Lowen and LeHew: Near but far

Having covered these events for more years than I want to admit, I’m always amazed at the ebbs and flows of when fish are caught in relation to the anglers on the water.

A case in point is Bill Lowen and Shane LeHew. Both are separated by miles of water but at virtually the same time of the day, less than a minute separated their last catch, they each boated almost identical fish.

Lowen started it at 9:37 a.m., with a 7 pound, 1 ounce bass. A minute later LeHew caught a 7 pound fish several miles away. These little trends are cool.

About 20 years ago, I was tipped off to things like this in the Bassmaster Classic at New Orleans. It was one of the first Classics where there were multiple cameramen on the water and before BassTrakk. The cameramen would call me when a fish was caught so we would have information on how the tournament was playing out.

The phones would be silent for an hour. Then in a 3- to 5-minute span, each of the cameramen would call and report a catch, often they were similar weights. But they would be scattered from Bayou Black to Venice, an area that encompassed many, many miles. And the weights would be similar.

The screen grabs with this shows you how far Lowen and LeHew were from each other.