“Looking for 13-6,” boomed Dave Mercer as Todd Faircloth watched the scale. Cliff Pace looked on as well, clinging to his lead. “14-9!” Faircloth needed a moment to compose himself before addressing a huge crowd.

Faircloth tallied a 4-day total weight of 62 pounds, 4 ounces to win his 3rd career Bassmaster Elite Series tournament.

“I knew it was going to be real close,” said Faircloth. “As the day went on it got really tough.” He moved to other areas and after an hour-and-a-half with out a bite he told himself, “Get back over there where you have some confidence and try to catch a big fish before weigh in. I did that with 30 minutes to go. and I caught a three-and-a-half-pounder with 15 left to go.”

That last fish culled him to his winning weight.

Faircloth had a couple of reliable spots but the better one featured a hard-bottomed hole in shallow grass. “The key was current flowinf through there,” noted the champ. Also important was that he worked slowly and picked it apart.

He would start the day with a white frog and said that bass would compete to get it. That lasted for an hour, maybe two each morning. Then it was all about punching the grass with the same rig he used to secure victory late in the final round.

His flippin’ set up included a one-and-a-quarter-ounce tungsten weight and 4/0 straight shank hook on 50-lb Spiderwire braid. Faircloth flipped a modified Yamamoto Creature – he removed the front legs so it would slip through the matted grass better. Balck with blue tail was the winning color.

Aaron Martens out pressure on Faircloth for two days, steadily inching closer to the lead. With 10-13 today Martens fell to 5th. More on that in a moment.

Cliff Pace came close to winning his first Bassmaster Elite Series event. “I’ve caught so many fish this week it’s kind of been ridiculous,” noted Pace. He had aimed to rope 5 three-pounders daily. He only failed to do so once. It cost him. he finished with 61 pounds, including today’s biggest bag at 16-1.

Terry Butcher quietly landed in 3rd wiih a total of 60-11. “It’s been an awesome week,” he said. “I’ve caught a ton of fish.” he admited to missing a few big fish on day 1 and syas that hurt his chances to win. Butcher mixed in a spinnerbait along the edge of vegetation, but caught most of his bass on the new Booyah Pad Crasher frog.

Booyah had 3 pros (25% of the field) fishing today so their new Pad Crasher frog was the most-thrown lure in the final round of the River Rumble. Cliff Prince used it exclusively to place 9th with 55 pounds. Terry Scroggins threw two different green-colored models of the new lure and said they both worked well. Scroggins placed 6th with 57-11.

Federation Nation representative, Jamie Horton placed 4th on the strength of the mayfly hatch which he noticed on Friday. Horton had 59-11. He focussed much of his effort around rip rap.

mayflies were the bane of Aaron Martens. He had been catching fish in 10-to-18 feet of water. When the mayflies covered the rocks last night the bass suspended and spent the final day chasing them.

Martens watched multiple 2-pounders slurp flies at boatside. He adjusted by throwing a wacky rig. He also caugth a couple on 5-inch swimbaits. But his bread and butter all week had been a drop shot with a long leader on 8 lb line with a Roboworm.

Martens said 30 or 40 guys motored right over the magic spot in practice. He knew he was on something when his consecutive drops never reached bottom before bass hauled off with his worm. He caught 13 or 14 pounds in the first hour each day.

Dean Rojas was a crowd favorite in LaCrosse. He took the stage to raucus aplause. An audible gasp arose when the frog man failed to take over the lead. He finished 8th with 57-7.

Rick Clunn also received enormous aplause from one of the biggest Elite Series crowds all year. They chuckled when he admited, “I’ve been doing this since 1974. When I started I was arogant enough to think ‘I’m gonna figure this out’. I don’t have a clue what happened today.” Clunn brought 2 fish for 4 pounds and finished 12th with 48-5.