Atchafalaya Friday
Pros pull out the stops; co-angler champion to be decided
MORGAN CITY, La. – Whatever inclinations the top anglers may have had toward saving fish for the end of the week have been erased. The 10 pros and co-anglers fishing in Friday’s Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition at Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin have no reason to hold back any longer because it’s time to catch them or go home.
The co-anglers wrap up their competition Friday and will crown a $15,000 champion this afternoon.
The pros are fishing to accumulate as much weight as they possibly can on the first day of the two-day final round. Their catch weights from Friday will carry over into Saturday’s final day of competition, where the pro champion will receive $100,000 in cash.
While Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pa., led the Pro Division and Dennis Kirby of Lakeland, Tenn., led the Co-angler Division in the opening round, all anglers’ weights have been reset to zero for the last two days of competition.
Conditions are amenable to fishing today on the basin. Air and water temperatures are up, and a slight breeze is blowing through the trees. Flipping will be a favorite technique as anglers look to cash in on the swarms of bass heading for the shallows with the warmer temperatures.
FLW action continues at Friday’s weigh-in, scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. at the Wal-Mart store located at 973 Highway 90 E. in Bayou Vista, La. The public is encouraged to attend the Family Fun Zone, which opens at 3 p.m.
Friday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:45 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 69 degrees
Expected high temperature: 74 degrees
Water temperature: 57 degrees
Wind: from the south-southeast at 13 mph
Relative humidity: 78 percent
Day’s outlook: possibility of a few showers
Day-three link: