Down on Kissimmee Lane
Local pro leads blustery first half of FLW finals at Toho
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – It was no surprise to see Bobby Lane lead day three of Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition on his home waters of the Lake Toho chain. What was remarkable was how small a sack of bass it took to do it.
The pro from Lakeland, Fla., caught five bass weighing 10 pounds, 14 ounces Friday and will take a 2-pound, 12-ounce lead over Tom Mann Jr. and the rest of the Pro Division into Saturday’s final round. “I didn’t think 10 pounds would be leading it, but it’s been a great day,” Lane said. “I’m feeling pretty confident right now with my fishing.”
The leader caught nine keeper bass and culled four times when almost everybody else had trouble just catching five fish. Lane and Mann had the only limits of the day for the pros, and nobody came close to landing any signature Toho lunkers like those brought in the first two days. Co-angler Richard Lowitzki’s 11-pound, 3-ounce largemouth Thursday would have beaten every pro’s catch by itself Friday.
The reason for the drop in catches was the usual culprit: the weather. Finger-chilling cold greeted the anglers in the morning, but it was the heavy wind that really messed things up.
“I think a lot of the guys’ water dirtied up,” Lane said. “I had eight or nine spots coming into the tournament. I had enough that, today, I just went to where I knew the water would be clean.”
Despite being an FLW rookie, Lane does have the local advantage here, having grown up on Lake Kissimmee. He was tagged as one to watch coming into this tournament, especially after he led day one and finished in the top 10 at Lake Okeechobee last month.
But he wasn’t the only one fishing his water on Kissimmee Friday. He said that he kept doing the same thing that has all week: focusing on staging bass along arrowhead grass. His bait presentation didn’t seem all that unique, either; in Kissimmee he caught two fish on a War Eagle spinnerbait and three on a Gambler worm. Later in the day he returned to Lake Toho and caught his biggest fish, a 4-pounder, on the spinnerbait on his last cast.
“Two other guys in the top 10 are in the same area (on Kissimmee) and I guess I just kind of out-fished them today,” he said. “I’ve fished the same areas for four days. Today my co-angler (Tim Peek) had 10 pounds and I had 10 pounds, so I know the fish are still there. That’s the important thing.”
Mann second
Also happy to see some nice fish come out of his area Friday was Mann. Unfortunately for him, it was his partner, Kenneth Chapman, who caught them and ultimately won the Co-angler Division with the day’s biggest sack in either division.
While Chapman caught 19 pounds, 3 ounces out of the back of his boat, Mann pitched a Senko to outside grass lines on Kissimmee and landed a much smaller limit, 8-2, to capture second place.
“The great thing about this day is that I know my big fish are still there,” said Mann, who hails from Buford, Ga. “The thing is, when you come to central Florida at this time of year, you’re just one cast away from being in the lead at this tournament.”
Kenney, Pugh, Berry tied at 6-5
With the size of fish in this waterway, pretty much the entire field has a decent shot at catching Lane. Tied with three fish at 6 pounds, 5 ounces apiece, J.T. Kenney of Frostburg, Md., Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala., and Art Berry of Hemet, Calif., have a little better shot than the bottom half of the field.
“I got down to Lake Kissimmee this morning and the water was all the way stirred up,” said Kenney, who led the opening round and now sits in third place. “I couldn’t even see my bait, so I came back up to Toho. Later in the day a big one bit and completely straightened out my extra-strong hook. So tomorrow I’m going to fish in Toho. You’re just one flip away from the lead.”
“It was tough fishing today,” said fourth-place Pugh, who battled through water rough enough to break off the camera mounted on his trolling motor. “I’ve got some catching up to do.”
Fifth-place Berry said he had bites big enough to make a difference Friday, but that he lost four good ones. Having suffered through a slew of disappointing second-place finishes already in his EverStart Western Division career, the FLW rookie wondered: “Man, what do I have to do to win one of these things?”
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros heading into Saturday’s action at Lake Toho:
6th: Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., two bass, 5-15
7th: Toby Hartsell of Livingston, Texas, three bass, 5-13
8th: Ricky Shumpert of Lexington, S.C., three bass, 5-5
9th: Warren Wyman of Calera, Ala., two bass, 2-5
10th: Dion Hibdon of Stover, Mo., one bass, 1-6
Final round Saturday
Day four of FLW Tour competition at Lake Toho begins as the final-round field of 10 boats takes off from Kissimmee Lakefront Park at 7 a.m. Eastern time Saturday. Friday’s weights carry over to Saturday, and the $100,000 pro winner will be determined by two-day combined weight.
Link: Co-angler headline