Lackie wins Co-angler Division
CLEWISTON, Fla. – Sunny Florida became sunny, cold and windy Florida on Friday for the 10 remaining Wal-Mart FLW Tour anglers braving chilly Lake Okeechobee in Clewiston for a shot at $100,000 cash. Changing weather conditions meant a changing playing field for competitors, but Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., and Rick Couch of Ocala, Fla., prevailed over conditions so tough that five pros approached the stage empty-handed.
Morehead and Couch each caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 11 ounces to head into Saturday’s final round locked in a tie. Their two limits were the only limits caught Friday.
“I can’t complain,” said Morehead, who has won six FLW Outdoors tournaments since 1997, including one FLW Tour event. “I feel like I survived the battle today. Concentration is the whole thing, and right now I think that it is mine to lose.” Morehead caught his bass flipping heavy cover on the north end of the lake.
“It was really tough out there, and I’m going to have to step up,” said Couch, who is catching most of his bass in the thick Okeechobee grass. “You pull in there, and if you pull the fish out, you’re the hero; if not, well, at least you tried.”
Lake Okeechobee weather has run the gamut from warm to cool this week, as temperatures hit the mid-70s Wednesday before falling during the day Thursday. Temperatures dropped below the freezing mark after midnight Thursday, forcing anglers to deal with the coolest weather the area has seen in recent years. Before the cold front moved through, the water had warmed enough to make Lake Okeechobee’s big bass lively, and several five-bass limits in excess of 20 pounds were brought to the scale. Big largemouths, however, became harder to catch during the subsequent cool-down, and Friday’s weights were much lighter as a consequence.
With just over 2 pounds separating the top five anglers at this point, it is still anyone’s tournament, as Friday’s weights carry over to Saturday’s weigh-in where the winner will be determined by the heaviest two-day weight.
Rounding out the top five pros are Pat Fisher of Buford, Ga. (four bass, 10 pounds, 6 ounces); Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn. (one bass, 4 pounds, 1 ounce); and Billy Bowen Jr. of Ocala, Fla. (one bass, 2 pounds, 1 ounce).
Co-angler competition concluded Friday, and Alton Lackie of Germantown, Tenn., emerged as champion thanks to a one-bass catch weighing 2 pounds, 9 ounces. Lackie collected $15,000 cash for the win plus a $500 Wal-Mart gift card from Castrol and $500 worth of Castrol products.
“I caught that fish 15 minutes before time to come back in,” said Lackie, who won his first-ever Wal-Mart FLW Tour event after trying for seven years to get into the tournament series. “It was tough. I caught three fish the first day on a spinner bait, three fish the second day on a spinner bait, and all day [Friday] I was flipping a glob of plastic through the mats. That’s just not my style of fishing.”
It was only after Lackie picked up his trusty spinner bait Friday that he caught his tournament-winning bass. The one-bass catch was the lightest winning weight since Frank Divis Sr. of Fayetteville, Ark., won an FLW Tour event on the Pascagoula River in 2001 with a two-bass, 1-pound, 14-ounce catch.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Divis (one bass, 2 pounds, $6,000); Doug Caldwell of Kane, Pa. (one bass, 1 pound, 11 ounces, $4,000); Chuck Lawless of Park Hill, Okla. (one bass, 13 ounces, $3,000); and Ralph Mulleins of Cumberland, Va. (no bass, $2,500).
Morgan earned a $500 Wal-Mart gift card as the winner of the Energizer Keeps on Going Award, which is awarded to the angler who came from the farthest behind to advance to the final round. He finished in 32nd place on opening day and will enter the final round in fourth place.
A total of 20 bass weighing 48 pounds, 15 ounces were caught Friday, and 100 percent were released alive. If the tour maintains a 98 percent live-release rate throughout the season, Energizer will donate $25,000 to the Children’s Miracle Network.
The four-day, $500,000 Lake Okeechobee tournament presented by EverStart Batteries began Wednesday with 175 pros and 175 co-anglers competing for two days for one of 10 final-round spots in their respective divisions. It is the first of six regular-season Wal-Mart FLW Tour events, all of which lead up to the $1.5 million Jacobs Cup on the James River in Richmond, Va., Sept. 10-13. The road to Richmond, Va., is indeed paved with gold, as the Jacobs Cup champion will collect $500,000, the largest guaranteed cash award in bass-fishing history.
Roland Martin’s Marina in Clewiston will host the final takeoff at 7 a.m. Saturday, and the final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located on West Sugarland Highway in Clewiston at 3 p.m. The community is invited to attend the takeoff and weigh-in as well as attend the Family Fun Zone, located outside the weigh-in tent in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Family Fun Zone, which is free to the public, opens at 11 a.m. and features games, product giveaways and interactive displays.
Coverage of the Lake Okeechobee tournament will be broadcast to 55 million Outdoor Life Network subscribers on “FLW Outdoors,” featuring fishing legends Hank Parker and Larry Nixon alongside hosts Charlie Evans, Carlton Wing and Taylor Carr. A tournament preview featuring Parker will air Saturday at 7 p.m. EST and again Sunday at 1 p.m. EST. Tournament highlights from Lake Okeechobee will air Feb. 1 and 2 followed by a tournament recap featuring Nixon Feb. 8 and 9.
The Wal-Mart FLW Tour features a pro/co-angler format in which the pro supplies the boat, fishes from the front deck against other pros and controls boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points, with 200 points awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 for third, and so on. These points determine angler standings, and the top 48 pros and 48 co-anglers following the regular season advance to the $1.5 million Jacobs Cup.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its six tournament trails. Wal-Mart has been the title sponsor of FLW Outdoors since 1997. For a complete list of FLW Outdoors sponsors and for more information about the premier products and services they offer, please browse this Web site.