PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Per usual, the pros were talking a good game at the weigh-in on Day Three of the Champion's Choice presented by Toyota Tundra. Here were some of the best lines:
"I think they got tired of what I was throwing at them."
— Rick Clunn, who fell from fifth place to 26th with an 11-pound, 2-ounce Day Three stringer
"They just weren't biting as good."
— Steve Daniel, who slipped from fourth to 45th with a tough 6-13 outing
"I think I've caught all the big, aggressive fish."
— Steve Kennedy, resigned to finishing no higher than his current second place
"I just didn't get the good bites I needed. My amateur got a couple of good bites I could have used."
— Dean Rojas
"They just were a step ahead of me this week."
— Kevin VanDam (27th, 45-4) on the smallmouth bass
"I'm glad he lost them."
— Skeet Reese, on the fish Angler of the Year points leader VanDam missed this week
"When you've got 'em, you spend a lot of time not catching 'em."
— Leader Timmy Horton, on conserving fish throughout a tournament
I've lost a bunch of fish the last few days. Today I never lost a fish, but never caught a good one."
"— Kevin Wirth, in sharp contrast to most of the smallmouth field, who reported their fish were especially wild and apt at throwing hooks
"My spots just dried up today. I just sat on it and died today."
— Paul Hirosky, who fell from 7th to 47th
"I was struggling on the first morning before I changed baits. Now I wish I had those three hours back because it's been a really good morning bite."
— Britt Myers, who sits 12-8 behind Timmy Horton in 3rd place.
"I caught about 25 pike and about six largemouths today."
— Fred Roumbanis, who indicated this morning that he was going pike fishing in trying to secure his hefty largemouths
"I hammered my fish pretty hard yesterday trying to get what I could get."
— Scott Rook, who fell from 6th to 14th, 4 ounces out of the top 12
"I caught too many fish to catch the big ones. Usually when you're getting that many bites you're not getting the big ones."
— Alton Jones
"I don't have any explanation for it. The last couple of days it was hard to catch a small fish and today they were all I could catch."
— Bernie Schultz
Editor's note: Check in daily during the tournament for live video of the weigh-ins and a realtime leaderboard at 3 p.m. ET Thursday through Saturday. ESPNOutdoors.com will air Hooked Up, the live Internet shows, on Sunday at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon ET on Sunday. The 45-minute Hooked Up show begins at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, leading into the final live weigh-in and a realtime leaderboard at 3:45 p.m. ET.
Please feel free to post comments to this story via the ESPN Conversation feature at the bottom of this and every news page on this site.