Great Gulledge!
Co-angler Greg Gulledge weighs biggest stringer of day at FLW Tour Championship
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – All 48 pros fishing the FLW Tour Championship on Logan Martin Lake would have given most anything for the five-bass limit that co-angler Greg Gulledge of Monticello, Ark., weighed in today.
That’s because Gulledge caught the biggest limit of the day, 15 pounds, 11 ounces, to handily take the early round lead in the Co-angler Division.
“It was just an unreal day,” Gulledge said. “I was culling at 8:30 this morning, and I probably caught 10 or 11 keepers.”
Then again, it’s been a pretty unreal year for Gulledge. The co-angler posted four top-10s along the FLW Tour this season and finished second in the points race.
He fished with BFGoodrich Tires pro David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., today.
“I was just flipping down the bank with a worm and I got the right bites,” said Gulledge, who had a 6-pound, 5-ounce bass in his creel.
Gulledge could probably sleep in tomorrow and spend the day perusing the outdoor show, but he can’t wait to get back out on the water in the morning.
“I’ve been so close to winning one of these so many times; I’m ready to get this monkey off my back and get it done,” he added.
Fuller in second
T.R. Fuller of Auburn, Ala., is in second place with 10 pounds, 7 ounces.
A native of Alabama, Fuller has fished Logan Martin quite few times over the years and he found his groove today.
“I caught them on a Texas-rigged lizard today,” Fuller said. “We were casting up on ledges and fishing around stumps.”
Fuller boated five bass, but lost two that he had to break off.
“They wrapped me up on stumps and I couldn’t do anything with them,” he said. “They didn’t break me off, I had to break them off.”
His biggest fish, a 4-pound, 11-ounce bass, was his first fish of the day.
“I’m tickled to death with 10 pounds,” he added. “I think that alone will put me in the top 24 to fish on Friday.”
Cox in third
Troy Cox of Bono, Ark., was one fish short of a limit, but the four bass he caught weighed 9 pounds, 13 ounces, which puts him third place.
His creel was anchored by two big largemouth that he caught at day’s end.
“I only had a couple of small spotted bass right up until about 2:30,” Cox said. “Then I caught a 4-pound largemouth. And on my very last cast – literally, my pro had already pulled up the trolling motor – I caught the other big largemouth.”
Cox caught his fish on a Carolina-rigged fluke while fishing with Carl Svebek of Siloam Springs, Ark.
Jones in fourth
Mike Jones of Lebanon, Mo., is in fourth place with a five-bass limit weighing 9 pounds, 9 ounces.
Jones fished with Fuji pro Randy Blaukat of Lamar, Mo., and caught six keepers today.
“We were fishing docks all day, and I just followed behind him with a little worm,” Jones said.
Moyer in fifth
Derek Moyer of Alexandria, Va., holds down the fifth position with a five-bass limit weighing 9 pounds, 3 ounces.
Regarding his catch, Moyer had nothing but praise for Donnie Sims and Glen Hamer, the owners of Spotsticker Baits.
“I got here Monday night, and those two guys gave me a big bag of their jigheads and some Net Baits finesse worms,” Moyer said. “They told me to just throw them around behind my pro; that’s exactly what I did and it worked.”
Moyer fished with pro Tom Mann Jr. of Buford, Ga., today.
“It was a great day,” Moyer added. “I had my limit by 12:30; after that, I sat down and got out of Tom’s way.”
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers in FLW Tour Championship are Larry Caldwell of Saint Peters, Mo., in sixth place with 8 pounds, 12 ounces; Hiroshi Uchida of Murfreesboro, Tenn., in seventh place with 7 pounds, 8 ounces; Keith Pace of Monticello, Ark., in eighth place with 7 pounds, 5 ounces; Michael Brown of Rocky Face, Ga., in ninth place with seven pounds; and Simon Morrow of Alexander City, Ala., in 10th place with 6 pounds, 13 ounces.
Co-angler stats
In the Co-angler Division there were seven limits caught, three zeroes, and the cut weight for 24th place currently stands at 3 pounds, 15 ounces.
The entire field of 48 co-anglers will fish again on Thursday, then the field will be cut down to the top 24 anglers based their two-day total weight.
On Friday, the top 24 co-anglers will start from zero and fish for a top prize of $25,000.