Kevin Ledoux was quick to praise fellow competitor Bill Lowen when describing the incredible start Ledoux had on Day 3, when he put at estimated 16-plus pounds in the livewells in 20 minutes. Lowen and Ledoux had been within sight of each other the first two days of the tournament, working a shallow rock flat near the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge (a.k.a., Johnstown Bridge).
"Bill Lowen has been in there with me all week, and we've worked well together," Ledoux said. "He told me (Friday) that I needed to mark where he was fishing. I said, dude, I don't want to come in on you. He said, no, this is yours. It was really cool of Bill to do that. I owe him a bunch."
Lowen weighed 15-15 and 15-0 on the first two days, while Ledoux had 20-7 and 17-9.
"I had the opportunity to do really well in this tournament," Lowen said. "The first day, I lost a couple of 4- or 5-pounders, and every time I caught one, it had 5 or 6 others swimming with it. The second day, I lost two 5-pounders."
After two days, Lowen was in 45th place and "fishing only for (AOY) points," he said. "I knew Kevin had an opportunity to make his first 12 cut ever. I said, look, dude, you need to fish there (Saturday). He was there when I got there (Saturday), catching one on every cast. He's yelling at me the whole time, dude, come in here and fish with me. I'm like, no, I'm not going to do it."
When told that Ledoux said he owed him "a bunch," Lowen said, "Nah, he don't owe me nothing. That's just who I am."
Two things: 1) Lowen is the epitome of the sportsmanship that occurs often on this circuit, not always, but often; 2) These guys sure do say "dude" a lot.