BENTON, Ky. – Yamaha pro Terry Bolton of Paducah, Ky., caught a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 9 ounces to lead 10 finalists into the last day of the $900,000 Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake presented by Pedigree. If Bolton retains his lead Saturday, he will pocket $100,000 and collect valuable points leading toward a berth in the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship.
While some anglers’ catches have fluctuated over the last three days of competition, Bolton has improved his catch by more than a pound each day. He weighed in 17 pounds, 2 ounces on opening day and 19 pounds, 5 ounces on day two.
“Today, when I first started, the wind was terrible,” said Bolton, who has two FLW Outdoors wins and 32 top-10 finishes to his credit, including 25 on Kentucky Lake alone. “You have to have confidence and believe in what you are doing.”
Bolton’s efforts have been predominantly focused on ledges using a jig fished on heavy fluorocarbon line.
“There’s one little sweet-spot on a ledge,” he said. “I’m going to the places where I know there are fish.”
Ranger pro Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala., ended the day in second place with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 15 ounces.
“I grew up fishing ledges on Eufaula and West Point,” said Kennedy, who won the 2003 FLW Tour stop on Kentucky Lake. “We don’t get too many opportunities to fish ledges, so I need to make the best of it.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Yamaha pro Gary Yamamoto of Mineola, Texas (five bass 15 pounds, 2 ounces); Yamaha pro Curt Lytle of Zuni, Va. (five bass 13 pounds, 13 ounces) and Team Castrol pro David Dudley of Lynchburg, Va. (five bass 13 pounds, 6 ounces).
Tyrone Phillips of Little Rock, Ark., earned a $20,000 victory in the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 12 pounds, 15 ounces. The majority of his fish were caught on a Zoom paddle-tail worm while fishing with Yamamoto.
“We went into an area that made the wind obsolete,” said Phillips, who also collected a $500 Wal-Mart gift card and $500 in Castrol products for his first FLW Tour victory. “We fished a 300-yard-long bank and only about 100 yards of it held fish. I caught three good ones and Gary got his limit there. We went to another area, and I caught one on a crankbait.”
With only four fish in the livewell and time running out, Phillips’ chances for a five-bass limit were looking bleak.
“We stopped just outside the check-in point on our way in,” he said. “And I caught my last fish with 10 minutes left.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C. (four bass 11 pounds, 10 ounces, $10,000); Brian Hickey of Cadiz, Ky. (five bass 10 pounds, 1 ounce $9,000); George Polosky of Alliance, Ohio (five bass 9 pounds, 1 ounce $8,000) and 18-year-old Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. (two bass 4 pounds, 8 ounces, $7,000).
The 10 remaining pros will take off at 6:30 in the morning from Kentucky Dam Marina. Saturday’s weigh-in 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 Saturday outside the weigh-in tent in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Family Fun Zone, which opens at noon, 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.