Glad to see him pull one out for the older guys, especially after such a dry spell.
Pulled out some old pics from the 80s. In 88' got to fish a few practice days with him at the Bassmaster Top 100 (predecessor to the Elites) at Lake Okeechobee in FL. We fished a lot of the lake and he found some rattletrap fish. Came in to the dock at Roland Martin's Marina the second day of practice and Gary Klein pulled in next to us. Klein had a tough practice and asked Clunn how he did. As they were good friends and shared some information, Clunn told him traps. Klein asked what size line? Clunn replied 20 lb. and Klein seemed puzzled. Clunn said the key was he was pulling that thing so fast, it slapped them in the face and they never saw the line.
Clunn was using what was then a very new high speed 7:1 Daiwa reel to make fast retrieves triggering reaction bites. At that time, 5:1 was considered hi-speed. On the last day of the actual tournament, a front came through and slowed the trap bite but he caught the same fish with a junebug worm. While he was in contention to win, he finished 5th with Mark Davis taking the title fishing the Rim Canal.
In the picture, the boat he fished the circuit in that year was a Skeeter SK 2000 center console bass boat. That thing was almost too wide to be legal on the road and weighed a ton. It was the only bass boat I have ever been in that you could walk from one side to the other and it wouldn't move. With the BASS limit of 150 HP at that time, it struggled to break 45 mph and was the slowest boat in the field. Despite the handicap, Clunn rallied to win the BASSMASTER Angler Of The Year title that year.
Smiled as he pulled this one out.
