 6
Career Highlights: 2009 Classic Champion. 2007 Angler of the Year. $2,500,000 Career Winnings.
Total BM Entries: 159
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SKEET TALKS WILEY
Skeet Talks About the Importannce of the WIley X Facial Cavity Seal
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Skeet's Beat Blog
JOURNAL
May 2011
Saturday, May 21 was the highlight of my year so far. The fact that it had to do with an inaugural kid’s fishing event I put together in the community where my girls go to school tells two important things: I love doing things with and for kids. And to this point, the 2011 tournament season has been, to say the least, challenging. But I’ll keep fishing hard and am confident things will turn around.
First, news on our successful event. With the help of many generous volunteers and sponsors (including Wiley X), we hosted about 1,500 people and treated youngsters to a great time with trout fishing, food, games, face painting and more. It was a great experience to see the joy of fishing again through the eyes of children, and we raised lots of money towards a new Meadow Vista Community Center.
On the tournament side, two recent events at West Point and Lake Murray really sum up how this year has gone for me. At West Point, my Wiley X Skeet Reese Signature Series Xcess glasses helped me find fish on laydowns all over the lake. Unfortunately, there weren’t very many laydowns, and these fish were all shell-shocked after getting hammered by every boat that came by. I did have a one to two hour window in the morning where I could catch them really well on a Lucky Craft G-Splash in Ghost Minnow color. My first fish that tournament was a four-pounder, and I thought I was on my way. Once that window closed, however, it was a real grind to catch good ones.
The next tournament at Lake Murray, I got on the soft Jerkbait that was being used by the eventual winner, but again I was reminded while it’s called “fishing, not catching.” I watched a five pounder, a four pounder and three pounder eat the bait, only to pull the bait out of their mouths. I was so full of adrenaline from working the bait so fast; I didn’t give the fish a chance to turn before setting the hook. Catching those fish would have made it a whole different ball game. It just goes to show you, even pros have to remember their fundamentals.
There’s a lot of fishing ahead of us still, and I’m feeling good about the season. I know what I’ve got to do — I just need to get out there and do it. Maybe it was seeing the smiles on all the kids’ faces, and their joy in catching was for many of them their first fish, but the Skeet Reese Kids Fishing Day Event has me reinvigorated to get out on the water.
September 2010
Overall, I had an amazing season in 2010. Anytime you can finish with two wins and six Top 5 finishes – it doesn’t get much better than that! When I look back, I had a fun season and put myself in a position to win four or five tournaments. That’s really rare, and it all added up to a great season.
Sure, after such a successful year, I wish I could have capped it off with the Angler of the Year award. The fish you lose certainly haunt you. On the Alabama River, I lost two fish I’ll remember for a long time. I could actually see one of the fish, flipped over to it, it ate, and I lost like a 3-1/2 pounder. Then shortly after that, I lost another 2-1/2 pounder. Those two fish likely cost me the Angler of the Year title. So, you move on and get ready to fish that much harder next year.
This year I did a lot of power fishing – throwing swim baits and deep running crank baits. I won at Clear Lake and at Smith Lake throwing a bait I designed with Jerry Rago. It was kind of fun to win an event with a bait that I helped make.
I have the same kind of connection with my Wiley X Skeet Reese Signature Series Xcess sunglasses. Whether I’m driving my boat or fishing, wearing these glasses is like the difference between watching regular TV and HD. Even while they reduce glare and protect your eyes from harmful UV rays, they allow astounding light transmission and visual detail. Grass, trees, the bottom – I see all this and more in HD when I’m fishing with my Wiley X glasses. When you spend 12-14 hours a day on the water like I do, t’s important to reduce eye fatigue. My Xcess glasses were designed for fishing, with a comfortable fit, full coverage and unobstructed vision. And of course, they offer Wiley X’s trademark impact protection against anything from flying insects to flying lures.
Coming so close to the top prize – Angler of the Year – has me even more motivated for next season. I’m already gearing up and getting ready.
April 2010
Even though I had a tough time and didn’t make the cut for the final day, the fans at the Bassmaster Classic were great. Their support was overwhelming, and it made me feel like a winner, regardless. I worked my booth and signed autographs for at least six hours straight. I really enjoyed seeing all my fans there.
I’m off to a strong start this season with 2nd and 5th Place finishes that have me first in the point totals so far. But there’s a lot of fishing still ahead. Looking back at the Duel in the Delta tournament, it’s hard to believe that I only missed winning by one ounce. I had a really great hour of fishing and many great highlights during that event that I’ll remember for a long time.
In the Delta, I had success fishing a chatter bait around the grass lines during the high tide periods. The lenses in my new Wiley X Xcess glasses were critical to finding and fishing these grass lines. They’re great all-around glasses that help you see in overcast and bright sun, which is important when you’re on the water all day in changing conditions.
The recent event at Clear Lake was also a lot of fun – especially the final day on Sunday. I made some good decisions and caught a lot of fish — enough to take 5th Place in a very competitive field. This was one of those tournaments where I committed to fishing the big lures, and it finally paid off on the final day.
I’ve been wearing the new Wiley X Xcess glasses this season and getting a lot of positive comments from fans and other anglers. They’re flashy and have a lot of pizzazz. And, of course, they help you catch fish. Like I said, I’m off to a great start and I hope I can keep on fishing the way I have the past couple of weeks. With Wiley X’s help, I hope to come out on top this season.
March 2009
Winning the Classic — what can I say? It was sweet. It was one of those weeks where I had a game plan, a real strategy and stuck to it. Mind you, my practice didn’t go great by any means, not a lot of bites, so I wasn’t super confident. But, I did have a game plan and in the end, the whole week really worked to a “T” — I couldn’t have scripted it any better. (I’ve written a lot of scripts for plenty of tournaments and not had them come out right, believe me.) But this one worked out for the biggest day, the biggest title and the biggest check. I’d like to do it again!
So here’s what my basic plan was: I wanted to maximize my fishing time, and didn’t want to get stuck wasting two hours in the lock — the more time I have my line in the water, the more time I’d have to catch good fish and more of them. That ended up working.
Secondly, I chose two areas to concentrate my efforts on — two areas with better quality fish, so I looked at a map and actually wound up really only using one of them, fished my limit there.
I fished aways off from where the other guys were concentrating their time, so the fish weren’t getting pressured — it seemed like I ended up catching a lot of fish that were leaving the other anglers.
Third, I kept in an area with mainly muddy water, versus clear. Everyone else seemed to be staying in the clear. But, I told myself if we have a cold front or a storm, things are going to change fast. Sure enough, we got a high pressure front and it was cold and miserable, and those clear water fish struggled those days, so a lot of guys had a tough time. I caught every one of my fish out in the muddy water, so that fell into place that week, too.
I didn’t do anything crazy or exotic, I caught ‘em on a spinner bait in the morning and flippin’ in the afternoon. I did use two new baits that are just now released on the market.
I’ll tell you, having such good polarized lenses from Wiley X made my job so much easier, especially in the clear water on day two, where I did catch a lot of my big fish. There were so many stumps, if you didn’t pay attention, you’d be constantly caught and agitated. My Wiley X’s allowed me to see the stumps before hitting them with the boat! That way, I was able to focus on fishing, in a calmer state of mind, and allowed me to do what I had to do, the way it needed to be done.
When I won, I had been almost 80 percent sure I had it, but even that 10-20 percent can start to outweigh your confidence in the staging area. It was mental warfare with myself — the highs and lows, anxieties and stress, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully explain to people what I went through behind the scenes. I was pacing back and forth, jumping up and down, hyperventilating — I was a mess! “Did I win? Did I win???? Someone tell me!!!!”
I was told back at the boat ramp by an official that if Pee Wee (another well known official) asks you to sign his badge, then he thinks you won. (And apparently Pee Wee is usually right.)
So that got my hopes up and after what seemed like forever, sure enough, Pee Wee sets his badge down on my deck and asks me to sign it and I absolutely lost it, I was sobbing, I was ecstatic — I didn’t know what to do! He congratulated me, and I felt like I had it won.
However, I’d heard that Ike had a big bag, and when I got to the coliseum to set up, I heard he had some 20 pounds +, which was WAY more weight than they’d predicted. I went from pure joy to “oh x$%*!”
So we’re all standing back there, calculating, and I kept hearing 16.1 to tie, 16.2 to win…and I thought I had 16.4. You’re talking about OUNCES. I was an emotional wreck by that point. All I cared about was getting my fish on the scale.
I lifted my fish out of the live well, and thought “These fish are heavier that I think, there’s at least 16 pounds here,” and then I read the digital readout myself and read 16.12! Then it was unbelievable, I remember jumping around, so incredibly excited, but I don’t hear anything, not the crowd, not Trip, everything was on mute. I was so focused on that moment of me actually winning, that I guess I tuned everything else out. I’d just won the Classic.
Bassmaster Classic:
The biggest one I landed during the whole event was probably about 4.5 pounds, and for the most part, I caught em’ on a brown jig and a hollow bodied swim bait.
The most memorable part of the Classic had to be day 2, catching a pretty big limit and rallying up from 30 some odd place to 13th. That was the highlight for me of the week, make a little bit of a comeback and scare a few people!
My Wiley X’s allowed me to fish 8 hours a day, without any strain on my eyes, which is true at the classic or on any day on the water.
Sunshine Showdown:
It was ridiculous that third day, it blew 35 mph sustained for 8 hours straight…it was really special. For me, though, it was a good week, I came just shy of making the top 12, but climbed in standing and improved, by the end of the event, I had a top 20 finish, and racked up some good points.
Caught most of my fish from flippin, despite the fact that most of the fishing was done in 35 mph winds!!! It swirled around a lot, I’ve been in a lot of wind, but I don’t think I’ve ever fished in that kind of wind for that long…typically it will blow for half a day, and then it lays down. Because the wind blew so much , I used the gasket in my glasses, to seal my eyes from the wind, and that made it bearable.
REVIEWS
Eyewear Critical To Skeet Reese Pattern Search
KramerGoneFishing.com
April 15, 2009
“I couldn’t tell you that five years ago,” said Bassmasters Classic champion Skeet Reese, when I interviewed him a couple of days ago.
What he couldn’t tell me about then was how much different a sophisticated, technical approach would have changed his tournament fishing and his success. “I always thought fishing was not rocket science,” he confessed. “But the older I’ve gotten, the more I analyze and the more I realize how scientific it is.”
In particular, I was trying to find out the role of sunglasses, especially since seeing cover (not seeing fish) was a matter that came up in his post-Classic interviews. His Wiley X’s helped him then, but what role did they play for the rest of the Elite tour?
But before he answered that question, he reflected on the Classic situation in the winning stump field. “When you bang into stumps or are trying to get off stumps, you don’t focus on the fishing: the next cast and the next presentation,” Skeet said. “When you fish for a living, you need to see the minute differences below the waterline, the different kinds of grasses, the bottom, whether it’s pea gravel or rock, and to separate them visually. When I do that, it makes my job easier.”
He noted, “I want to see the shade of bottom. Black not white or gray or chocolate. That different bottom color represents different rock or other cover and that helps me targeting patterns in shallow water.”
One particular place he has put increased stock in the Wiley X’s he now carries (15 to 20 pairs in a couple of different styles) is with lens color. “I think that’s the one thing that has helped me in a lot of different fishing environments. Many don’t pay attention to that. And I think a lot of people are missing a better experience on the water.”
When I pressed him on the matter, Skeet offered up some great examples. “In clear water in spring,” he advised, “a yellow lens emphasizes green in the water (grasses or bass)—it will help bring up that green from a sight-fishing standpoint.”
But things are different in different parts of the country. He says, “In the Louisiana to Florida area, they have that blackish water. A lighter green lens works much better. It takes the brown or the black out.
“In the central part of the country, amber works well for me. In the dirtier water situations with mud or silt in the water, I can see deeper into the stained water (with amber).”
But for the technical and highly successful Wiley X pro, a fishing trip is never all just one thing. Skeet said, “I may wear yellow in the morning but graduate to green or amber in the afternoon. I know it helps.”
BIO
“Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance.”
Will Durant (1885-1981)
Back in the late 1960s in Northern California, a bass market legend was
born. Skeet Reese first went fishing at age three, and by age 12 had already promised himself that one day he’d make his living fishing professionally. He bought his first boat right before his 18th birthday (before he even owned
a truck to pull it with!) and immediately dove in head first to an amazing career, which to this day he still calls his “ongoing education.”
At age 31, he started gaining real notoriety, when, according to Skeet, he finally passed his “masters” and today continues in the “post-doctoral” stage. “Learning is a never-ending process — technology is always changing our sport — it’s no different than going to school,” he says.
Skeet has had a hell of an education, and is arguably the bass market’s valedictorian — B.A.S.S. 2007 Angler of the Year, with career winnings of more than $2 million, 2007 B.A.S.S Elite Series Potomac River Champion, 2007 2nd Place Bassmaster Classic, 9X Bassmaster Classic Qualifier, 39 B.A.S.S Top Ten Finishes, and was the 2003 Citgo BassMaster Tour Champion.
Today, he’s leveraging the importance of technological advances in the market as a member of the Wiley X Pro Bass Team. “I’ve been somewhat of a student of lens technology for years. I was incredibly impressed with both the lens clarity of Wiley X products, combined with their amazing ballistic properties,” says Skeet. “Their products were initially built for the military and law enforcement markets, and those features both allow me to sight fish effectively, while providing the ultimate protection when going 70 mph or yanking a lure out of a tree.”
Skeet learned early on that a good pair of sunglasses is a small price to pay for his eyes — inferior or cheap models can destroy them. “I’ve always tried to make sure that I use the best quality lenses to protect my eyes, with as much time as I spend on the water, you can develop serious eye problems at a young age, otherwise,” he points out.
His favorite lake is Clearlake in his home state of California, and when he’s not scaring the crap out of large
and small mouth bass, not to mention the competition, he can be found golfing, and in the off-season, fishing
for steelhead, sailfish and dorado.
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