Powers continues to roll on the Red
Andrews leads co-anglers after Central Division opening round
NATCHITOCHES, La. – Craig Powers can’t figure it out. In the last three years, the pro from Rockwood, Tenn., has come down to the Red River and scorched its muddy banks for two top-five finishes on the FLW Tour – a victory in 2001 and a third-place in 2000. In Thursday’s competition of EverStart Series Central Division competition on the same river, he once again ascended to the top of the Pro Division with a two-day weight of 26 pounds, 6 ounces.
But don’t ask him how he does it.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t say anything that would make any sense of it. I think the fish down here just like riding around in my boat.”
Powers narrowly edged out John Sappington of Wyandotte, Okla., for top pro bragging rights in the opening round. Sappington, who made a major push up the leaderboard with the overall biggest stringer Thursday – 15 pounds, 3 ounces – slid into second place with a two-day weight of 26-4.
“I had 15 pounds by 8:30,” Sappington said. “I didn’t need that many, but I was just checking another area when I got one bite and it was a bigger fish.”
Powers caught a limit weighing 9 pounds, 14 ounces Thursday, once again using his homemade flat-shad crankbait. He fished the main river channel, what he likes to call “junk-fishing,” and said that precision-casting might have been key to his success.
“Down here, you’re fishing either in an oxbow or the river channel,” Powers said. “I try to stay up in that current and make as many casts as I can. When (engineers) turn that water on, the big fish have to keep right up to that bank or they end up in the Atchafalaya Basin. So I’m throwing it as close as 3 inches to the bank. On a lake where there’s nothing but riprap, you wouldn’t think that casting accuracy would make that much of a difference, but it does.”
While Powers said other anglers fishing near him were also using crankbaits, he said a key difference between his bait and theirs might have landed him the bigger fish.
“That little homemade crankbait of mine has no rattle in it,” he said. “Everybody else was using a rattle. I don’t know if that matters to the fish, but it does in my head. I’m fishing right behind people and catching the fish they’re not getting.”
And as for his repeated successes on the Red River, Powers said they were three different tournaments. He fished Pools 3 and 5 in the each of the two FLW tournaments. This week, he’s fishing Pool 4.
Sappington needs sun
Sappington – whose 4-pound, 6-ounce kicker bass also landed him the $750 day-two big-bass award – said they key to his success was his areas. Simply put, he found the fish – and he figured out how to catch the bigger ones.
“I’ve got two really good areas,” he said. “In one area, I figured out how to catch some really good fish and it came together pretty quick. In one pass this morning, I caught a limit with a couple good fish. The thing is, I need the sunshine to catch the bigger fish. The sun needs to position the fish the right way.”
Sappington caught the majority of his catch with a Lake Fork crawdad in watermelon-candy and black-and-blue-flake colors.
Gulledge laid low
Day-one pro leader Danny Gulledge of Hamburg, Ark., played it smart and laid off his big bass on day two. He caught three fish weighing 6 pounds, 6 ounces Thursday, but still placed third with an opening-round weight of 24-14.
However, for Friday’s semifinal round, Gulledge said that he wasn’t going to go with the fish that got him there.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to all new water,” he said. “Where I caught the fish yesterday and today, I’ve been fishing for two weeks. Yesterday there were nine boats in there and today there were 10 boats. Everything got beat up, so I’m going to fish for some fresh fish.”
Rest of the best
Tommy Dillon of Manhattan, Kan., placed fourth in the Pro Division with an opening-round weight of 23 pounds, 5 ounces.
Bobby Graves of Mount Ida, Ark., placed fifth with a weight of 21 pounds, 1 ounce.
Rounding out the top 10 pros were Jerry Hester of Coushatta, La., (sixth place) with a two-day weight of 20 pounds, 12 ounces; Gerald Guin of Castor, La., (seventh) with a weight of 19-14; Slade Dearman of Onalaska, Texas, (eighth) with a weight of 19-6; Terry Bolton of Paducah, Ky., (ninth) with a weight of 19-3; and Roger Stegall of Iuka, Miss., (10th) with a weight of 18-15.
Co-anglers led by Andrews
Gerald Andrews of Benton, Ky., led the Co-angler Division in the opening round with a two-day weight of 17 pounds, 14 ounces.
“It feels good,” said Andrews, who last posted an EverStart top-10 finish at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in 2002. “The best part about leading is that, tomorrow, you get to go out with a (pro) you know is on a good bunch of fish.”
Andrews fished the same rod with the same bait, “soft plastics,” both days of the opening round. He said the bait isn’t the key, it’s the location. Thursday, Andrews fish around timber in 3 to 8 feet of water.
“All the good fish seem to be back in the sloughs,” he said. “The main thing is that the fish are really concentrated in certain areas, and I drew two partners who were on fish.”
Bruce Dale of Jamestown, Ohio, placed second for the co-anglers with an opening-round weight of 15 pounds, 11 ounces.
“It was good today,” Dale said. “I was really surprised at the quality of the fish we were catching. In one place our temperature gauge said the water was 97 degrees.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Bill Rogers of Jasper, Texas, (third place) with an opening-round weight of 13 pounds, 14 ounces; Chris Phillips of Little Rock, Ark., (fourth) with a weight of 13-3; and day-one leader Chris Darby of Mount Ida, Ark., with a weight of 12-11.
Mark Guin of Crossett, Ark., caught a 4-pound, 9-ounce largemouth and landed the day’s $250 co-angler big-bass award.
The pro cut weight settled on 17 pounds even while the co-angler cut was 9-4.
The semifinal round commences Friday as the top 20 competitors from each division take off at safe light from Morgan’s Landing near Natchitoches. All anglers’ weights will be reset to zero. The top 10 anglers in both divisions following tomorrow’s fishing will advance to Saturday’s final round.
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