Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Not to discredit Clark Wendlandt's skills as a bass fisherman, but if it wasn't for an extreme act of kindness on the part of fellow competitor Shin Fukae, Wendlandt wouldn't be where he is this evening - leading through three days of competition at the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Ranger Boats on the Potomac River.

Wendlandt suffered a mechanical failure with his rig just a couple of hours into competition that prevented him from running his big motor on plane. He was stuck, more or less, and planned to fish with the trolling motor as best he could before being towed back to the ramp early. If it'd played out as planned, Wendlandt would have lost significant fishing time and probably wouldn't have weighed in a limit.

Fukae would let nothing of the sort happen when he came across Wendlandt on the water and heard what had happened. In 16th place and fishless at the time, Fukae insisted that Wendlandt trade boats, effectively ending his tournament and giving Wendlandt the chance to catch 14 1/2 pounds and maintain his lead with a three-day total of 47-02.