Like he did the week before at Toledo Bend, our man Big Fred Contaoi wowed the crowd over the weekend at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic on Lake Conroe with a lunker largemouth. This 7.88 pounder was the big fish for the tourney on day one and helped Contaoi reach 7th place in the $250,000 event.

Unfortunately, conditions were tough on the second day for Fred and he slipped in standings, but still ended up with a very strong 22nd place finish. And keep in mind, this was against the best bass anglers in the world!

A great start...Fred's first bass of the tourney

Here’s a look at the tourney…

Fred signing autographs for the kiddies

Big Fred at work on Conroe

Big Fred & previous Bassmaster's Classic champ, Takahiro Omori

Com'on baby, I just need one BIG BITE!

Our bass man, Big Fred Contaoi is headed for the world championship of bass fishing this weekend at Lake Conroe, the Professional Anglers Association’s Toyota Texas Bass Classic. The Classic brings 60 of the best bass anglers on the planet from the PAA, FLW Tour and the Bassmaster’s Tour together for…what they’d call in boxing…a “unified title.”

Big Fred finished in the top 40 on the PAA Tournament Series this year, which earned him a chance at the championship, which begins today with a Pro-Am event. Then on Friday, “it’s on!” and Fred will be pitting his skills up against the sport’s elite, folks like Kevin VanDam, Skeet Reese, Mike Iaconelli, Takahiro Omori, Alton Jones, Luke Clausen, Boyd Duckett and Gerald Swindle.

Stay tuned here…we’ll keep you posted on Fred’s status. Or, log onto the PAA website for more info.

Good luck Big Boy!

Our man Big Fred Contaoi had he best showing yet at a Wal Mart-FLW Tour stop this weekend, when he placed 26th out of a field of 155 pros at Arkansas’s Beaver Lake.

For his efforts, Big Boy earned a check for $13,000 — which comes out to be $1,300 per bass over the two days he fished! Contaoi weighed in 5 fish for 9 pounds, 2 ounces on Thursday and then followed that up with 5 that weighed 9 pounds, 13 ounces on Friday. He’s two day total was 18 pounds, 15 ounces and was a mere 4 pounds out of the top 10 — and making the cut.

Though the standings have yet to be released, the 26th place finish, along with placing 85, 58 and 71 at the first three FLW Tour events of the year, should keep Contaoi very much alive in the points race to qualify for the $1 Million Forrest Wood Cup in Pittsburgh in late July.

Nice work, Big Fred!

Our bass dude, Big Fred Contaoi had a strong showing on Day 1 of the Walmart FLW Tour’s first stop of the season at Lake Guntersvillle, AL Thursday. Big boy got onto a nice pattern he put together in practice and it payed off to the tune of 4 largemouth that weighed 17-pounds, 10 ounces.

The sack of fish was good enough to put him 39th place — well within striking distance of making the cut tomorrow. Of course, had he not lost two other big bass, he would be sitting even more pretty as he’s only 3 pounds out of the top 10. At FLW Tour events, remember, they cut down from 200 anglers to 10 after day two, so a good showing tomorrow is a must.

Contaoi’s co-angler from Day 1, Terry Chapman of Stanley, NC is currently in third place overall in the co-angler (“backseat”) division.

Will Friday the 13th be the day Big Fred takes a huge step forward in his career? Tune in tomorrow for an update!

Our man, Big Fred Contaoi is currently flying under the radar, gearing up for his third run at the Wal Mart FLW Tour which kicks off Feb. 12.

Big boy will be knocking heads with some of the best bassers on the planet at Lake Guntersville in Huntsville, AL, where the current forecasts are calling for cold conditions and bass that are in a pre-spawn/winter type of mode. The lake is one of the better largemouth producers in the region and it sometimes takes a 25-pound sacks here every day to win. Of course, in the cold all bets are off and the smaller populations of smallies and spotts may come into play.

In any case, when the fish are cold and lethargic, it’s going to take a solid game plan to do well here but we have faith our man is up to the task. As always, we’ll keep you posted on how he’s doing…

A little more than a year after his strong 15th place finish in the FLW Series event at Clear Lake, Big Fred Contaoi returned to his home lake and, along with partner Tommy C., made it a clean sweep at the one day US Angler’s Choice tourney today by winning the thing outright — and taking big fish.

The weather was ugly and the bite was tough, but the boys put their heads together and ended up with some cool schwag…and close to $2,000. Nice work, boys!

Our man Big Fred Contaoi helped lead the Orange County Choppers Team to a strong 4th place finish in the PAA Corporate Cup in Florence, Alabama last week.

The event featured 42 teams picked from the cream of the crop of the FLW Tour and Bass Elite anglers, so Contaoi’s gang beat out some of the biggest names in the sport of bass fishing!

“The PAA Corporate Cup was the first tournament of its kind and will go down in the history of great tournaments in professional bass fishing,” says Contaoi. “The tournament focus was to showcase angling talent along with corporations that are critical to the success of the professional angler. The four man team format was the brain child of PAA president Tim Horton and his staff.”

Big Fred says that each team was given the freedom to choose who they wanted to fish with to increase the odds of winning the grand prize of $100,000.00. The teams could have no more than 2 top level pros and two anglers from either corporations or local fishermen of their choice. The entire field of 84 boats fished for two days then the top twelve teams fished the final cut day on Saturday.

“The pros who did not make the final day spent the day greeting the public, talking fishing and showcasing their sponsors at Mc Farland Park,” he said.

As he did last year, our fav bass pro, Big Fred Contaoi,is finishing his sophomore season on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour on a positive note — despite the best efforts of the weather.

Last year, it was at Clear Lake, his last event of the season, where he finished a solid 15th. This week, Fred was on Lake Champlain in Plattsburg, NY, where his 39-pound, 5-ounce sack of bass was good enough for…

67th place (out of 190) and a $1,860 payday. Looking at the standings, Fred was one fish like the one above from winning $10,000+.

“I only got to fish a couple hours on the last day and then my motor got swamped by 6-foot wind waves,” says Contaoi. “At that point, I was dead in the water 40 miles from the ramp.”

Luckily, got home thanks to help of a fellow boater, but in the rough waters at Champlain, it took most of the day to get back and Big Fred didn’t have a chance to add to his sack.

Basszone.com currently has a front page story on Big Fred. Click the link to see it!

FLW Touring professional, Big Fred Contaoi got his name into the record books with this huge largemouth bass from Percy Priest Lake in Nashville, TN…sorta.

Big Fred, who fishes out of the Orange County Choppers boat while on tour, caught this 11-pound, 8-ounce bass on May 21 while scouting the lake in preparation for the Porter Wagoner Memorial Artists & Anglers Fishing Tournament on Percy Priest Lake which will be held June 3.

The fish was more than a pound heavier than the previous record for Percy Priest, caught by RF Frankenbach on June 5, 1978.

“I caught the fish around 6:30 p.m.,” said Contaoi. “At the time, I was throwing a Lucky Craft Rick Clunn RCBDS 1.5 in the Copper Shad pattern on 8-pound Berkley Fluorocarbon with a 4-pound leader.”

The big sow was weighed on Contaoi’s tournament scale and then released, so it won’t be officially recognized as lake record.

“I had no idea at the time that that fish was of record caliber,” he said. “It was my first day on the water there and I figured that the lake probably had kicked out plenty of big bass like that over the years. In hindsight, I probably should have had the bass weighed on a certified scale at Bass Pro Shops in Nashville. Still, I feel fortunate to have had an encounter with such a great fish – and I feel even better about the fact that she’s still out there, growing bigger.”

Contaoi and his partner for the charity tournament, singer/guitarist Wade Hayes, will be gunning for a fish just like her during the event next week. To see how they do against the field of other top bass pros and country stars, be sure to stop by the weigh-in at Bass Pro Shops at Opry Mills at 5 p.m. June 3. Once the winner is crowned, there will be a very special acoustic concert/jam session and fish fry.

Our bud and FLW Tour pro, Big Fred Contaoi of Orange County Choppers had a solid showing this week at the second FLW Tour stop of the year. At Alabama’s Lewis Smith Lake, where anglers had to switch from sight fishing largemouth on beds to working deeper water for spotts (and back again), Big Fred hung tough and walked away with a check for $2,000.

On Day One, Big Boy caught 4 bass for 6 pounds, 9 ounces and that put him dead center of the pack, at 100th place in the field of 200. On the second day, he stepped it up and put 5 fish in the box for a total of 8-09. His two-day sack was good enough for 61st place and he just missed even better money by the thinnest of margins…

With just one more pound in his combined 2-day score, Big Fred would have cracked the top 50 and won $10,000.

Shows you how much of a game of ounces pro bassin’ is!

Next up for Freddy is the FLW Tour stop at Lake Norman in Charlotte, NC April 24-27.