Bolton bearing down on first tour title
Weather improves for final day at Kentucky Lake
BENTON, Ky. – Terry Bolton has earned more than $325,000 in career earnings at FLW Outdoors tournaments, and for the most part, he’s done it the hard way.
The Paducah, Ky., pro has fished the FLW Outdoors circuit since before the dawn of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour some 10 years ago. In all that time he has accumulated an astonishing 25 top-10 finishes at all three tour levels, including a couple Stren Series and Wal-Mart BFL victories, mostly at Kentucky Lake.
But never has he won a big-money FLW Tour event, at Kentucky Lake or anywhere else, so his earnings have come little by little.
That could all change Saturday since Bolton took off for the final day of this week’s FLW Tour contest with more than a 4 1/2-pound lead at, of all places, Kentucky Lake.
It’s in the bag, right?
It would appear so, but that’s not giving Kentucky Lake or his competitors, for that matter, enough credit. Every single one of the 10 finalists caught a five-bass limit in the first half of the finals Friday, so there’s no shortage of fish in the lake or talent on it today. It’s just that Bolton happened to catch the biggest ones.
The leader’s top competition appears to be Steve Kennedy and Gary Yamamoto, who respectively captured second and third place Friday with weights in the 15- to 16-pound range. Kennedy, you remember, won this event back in 2003. He’s out there comfortably dredging ledges just like Bolton, a pattern with which he feels extremely comfortable from his days back home in Alabama. Yamamoto is taking a different tack, fishing shallow with his secret weapon this week, a prototype cut-tail worm that, on day one, he swore gave him an advantage at the heavily fished waterway.
Like Friday, the sun is shining and the wind is still coming in from the west, so that would seem to favor Bolton. But conditions have calmed down considerably, which should really open up the lake for everybody.
Plus, there are big 6-, 7- and 8-pound bass to be had in Kentucky and Barkley lakes, which means everybody, certainly the top six, could make a serious run at Bolton. As fifth-place David Dudley put it, “Anybody can come back to win on this lake.” He would know; Anthony Gagliardi did it to him when he took victory here in 2004.
The winner’s take at this event is $100,000.
Saturday’s final weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. Central time at the Wal-Mart store located at 310 West Fifth Street in Benton. The free Family Fun Zone – which features interactive displays, product samples and games – opens to the public at noon.
Saturday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 5:48 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 52 degrees
Expected high temperature: 70 degrees
Wind: W at 10 to 20 mph
Maximum humidity: 53 percent
Day’s outlook: partly cloudy