Strother stakes out co-angler title at Beaver Lake
Texan wins $40,000 at Wal-Mart Open
ROGERS, Ark. – Richard Strother used an auspicious tree-fishing technique to help himself to three good bass and the $40,000 Co-angler Division victory at the Beaver Lake Wal-Mart Open Friday.
Fishing behind pro Jeffrey Thomas on a windy, tough day, the co-angler from Tyler, Texas, caught three fish weighing 8 pounds, 11 ounces, besting second-place Derek Moyer by over 3 1/2 pounds.
“That’s not bad for an old, retired phone man, is it?” asked Strother. “I’m just tickled to death.”
All week long, Strother placed atop the leaderboard by fishing a Spot Remover jig head with a Zoom finesse worm. He started the same way in Friday’s co-anglers finals, saying he caught his first fish – his kicker – on the finesse worm early.
“I caught the first one on the third cast,” he said. “Then it was a long day after that until I caught two more.”
The long day came because Strother had to switch to throwing a Rat-L-Trap, an action bait to which he hadn’t resorted all week.
“We were fishing really shallow back up in some mud flats,” he said. “Where (Thomas) went, it was the only option.”
Strother caught a few nonkeepers on the Trap, and then toward the end of the day got it hung up on a tree limb on a cast. Three jerks of his rod later it came from free, dropped in the water and caught his second biggest fish.
“I was really just trying to break it off,” he admitted, “because I hate asking the boater to drive in and unhang me.”
Second place went to opening-round leader Derek Moyer of Alexandria, Va., for the only co-angler limit of the day, which weighed 5 pounds, 2 ounces. He earned $20,000.
Pamela Wood of Bono, Ark., caught two bass weighing 4 pounds, 2 ounces to finish third for the co-anglers. She earned $10,000.
“I was comfortable with the water, and I knew what to expect,” said Wood, who fished with pro leader Shinichi Fukae both Wednesday and Friday. “I knew I was going to break off a bunch of Shaky Heads today, so I came prepared.”
Chad Parks of Memphis, Tenn., finished fourth and earned $9,000 for one bass weighing 3 pounds, 3 ounces.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers was Paul Addi of Las Vegas, who caught two bass weighing 2 pounds, 9 ounces. He collected $8,000.
Rounding out the top 10 co-angler finishers at the Beaver Lake Wal-Mart Open:
6th: Jess Caraballo of Danbury, Conn., one bass, 2-3, $7,000
7th: Todd Lowe of Greensboro, Ga., one bass, 1-15, $6,000
8th: Janet Parker of Little Elm, Texas, one bass, 0-12, $5,000
9th: Greg Fleming of Holly Lake Ranch, Texas, zero bass, $4,000
10th: Matthew Parker of Whitesburg, Ga., zero bass, $3,000
Final round Saturday
Day four of the Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake begins as the final-round field of 10 boats takes off from Prairie Creek Marina in Rogers at 7 a.m. Central time Saturday. Friday’s weights carry over to Saturday, and the $200,000 Pro Division winner will be determined by two-day combined weight.