Gordon wins CR Bassmasters fisherman of the year title

Two-time Iowa BASS Federation state tournament winner Blair Gordon added another line to his resume this year with the Cedar Rapids Bassmasters fisherman of the year title.

Gordon, 32, of Marion, edged six-time fisherman of the year Thad Takes for the honor on Oct. 17, the final day of the club's last tournament of the season, on the Mississippi River at Lansing.

“He earned the title on that last day. He had to catch fish and he did,” said Takes, the club's president.

Gordon had a comfortable lead in the season standings until the next-to-last of the club's seven tournaments.

“I bombed and Thad caught up with me. The last tournament was a showdown. I needed to finish ahead of him to win the title,” Gordon said.

After the first day of the two-day contest, Gordon had a 2.5 pound lead over Takes. But Takes caught fire the second day, catching a five-fish limit that weighed nearly 15 pounds.

“I thought I had him. He needed almost 13 pounds to stay ahead of me and win the title,” Takes said.

Gordon's final day bag exceeded 13 pounds and provided the slim margin he needed to be crowned fisherman of the year.

“There are some really good bass fishermen in the club, and the title means a lot to all of us. It felt good to win it,” said Gordon.

Gordon, who describes himself as “a power slash junk fisherman,” said he prefers to catch bass with fast-moving lures such as crankbaits and spinner baits but can fish deliberately when the bass insist on slow presentations.

“I probably fished a plastic frog more this year than in any other year in my life,” he said.

His most productive lures this year, he said, were the SPRO Bronzeye Frog, which gave him one tournament victory and contributed to another, and Big Bite plastic lures, which helped him catch bass in each of his tournaments.

He said his dad, fishing tackle representative Vance Gordon of Marion, recommended the lures. “But I wouldn't have kept using them if the fish didn't like them,” he said.

The Cedar Rapids Bassmasters awards its fisherman of the year title to the angler who records the highest cumulative score in the club's seven tournaments, with 100 points to the winner of a tournament, 99 points to the runner-up, 98 to the third-place finisher and so forth.

The other top finishers (in order) were Takes, Jason Brecht, Doug Theobald, Brad Teel, Justin Lubbock, Steve Teel, Bob Heath, Lynn Smith, Dennis Olson, Dean Miller and Dan Bulger.