Peter Thliveros pulled off a stunning bassing repeat.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Peter Thliveros' timing was perfect for a repeat of last year's triumph.

Thliveros of Jacksonville, Fla., won the gold medal in ESPN's Great Outdoor Games Bass Fishing Tournament with a five bass limit totaling 12 pounds, 4 ounces. Gary Klein of Weatherford, Texas (11-2) won the silver and Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, Texas (10-9) won the bronze.

"I'm stunned," Thliveros said, moments after he realized he had won.

Thliveros claimed all week the conditions were about two weeks behind what they were for his gold medal performance in 2000. He pointed out that the fish weren't "clustered up" and in the grassbed where he had been able to win the gold a year earlier.

Sunday, though, things changed.

After several days of rainy weather, the sun broke out of the clouds for a few hours. And the fish that hadn't been biting in Thliveros' golden grassbed, turned on.

"I don't know if they weren't there before or not," he said. "But I suspect they were there the whole time and they sat there until they were ready to eat.

"I'm just lucky I was there when they got hungry."

Thliveros survived the first round and won the gold by concentrating on small grass beds in Middle Saranac Lake.

He pitched a 4-inch Zoom black/red flake tube bait into the grass, to catch more than 15 keepers on the final day. Twelve of those came from the same grass bed where he had won the tournament in the 2000 GO Games.

	“	I'm just lucky I was there when they got hungry. ”
		— Bassing champ Peter Thliveros

"It was the exact thing I did last year," Thliveros said. "But I was about ready to leave when they started biting this time."

Thliveros said he caught a small limit early from another spot, then moved to his grass bed and caught a 2-pound smallmouth.

After several minutes of fishing, there were no other bites and Thliveros left. But at 1 p.m., he decided to return. Again, he fished for several minutes without getting a bite.

"I don't know what I would have done, but I was thinking about leaving," Thliveros said.

Moments before he could make the decision, another 2-pound smallmouth bit. That set off a flurry of bites from10 more keeper smallmouths. He eventually culled every fish in his livewell by 1 p.m.

"That fish seemed to trigger the bite," Thliveros said.

Along with that fish, Thliveros said the timing of a small weather front of clouds and wind seemed to make the "grass bed come alive."

While Thliveros was catching his fish from grass beds, Klein and Wendlandt were fishing a tube bait around cover in Flower Lake.

Klein concentrated on rocks, Wendlandt on wood. Both reported catching approximately 50 keepers in the two days of fishing.