Breaking the waves
Kilby hooks first, Fukae secures AOY on feisty Lake Champlain Thursday
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – As predicted, a stiff south wind showed up Thursday and turned Lake Champlain into a boat-battering froth more suitable for hosting a sailing regatta than a pro bass tournament. Nonetheless, sturdy Wal-Mart FLW Tour anglers toughed it out and turned in another parade of five-bass limits likely to be seen nowhere else.
Emerging from the maelstrom of whitecaps and sacks full of smallmouth bass was the Pro Division’s Rob Kilby of Hot Springs, Ark., who moved up a spot into first place at the conclusion of the Forrest Wood Open’s opening round. He weighed in five bass for 16 pounds, 10 ounces Thursday, pushed his two-day total to 35-12 and swapped positions with day-one leader David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn.
Despite the wind, Kilby stayed the course with his smallmouth pattern Thursday, targeting submerged humps in deeper water with a Terminator tungsten spinnerbait then switching over to a Snapback tube later. He eventually culled out to “three or four limits,” but was worried after the morning started, well, kind of slowly.
“It took me until 8 o’clock (a.m.) to get a limit today. Yeah, I was sweating bullets,” he said with a grin.
A lake where a limit by 8 a.m. is considered a “slow start” is obviously one to be desired by any bass angler. But despite a second day of nearly 2 tons of bass caught, your average weekend warrior likely wouldn’t have envied FLW anglers on Lake Champlain Thursday as they battled ferocious waves and line-curling wind.
“I tried to go against the waves, and they would break all the way to the bottom of the boat. Then I tried to go with the waves, and they were still breaking all the way to the bottom of the boat. Finally, I turned the boat and took them from the side so they wouldn’t come in. It was brutal,” said Kilby, who added that his co-angler partner, Ed Sankowski, was knocked off his chair at one point by a marauding wave. “On days like this, the hardest part is staying focused and not letting the weather bother you.”
That’s harder to do, however, when it’s difficult just to make a good cast.
“The hard part was trying to keep the bait down,” Kilby said. “You had to fish basically downwind all day.”
Still, Kilby stuck to his guns, working his main-lake smallmouth pattern despite the odds. In addition to the weather, he had a newfound throng of fellow competitors suddenly very interested in the area he was fishing Thursday.
“I felt like Santa Claus out there,” he said. “But there’s no quit in me.”
Walker steps back into second
Solely because of the wind, the long-running leader from day one, Walker, had to shorten his fishing day by about three hours on day two. On most lakes, that would spell disaster. But at Champlain, at least for Walker, it just trimmed his limit by a few pounds.
“I caught one on my first cast and had a limit by 10 minutes,” said Walker, who weighed in 15 pounds, 2 ounces Thursday for an opening-round total of 35-5 and second place. “It’s nice to have a limit that quickly, knowing that I hit (the area) so hard the day before.”
Walker took a chance Thursday. He is fishing for bigger largemouths way down on the southern end of Champlain, which is a demanding run from Plattsburgh on a good day. When he saw the wind in the forecast, he considered staying close to home and catching a smaller limit to stay in the money.
“After talking to my wife about it, I decided to go,” he said. “In a way we gambled that $10,000 (for a 50th-place finish or better), because we could have had real problems heading down there. But if you’re in a position to win one of these things, you better take it. It’s a rough business when you go that far in these conditions, but it was definitely worth it. It’s been a long time since I made one of these finals.”
Walker, too, had problems casting in the wind. Fishing shallow grass, he caught his 20-pound sack Wednesday flipping tubes. Thursday he had to switch over to flipping jigs “just so I could feel what I was doing,” he said.
Martens third
Past FLW champ Aaron Martens of Castaic, Calif., landed in the third pro spot with an opening-round weight of 34 pounds, 13 ounces. Perhaps because he’s fishing well, he had a little sunnier take on the wavy terrain of Lake Champlain.
“I surfed that today just like back home in California,” he said, adding that he made about a 40-mile run. “The rougher it gets, the meaner I get.”
Kidding aside, Martens endured a more serious problem when his trolling motor quit on him, and he fished without one until about 1 p.m. Still, he worked a Kinami Norri Bug and a Kinami Flash in roughly 4 to 12 feet of water for a nice limit of smallies.
“I had six days of practice,” he said. “That’s all it is for me, getting enough practice.”
Morehead fourth
The 2003 Angler of the Year Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., flexed his fishing muscles again and placed fourth at Champlain’s opening round with a weight of 34 pounds, 12 ounces.
In 36th place in the standings coming into the event and fully aware of the championship implications if he didn’t perform these first two days at Champlain, Morehead said confidently, “Oh, I’m going to make it.”
Martin fifth
Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., kept his Champlain mojo working by placing fifth in the Pro Division with an opening-round weight of 34 pounds, 11 ounces. In 2002, he finished fourth here.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros to make the cut at Lake Champlain are Randy Blaukat of Lamar, Mo., with an opening-round weight of 34 pounds, 7 ounces (6th place); Jonathan Newton of Rogersville, Ala., with 34-3 (7th); Jason Kilpatrick of Satsuma, Ala., with 33-4 (8th); Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., with 33-3 (9th); and Charlie Hartley of Grove City, Ohio, with 32-13 (10th).
All of the top 10 pros caught limits both days of the opening round.
Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., won the pro Snickers Big Bass award Thursday with a 6-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass worth $750.
Fukae wins AOY
FLW rookie Shinichi Fukae of Osaka, Japan, secured the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title Thursday, becoming the first Japanese national to win the FLW standings and the first pro bass angler to hold AOY titles on two continents. For the full story, click here.
Watkins tees up first for co-anglers
Tee Watkins of East Point, Ky., overcame struggles early in the tournament to take over the Co-angler Division and lead the opening round with a two-day weight of 30 pounds, 2 ounces.
Fishing with pro Takahiro Omori Wednesday, Watkins had trouble eliciting bites on easy-fishing Lake Champlain until Omori set him up with the proper bait.
“I almost came unglued, and I never come unglued,” Watkins said. “Then Takahiro gave me the tube and the right line. With that tube, it’s about feel.”
Fishing offshore for smallies Thursday, Watkins stayed with the tubes but added weight to counter the wind. He caught almost 16 pounds on day two.
Second place on the co-angler side went to Stacey B. Smith of Stephens City, Va., with an opening-round weight of 28 pounds, 7 ounces.
Day-one co-angler leader Greg Gulledge of Monticello, Ark., fell to third place with a two-day total of 28 pounds, 1 ounce.
Co-angler Brantley Peoples of Raleigh, N.C., placed fourth with a weight of 27 pounds, 3 ounces.
Rick Parnell of Casselberry, Fla., qualified for the co-angler finals in fifth place with a weight of 27 pounds even.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers to make the cut into Friday’s finals at Lake Champlain are Derek Moyer of Alexandria, Va., with an opening-round total of 26 pounds, 11 ounces (6th place); Charles Ward of Greer, S.C., with 26-8 (7th); Jason Knapp of Uniontown, Pa., with 26-6 (8th); Arch Cornett of Huntsville, Ala., with 26-3 (9th); and Charles Pearson of Auburn, Ala., with 26-1 (10th).
John Grise of Hot Springs, Ark., won the co-angler Snickers Big Bass award with a 5-pound, 10-ounce bass worth $500.
Into the cut
The top 10 anglers in both divisions advanced to Friday’s competition, which begins at the 8 a.m. EST takeoff from Mooney Bay Marina in Plattsburgh. Weights are cleared for Friday’s competition, and co-anglers will fish for one day with the $40,000 winner crowned at weigh-in. The 10 pros continue competition Saturday, with the $200,000 winner determined by the heaviest two-day weight.
Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 25 Consumer Square in Plattsburgh beginning at 5 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively.