Quiet Kilby keeps FLW Tour lead

Sunny weather doesn’t help; Pickwick stays finicky

FLORENCE, Ala. – He came in with a nice 5-pound largemouth and extended his lead to more than 7 pounds in closing out the opening round of Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition, but Rob Kilby still wasn’t bragging up any of his fishing exploits Thursday afternoon. In fact, he wasn’t saying much at all. The veteran pro out of Hot Springs, Ark., knows that any information he has about how to catch fish at an extremely tough-fishing Pickwick Lake this week is worth its weight in gold.

“I got lucky,” he said. “I fished a lot of new water and was able to scratch out three of them.”

Kilby, who established a dominating lead in the Pro Division Wednesday with the day’s only stringer over 20 pounds, caught three more bass Thursday weighing 11-8 and ended the opening round with a leading weight of 31-10. His two-day total topped second-place Tommy Biffle and the rest of the field by 7-2.

The leader said he caught his 5-pound kicker on the second or third cast of the morning, and then he left his area and went looking for new fish.

“I basically used the entire day for a day of practice,” he said. “It was fun, pretty intense, to catch that big one first thing. I knew I had it made, so I just started fishing water where I knew there might be some more fish. I didn’t really change anything today.”

Asked exactly what it was that he didn’t change, however, and all Kilby offered was a glint in his eye and a smile. He did say that he didn’t catch fish in Wheeler Lake today, which isn’t surprising, considering that many of the top catches – few though they were – came right out of the river’s Pickwick pool.

Like Wednesday, bluebird skies and temperatures in the 70s pervaded throughout the day, but fewer pros – just 12 – caught five-bass limits Thursday. Water temperatures, which started the week in the 40s, were on the rise, and that may have helped the shallow-water largemouth anglers somewhat. At the same time, it might have hurt some of those who were banking on the deeper smallmouth bite to stay dominant. Plus, as usual, the water fluctuated again on all the river pools, moving fish around.

“The fish I’m catching are staging,” Kilby offered. “If they were in 2 feet of water, they might have been more affected by the weather. Actually, if we’d had cloud cover, it would probably hurt them more.”

But Kilby seemed less concerned about the conditions than some of the other pros. His fishing pattern – whatever it is – has been exceptionally effective regardless of the weather.

“Until 4 o’clock on Saturday, it’s hard to be confident about anything,” he said. “I will say this: If I can get 10 bites in the next two days, I’ll win. I’m just fishing for big bites, so I’ll live and die by that.”

Short on practice, Biffle blows into second

One ironic development seemed to help several pros who made the cut Thursday: the lack of practice. At least on the surface, that’s how it seemed. A number of anglers had precious few hours, much less days, to practice prior to this event because they came to Pickwick Lake directly after the conclusion of the Bassmaster Classic in Florida over the weekend.

Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., is one of those pros. Fishing on one day of practice at Pickwick Lake, he mustered a solid 11-pound, 8-ounce catch on day one and followed it up today with a limit weighing 13-5. He moved up into the second qualifying spot with a 31-10 total.

“A lot of times, I’ve said I thought tournaments should start with no days of practice,” he said. “It probably helped me a little bit because I pretty much knew what I was going to do. I just had one day (of practice), so you’ve just got to go with what you think is right.”

Biffle milked a skinny, backwater area on Pickwick Lake Thursday for his limit. Fishing around stumps and cypress trees, he caught around eight keepers.

“They dropped the water on me this morning, and I was worried about having enough water to get in there,” he said. “There are stumps in there as big as your truck. They can kill me if they drop the water too much. We pounded them pretty good in there, but I think there’s enough fish in there to do well the next couple days.”

Moynagh third

Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minn., has been mainly throwing his namesake Rock Jig on one shallow point in Pickwick Lake the first two days. He mustered two decent weights – 13-11 and 10-11 – to grab the third spot for the pros.

“I had four fish by noon, and then I went to fish some offbeat water,” said Moynagh, who has anchored his stringer each day with one nice smallmouth. “My approach is that I focused all my practice on fishing one part of the lake. I’m catching some deeper and some shallower. The smallies are coming off some of my deeper spots.”

With those big smallies in mind, Moynagh is one who’d prefer that the water temperature not rise much higher for the rest of the week.

“I’d like the water to get back down to 47 degrees as soon as possible,” he said.

Walker fourth, glad to be back in contention

David Walker, too, came to Pickwick straight from the Classic and had no practice, and he couldn’t be happier about it. The pro from Sevierville, Tenn., mustered two nice sacks in the opening round and claimed the fourth spot with 23 pounds, 8 ounces.

“I didn’t have a plan,” he said. “I had one day of practice – basically three hours of fishing – so I went to an area where I caught them several years ago.”

Fishing shallow jigs and crankbaits in the Elk River area of Wheeler Lake, Walker said the lack of practice might have been the best thing that could have happened for him.

“I fished about six days before Murray and finished about 150th. Here, I fished about three hours and now I’m (almost) leading it,” he said. “With the weather change, I think it helped me. The guys who practiced were getting ready in cold and windy conditions. For me, it’s been hot and sunny the whole time I’ve been here. Plus, it’s a great area where I’m fishing. Tournament stringers have been caught out of there before.”

Making the cut at Pickwick has been a unique sort of redemption for Walker, who has basically been on a six-tournament skid in FLW competition.

“I absolutely tanked the first two tournaments. Plus, I’ve never caught a limit on this lake before; I’ve never even cashed a check,” he marveled. “I came in thinking this could very well be three in a row where I don’t get it done. But I think not having anything to lose really affected they way I went fishing.”

Morgan fifth

Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., rallied late in the day to muster a four-bass catch and finish the opening round with a weight of 22 pounds, 14 ounces. He claimed the fifth pro qualifying spot into the final round.

“I had one fish at 2:45 today. Then I caught those other three keepers in about 15 minutes,” he said. “I just kept after it and kept dogging it. I probably had 30 fish in that last hour.”

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros to make the cut at Pickwick Lake:

6th: Dave Lefebre, Erie, Pa., seven bass, 22-5

7th: Dan Morehead, Paducah, Ky., eight bass, 20-13

8th: Todd Auten, Lake Wylie, S.C., nine bass, 20-6

9th: George Jeane Jr., Evans, La., eight bass, 20-1

10th: Brennan Bosley, Benton, Ark., six bass, 19-8

Scott Dobson of Clarkston, Mich., caught a 7-pound, 7-ounce largemouth to win the $750 Snickers Big Bass Award in the Pro Division.

Gift leads co-anglers

Bill Gift of Alix, Ark., leads the Co-angler Division after posting solid weights both days and finishing the opening round with a total of 16 pounds, 3 ounces.

“I told everybody yesterday,” he said, “I’ve never done any good here, but I figured something out where I think I can do pretty good.”

Fishing with veteran pro Gary Yamamoto, Stephen Smith of Glenwood, Ark., posted the heaviest limit – pro or co-angler – Thursday and launched into the second slot from the back of the boat. After zeroing Wednesday, he caught five bass worth 14 pounds, 12 ounces Thursday.

“Mr. Yamamoto just put me on fish and I got the bites,” he said. “I was just throwing a crankbait.”

Co-angler Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., grabbed the third position with an opening-round weight of 14 pounds, 11 ounces.

Day-one co-angler leader Judy Israel of Clewiston, Fla., dropped into fourth with a weight of 13 pounds, 13 ounces.

Chad Parks of Memphis, Tenn., rounded out the top five co-anglers with a weight of 11 pounds, 13 ounces.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers to make the cut at Pickwick Lake:

6th: Alex Ormand, Bessemer City, Fla., 10-11

7th: Arch Cornett, Huntsville, Ala., 10-6

8th: Shannon Fletcher, Honaker, Va., 9-15

9th: Ken Keirsey, Owasso, Okla., 9-14

10th: James Green, Lincoln, Ala., 9-9

Mark Phillips of Fayetteville, Ark., caught a 6-pound, 11-ounce largemouth to win the Co-angler Division’s $375 Snickers Big Bass Award.

The co-anglers caught two five-bass limits Thursday.

Day three of competition at Pickwick Lake begins as the 10 pros and 10 co-anglers take off from McFarland Park in Florence at 7 a.m. Central time Friday for the second half of competition. The co-anglers will wrap up competition Friday while the pros are fishing the first half of a two-day final round.

For this tournament, the top award for the winning pro is $100,000. The winning co-angler will earn $20,000.