Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pennsylvaina is a veteran ProTourJournal correspondent.  Dave's journals are some of the most requested on this web site because his details are so precise.  He is a fan favorite.

Lefebre enters Top Gun as the number 19 angler in the world.  He just completed his 3rd year on Tour, (FLW,) and is making his first appearance in BassFan's World Rankings.

A Look At Dave's Top 25's over the last 3 years.

August 10-"Eagle Lake is a lake with no grass, which is one of my favorite kinds of cover to fish.  The lake is small and has docks as it's main shore line cover.  There are also some reeds or bull rush that line the North end of the lake.  The lake is 9 miles long and about 2 miles wide at its widest point.  The deepest water that I graphed today was 35 feet."

"The limit size for Top Gun is 14 inches, which always makes a difference, as you know there will be plenty of fish in the 12-13 inch range."

"I had a lot of bites, however, I didn't set the hook today very much today.  I did set the hook once,  the fish must have been at least a seven.  I wished that maybe I had saved it.  Generally speaking, I don't know how big or small the bites that I had were.  I didn't fish much, took a lot of time to ride completely around the lake."

"I got on the water kind of late, the were a group of children who were suffering from cancer fishing on the bank today, and a few of us spent some time with them, it is a sobering thing to see their enthusiasm."

"I think that most of the damage in this tournament will be done around docks.  The seem to be the most abundant cover available.  The lake's water color is kind of dingy, which kind of sets this tournament up to be a Power Fisherman's event.  When you look at the field of 25, just about everyone of us here is an accomplish Power Fisherman.  I expect the event to be won in 4 to 5 feet of water."

"I did spend some time off shore looking, although I didn't find anything that interested me off shore.  There were some schooling fish, that folks around here call Sand Bass, they are kind of like a White Bass, and they don't count in our tournament.  I thought maybe there might be some large mouth underneath the schools of Sand Bass, but I never saw one."

"I will spend more time looking shallow tomorrow, I want to know which docks are productive and which I should avoid."

August 11-"Boy did I get in trouble last night for setting the hook on that big fish.  My wife really gave me a hard time about catching that big fish yesterday.  If only I had saved it."

"I have decided to fish an area which away from where most of the competitors are fishing.  In fact the only other guy that I saw down in my area was Greg Hackney.  Most of the field seems to be up the river, so I am expecting the have the water to myself, at least on day one."

"I plan to hit the bank and fish quickly.  Actually fishing fast is what I like to do.  I like to get my bait into a spot and get on out to the next one.  I don't like to waste my time trying to tease one into biting, I prefer a hit and run approach.  It looks like I will be able to fish to my strengths.  The fish here are very territorial which means, I can skip a bait up under a dock and expect to get a bite on the fall.  If I don't get a bite, I move on.  That is the way I am most comfortable fishing."

"Tonight we had a dinner/banquet hosted by one of my sponsors, Gamma Line.  Gamma is company that produces both monofilament and fluorocarbon lines.  After we ate, the company personnel put on a little seminar demonstrating the selling points of Gamma Line.  What I really like about the line is that finally someone got a fluorocarbon line right.  This tournament is a perfect example.  We are going to be fishing docks and heavy cover, fishing line needs to be able to give a little on the intense shallow water hook sets.  Gamma has been able to do that due to a special process that they use with their line.  I see a tremendous advantage using Gamma Line."

"Tomorrow we get after it.  I will fishing mainly docks, I will use small crank baits, jigs and tubes.  It should be fun."

August 12-5 Fish / 8.74 / 13th place"Our weigh in ended tonight about 9:00, which kind of puts us on the edge of a long night, if we don't manage our time well.  It was very cool."

"I caught seven keepers today."

"I'm still within striking distance. I figured before the tournament that I would need ten to eleven pounds a day to have a chance, I still feel that is true.  It is just like I thought it would be, you will need a big bite each day, and I sure had mine today.  I had a four and half pounder come up and eat my buzz bait this morning.  The fish jumped off on the way to the boat.  That fish probably allows me to weigh in about 12 pounds.  I also had another fish that was about two pounds jump off, that would have given me another half pound, that's fishing.  If you look at the top 5 each of those guys had a big bite, take away Toshinari's 5 1/2 and he weighs about ten pounds, so I feel that I still have a good chance, I will have to get my weight up to average 10-11 pounds, but the bites are out there."

"I'm using a penetrator tungsten, colored weight, (the original painted tungsten weight,) and a Kinami, Nori-bug, and just pitching and skipping the bug up under docks, I don't think this lake is any great mystery, in fact, the water is about three feet down which is kind of leveling the playing field.  All of the anglers here are great, but there are only a hand full that are excellent dock fishermen. With the water so low, anybody can pitch a bait up under the docks, the docks are just a lot easier to fish, with the water being so low."

"Obviously, I want to do better tomorrow, I will start the same way, a buzz bait, and then I will hit the docks when the sun beats down on the water.  Tomorrow, I will need to catch the big ones that bite."

August 13-2 Fish / 3.46 / 7 Fish / 12.20 / 13th place "Not so hot today.  The weather was miserable and hot, and the fishing for me was slow."

"I lost two fish that would have helped.  One was at least 3 1/2 and the other was a keeper.  I started out fishing a smaller buzz bait today, I was thinking I could get one of those big blow ups I had earlier in the week."

"I caught a bunch of shorts today, all 13 7/8."

"Fishing pressure got to be unbearable today.  Yesterday I didn't see but a couple of other boats, in fact, Hackney and Namiki are fishing in my area, and they both had poor days.  We had at least 15 other tournament boats fishing in the area today, and they just beat it up.  No excuses, but where were those guys yesterday?"

"Tomorrow I will do what I do in tournaments where I find myself behind.  I am tying on only big baits, and I am going to put the trolling motor on high and make about a million pitches."

August 14-2 Fish / 3.26 / 9 Fish / 15.46 / 20th place 

"I am so frustrated with myself.  I don't know what is wrong with me.  I started out throwing a buzz bait again today, I have has so many blow ups on it.  I actually caught one on a buzz bait today, but I missed six good bites.  That's 13 missed fish on the buzz bait this week, for those of you keeping score at home.  For the life of me, I just don't understand.  I used different size baits, I used trailer hooks, it was just bizarre."

"I caught my other keeper on a Nori Bug, (Kinami Baits,) off of a dock."

"Top Gun was awesome.  The weigh ins were cool, just what you need for Summer events, the fish were put back quickly, it is the right way to do it in the Summer."

"I am beat.  We didn't get enough sleep.  The only complaint that I have is that the weigh ins were done around 9:00 PM each night.  After the weigh in, we still had to eat and to rig up for the next day.  The only thing I could say was difficult, was the late weigh in shows.

"I had a lot of fun, the event was run very well, and I can't wait to do this again next year."