BENTON, Ky. – Team Tyson Pro Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minn., caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 40 pounds, 10 ounces to lead round one of the $900,000 Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake presented by Pedigree. The top 10 pros and co-anglers advance to Friday’s round. Pros are competing for a top award of $100,000, which will be determined Saturday, while the co-angler first-place prize of $20,000 will be awarded Friday.
Moynagh, who has three wins and nine top-10 finishes on his tournament-fishing resume, caught his day-two leading bag, anchored by two largemouths weighing more than 6 pounds, by fishing jigs on ledge-type structure.
“I fished a 3/8-ounce jig shallow and a 3/4-ounce jig in the deep spots,” said Moynagh, who finished second on Pickwick Lake earlier in the season. “I fished shallow points and ledge-like structure today and didn’t go to my best two spots.”
Moynagh, who has more than $600,000 in career earnings with FLW Outdoors, didn’t go to his best fishing areas because he had a 4-pound smallmouth and a 6-pound, 12-ounce largemouth in the boat early and wanted to save his best areas for day three.
“With two good kicker fish in the boat, I didn’t want to go to those fish,” he said. “I went to new water I’ve never been to before, not even in practice, and caught another 6-pounder. I went to my secondary spots after that.”
Berkley pro David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., and Yamaha pro Terry Bolton of Paducah, Ky., both ended the day with 10 bass weighing 36 pounds, 7 ounces.
“It was tough fishing out there today,” said Walker who has 30 top-10 finishes to his credit. “You couldn’t move around a lot and when you did, someone else was fishing the spot. I thought the high winds would have kept the weights down.”
Walker is fishing offshore like many other anglers, however, he’s not fishing the deep portions of infamous Kentucky Lake ledges.
“I’m not fishing particularly deep. About 10 feet deep,” said Walker who has earned more than $400,000 fishing FLW Outdoors events. “The little points are the key spots on the ledge. Spots like that hold multiple fish.”
Walker said he’s using crankbaits, Carolina-rigs and jigs to catch his fish.
“I’m doing a little bit of everything,” he said. “My big fish today came on a crankbait, and a jig yesterday.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Bolton; Toshinari Namiki of Mineola, Texas (10 bass 35 pounds, 11 ounces) and Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala. (10 bass, 34 pounds).
Moynagh also landed the Snickers Big Bass Award and $750 for his 6-pound, 12-ounce lunker.
Todd Lowe of Greensboro, Ga., leads the Co-angler Division with 10 bass weighing 26 pounds, 15 ounces.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. (10 bass, 24 pounds, 11 ounces); Brian Hickey of Cadiz, Ky. (10 bass, 23 pounds, 13 ounces); George Polosky of Alliance, Ohio (nine bass, 22 pounds, 5 ounces) and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C. (10 bass, 22 pounds, 4 ounces).
Chad Parks of Memphis, Tenn., earned $375 and Snickers Big Bass honors in the Co-angler Division with a 6-pound, 3-ounce bass.
Overall, 1,121 bass weighing 2,713 pounds, 6 ounces were caught Wednesday, including 125 five-bass limits.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from Kentucky Dam Marina. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 310 West Fifth Street in Benton beginning at 4 p.m.
The community is invited to attend the free Family Fun Zone Friday and Saturday outside the weigh-in tent in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Family Fun Zone, which opens at 2 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday, features interactive displays, product samples and games for the entire family to enjoy.
The full field competes in the two-day opening round for one of 10 slots in Friday’s competition based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for day three, and co-angler competition concludes following Friday’s weigh-in. The top 10 pros continue competition Saturday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from days three and four.
In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The total purse for the Kentucky Lake tournament is $900,000, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division. In addition to this purse, Tyson has released three tagged “Power Bass” worth $5,000 each into Kentucky Lake. Any pro or co-angler competing in the tournament is eligible to catch these “Power Bass” and claim the cash award.
This is the most lucrative FLW Tour season to date with a $7.6 million purse, including four $900,000 events and two $1.25 million open events during the regular season. Each event leads up to the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship and Outdoor Show presented by Castrol, which will be held Aug. 2-5 on Logan Martin Lake in Birmingham, Ala. The prestigious championship hosted by Birmingham, Pell City and St. Clair County features 48 pros, 48 co-anglers and bass fishing’s largest guaranteed cash award – a $500,000 first-place prize for the winning pro. Held in conjunction with the tournament is a world-class outdoor show featuring more than 140 exhibits.
Coverage of the Kentucky Lake tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on June 25 and July 2 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 350 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
Kellogg’s will present the sixth and final stop of the FLW Tour’s regular season on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y., June 21-24.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $37.9 million through 249 events in 2006.