Dave Lefebre – Biography

David M. Lefebre was born to Frank and Beverly Lefebre on September 29, 1970. He was raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, a city well known for its outstanding Smallmouth Bass and Steelhead fisheries and within a quick trip to many local inland lakes and streams. As a boy, Dave’s time was focused almost exclusively on fishing and the outdoors. He’d spend countless hours and many weekends exploring the local area wetlands.

His early days in the boat were spent honing his skills in the Bassmasters of Crawford County, a small, but extremely competitive bass club located 40 miles from home. When he started fishing club tournaments in 1991, his talents helped him earn the Club Angler of the Year and a spot on the Pennsylvania State Team as a rookie. Dave would go on to win that event and qualify as the youngest member of the Pennsylvania Eastern Divisional Team that same season. He secured a second place finish in that event on the Potomac River in Washington, DC and would follow that up with several more regional tournament wins, Club AOY’s and PA State Team appearances throughout the next few years.

Dave had accomplished everything he could at the local level and the burning desire to fish the “Big Leagues” was mounting. Unfortunately, the expense of competing at such a level was an obstacle that would take him some time to overcome.

In 2001, Dave finally got the small break he needed to take a crack at the semi-professional tournament scene, one that would eventually lead him into his vision of being a full time professional angler. Local fishing friends, Dave Stull, Bob Clark, and Lee Duer became Dave’s first sponsors by paying his way into the Bassmaster Southern Open on Pickwick Lake, AL on March 15-17th. In that event Dave would finish in a respectable 18th place out of 319 anglers, but what happened on day one of that event would soon prove to be much more important.

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After Lefebre returned home from that first tournament, Dave Stull introduced him to Nick Scigliano, owner of Frontier Construction, a prominent golf course refurbishing company located just east of Pittsburgh, PA. After a meeting, Nick agreed to sponsor Dave for the upcoming 2002 Bassmaster Open and FLW Stren Series tours. In their meeting, Scigliano said that when his wife saw Dave Lefebre’s name listed above Roland Martin’s on Day 1 of that first Bassmaster Open tournament, she said, “You need to sponsor that boy!” Although famous fishing legend, Roland Martin would go on to finish 12th in that event (6 places better than Lefebre) Dave’s hard work, a little help from some friends, and some helpful advice from a persistent wife paid off.

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In 2002, Lefebre blazed his own trail into the professional arena. As a first-time qualifier, Dave finished 9th at the 2002 Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League All-American on Louisiana’s Cross Lake. Competing in the EverStart Series Northern Division just 22 days later, he earned his first FLW Outdoors victory. His conquest on the mighty Mississippi was a precursor to the remainder of the season. One month later his second victory was notched in a BFL event on Cayuga Lake in New York. He would haul over 160 pounds of bass to the scales en route to a runner-up ranking in the Northern Stren Division, and a qualification into the coveted FLW Tour in 2003. That same year in the B.A.S.S. Northern Open circuit, Dave rode his wave of success to a Bassmaster Tour qualification and birth into the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing, the 2003 Bassmaster Classic.

As a rookie, Dave split his time in 2003 between both the Bassmaster and FLW Professional Tours. His consistency on the FLW Tour and a Kelloggs Fishing Team offer, however, would later steer him to commit solely to the FLW side of competitive fishing. In 2004, his first season on the Kellogg’s fishing Team, Lefebre would lead his team to its first of two number one team awards. From 2003 to 2008, Dave would qualify for six consecutive Forrest Wood Cup championships.

Dave’s affinity for being a constant contender led him to his first “big time” FLW Tour victory on Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee, in the spring of 2004. That year would be one of particular success for the Erie, Pennsylvania pro. Victory eluded Dave in the narrowest of margins in the 2004 BFL All-American, where he finished a heart-breaking second. In a near-repeat performance of his 2002 EverStart victory, Dave finished in the runner-up position again on the Mississippi River. There was a silver-lining to the cloud of near-misses, however; Top-10 performances were becoming second nature. He added 5th^- and 7th-Place FLW Tour finishes at Lake Okeechobee and Logan Martin, respectively.

By just his fourth season as a fulltime professional, Dave had become a tour mainstay. In 2006, he earned Angler of the Year honors on both the upstart FLW Series and Stren Series Northern Division trails. In 2007, he cashed-in on yet another FLW Tour 2nd place finish at Fort Loudoun – Tellico Lakes to the tune of $50,000.

Dave’s most recent headline performance was a second place finish at the 2008 Forest Wood Cup on Lake Murray. With the FLW Tour’s best competing for a top prize of 1 BLK_PAA dollars, Dave bested all but one contestant in the tournament, earning bitter sweet runner up honors…again.

With a brand new title sponsor, Dave takes to the water in 2010 fishing from a newly designed, Chevy wrapped Ranger Z-21 bass boat, and looks forward to the challenge of qualifying for his 9th consecutive Forrest Wood Cup.