Championship Sunday with Chris Lane

Chris Lane started Championship Sunday of the A.R.E. Truck Caps Bassmaster Elite at Toledo Bend in second place. Follow along as he tries to hunt down Kevin VanDam.

Lane called an audible on the final morning and started close instead of running over 20 minutes south.

His morning started fast as he hooked up on just his third cast of the day.

After leaving the dock at 6:15 a.m. he had already boated a keeper before 6:20.

His first keeper is in the box as we could still hear the rest of the anglers running down Toledo Bend.

A beautiful sunrise and some gusty winds greeted the anglers on the final day.

It didn’t take Lane long to hook up again as his very next cast resutled in a topwater strike.

The first quality fish of the day for Lane is about a three-pound largemouth.

The hot start had him closing the gap on leader Kevin VanDam fast.

One cast later and keeper number three was hooked up. Lane’s first spot was producing quantities of fish because of the early shad spawn bite.

Another chunky fish that was full of shad came swinging in the boat.

That was a very thick fish for Lane. He puts his third keeper in the livewell and unofficially takes the lead at 6:25 on Championship Sunday.

But he wasn’t done yet as he bowed up on another fish to keep his streak going.

He catches a small keeper in mid-air and puts number four in the livewell.

Lane was on ’em early on Day 4 and was feeling confident in his decision to start on the Louisiana side of Toledo Bend.

After boating four keepers, Lane proceeded to catch a number of non-keepers as he sorted through the small fish.

The Zara Spook was big for him on the final morning as he boated the first four keepers of the day on it.

After weeding through some small fish he hooked up with something significant as he set the hook.

The fish fought around the front of the boat and Lane softly played the fish out so it wouldn’t come unbuttoned.

Then he makes a move to swing number five aboard.

Number five is his biggest of the morning and it fills his limit just 15 minutes into the morning.

This keeper came on the Whopper Plopper, which has been key all week.

Great start to the morning as Lane boated a limit before any competitor caught a fish.

After catching the quick limit he began hitting similar areas looking to capitalize on the shad spawn that was happening.

We saw Andy Montgomery in the area and he boated a quality fish to start his day.

Montgomery caught 21 pounds on the final day and this was one of them.

Lane battled through the early morning period and was determined to catch a fish between 8:30 and 10:30, which was when he had a big drought on Day 3.

When he would get around thicker grass he would throw a soft plastic frog so he wouldn’t get hung up with the trebled hooks on his other topwater baits.

Lane was running and gunning looking for new water to cover and finding a way to trigger a bite during the mid-morning period.

At this point in the day his early morning advantage had dwindled and the rest of the Top 12 had found their groove. Kevin VanDam retook the unofficial lead and Lane was in catch-up mode even though he didn’t know it.

He gets a blow up and sets the hook.

This is the bite Lane was looking for and he fights to keep it hooked up near the boat.

He sees the fish is hooked well so he starts to swing it.

There is the quality bite he needed during the mid-morning period where he seemed to struggle.

This gave him a big cull as he got rid of a 1 1/2 pounder.

He continued to fish around flooded bushes and grass.

He hooked up with something, but it wasn’t a bass. When he got it in the boat he realized it was a snake. The sequence of him unhooking the snake and getting it out of his boat was certainly interesting.

Thumbs up from Lane as he successfully avoided a snake bite and was back to fishing.

It still gave him goosebumps though.

Lane gets back to work and runs to a new area.

He decided to stop running new water and return to areas that were prosperous for him throughout the event.

This was one of his key areas that wasn’t blown out by the early morning Sunday wind.

He rotated to a bank of hay grass and hooked up with a keeper.

Lane fights this fish as it attempts to jump in front of the boat.

He swings aboard a short and chunky fish that will help him cull some, but he knows he needs a kicker fast.

With the slight chop on the water the whopper plopper was still putting fish in the boat.

Time to cull.

And get back to fishing.

A better fish blows up on his bait and the opportunity to upgrade has presented itself. Now all he has to do is land this quality fish.

The fish jumps at the front of the boat.

Lane swings aboard his final keeper of the day.

This was one of his best fish of the day as well.

A blue heron flys by…

As Chris Lane heads back to Louisiana to hit a final spot or two.

He finished his day close to the ramp where he started the morning.

Chris Lane gave it his all on the final day, but he eventually came up short to Kevin VanDam. He finished with a four-day total of 88-7 including 19-7 on the final day.