Canterbury captures early lead in North Carolina

Alabama pro shocks FLW Tour field with 18-5 catch

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – After Scott Canterbury of Oden, Ala., finished second at the most recent Wal-Mart FLW Tour event at Lewis Smith Lake, he apparently did not get the memo from the Lake Norman tournament that weights were supposed to be tight – as in separated by just ounces.

Or perhaps he got that memo and chose to ignore it, because Canterbury began day one of the National Guard Open on Lake Norman with a whopping 18-pound, 5-ounce five-bass limit that gave him a huge 3-pound, 5-ounce lead.

Huge is emphasized here because at Lake Norman, home of cloned 2-pounders, 3 pounds, 5 ounces is a monstrous lead.

Behind Canterbury, the ounce-for-ounce dogfight begins with Sean Hoernke in second place at 15 pounds even, with a gaggle of 14- and 13-pound bags behind him.

Just as several local pros predicted, the Lake Norman FLW Tour event has already turned into an all-out scrap between dock fishing for postspawn bass and sight-fishing for spawning bass.

Canterbury made no bones about catching his four best fish, including a 5-1 that took the Snickers Big Bass award on day one in the Pro Division, by sight-fishing.

“I had some located on the beds from practice, and they were still there,” Canterbury said. “I caught four of my biggest ones off bed.”

Even though Canterbury drew boat No. 199 today, he seemed unconcerned about other anglers finding his fish.

“I didn’t even go to them first thing,” he said. “I went and caught some little fish first, and then I went to the big ones I found. I wasn’t really surprised that no one else found these first, especially the two biggest ones. They were in out-of-the-way places, where it would be really hard for others to find.”

Canterbury did say he has pretty much caught what he found in practice, and from here on out, he’s just going fishing to see if he can stay in the top 10 and make the cut tomorrow afternoon.

Hoernke second

Sean Hoernke of Magnolia, Texas, is in second place with five bass for 15 pounds even.

Hoernke is fishing what he calls a classic postspawn pattern on docks and was pleasantly surprised when he got to his first area this morning.

“My first spot this morning actually panned out a little better than I thought,” Hoernke said. “I ended up culling quite a few right there and started fishing new water.”

Hoernke believes today’s sunshine helped bring his dock pattern to life.

“The sun came out today, and it made my pattern stronger,” he confirmed. “I think it’s area-specific to one section of the lake, and as long as the sun keeps shining, I should be OK the next couple of days.”

Moynagh third

BP pro Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minn., is in third place with five bass for 14 pounds, 10 ounces.

Moynagh reported catching his fish around docks with a plastic worm and a Salmo Skinner minnow bait.

“I’m catching fish off docks, but I can’t really pattern them very well,” Moynagh said. “It’s hard to predict which docks are going to produce. I’ll go along and fish a bunch a docks without catching anything, and then all of a sudden, I’ll catch one.”

Moynagh did say he is fishing one region of the lake as opposed to running around to different creeks and tributaries.

Pack fourth

Back to the sight-fishing camp, Mark Pack of Mineola, Texas, is tied for fourth with 14 pounds, 4 ounces, which all came sight-fishing.

“I probably found 70 fish on the beds during practice, and I’m just running and gunning to the biggest ones,” Pack said. “Two of the ones I caught, though, I found today. I went to some that I had marked, and a couple of new ones had obviously moved in.”

Pack indicated that he did not burn up all of his best sight-fish today and still has some decent fish left for tomorrow.

“I’ve been looking out deeper to find some that others have missed,” he said. “But I need that good sun to see them. If it gets cloudy and rainy, I do have a schooling-fish place where I caught them pretty good, but it needs to be cloudy to catch those.”

Wendlandt fourth

Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas, is in a tie with Pack for fourth place at 14 pounds, 4 ounces.

Like Hoernke, Wendlandt was pleasantly surprised by the productivity of his dock pattern today.

“I had a pretty rough practice here, and I was totally surprised by that dock pattern this morning,” Wendlandt said. “I’ve been anticipating that bite for about four days without much success, and it really came my way today.”

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros in the National Guard Open on Lake Norman after day one:

6th: Jonathan Newton of Rogersville, Ala., five bass, 14-3

7th: Matt Herren of Trussville, Ala., five bass, 14-2

8th: Kevin Lasyone of Dry Prong, La., five bass, 14-0

9th: Luke Clausen of Spokane, Wash., five bass, 13-14

9th: Brent Crow of Hartselle, Ala., five bass, 13-14

Reiter leads co-anglers

Leo Reiter of Goshen, Ind., leads the Co-angler Division of the National Guard Open with a five bass for 11 pounds, 7 ounces.

Reiter fished with Berkley pro Glenn Browne today.

“He was sight-fishing, and while he was doing that, I was blind-casting a Berkley Gulp out the back of the boat – that’s how I caught my biggest one – wacky rigging a Gulp!”

Davenport in second

Dirk Davenport of Delaware, Ohio, is in second place with five bass for 10 pounds, 14 ounces.

Davenport fished with Aaron Hastings today.

“I actually sight-fished my biggest fish, a 4-pounder, with a shaky head,” Davenport said. “Aaron stopped to fish for a fish on bed, and I looked down under a dock and saw a big fish sitting there; I flipped over the dock and it bit. It was pretty exciting there for a minute: I had that fish on 6-pound-test line – over a dock – and still got her in.”

Rest of the best

Chad Pipkens of Holt, Mich., is in third with five bass for 10 pounds, 12 ounces.

David Hudson of Jasper, Ala., is in fourth place with five bass for 10 pounds, 10 ounces.

Lewis Southard of Chandler, Ariz., holds down the fifth place position with 10 pounds, 5 ounces.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers in the National Guard Open on Lake Norman after day one:

6th: Fred Harris of Raleigh, N.C., five bass, 10-4

6th: Shane Lehew of Charlotte, N.C., five bass, 10-4

8th: T.R. Fuller of Auburn, Ala., five bass, 9-14

9th: Adam Lock of Metropolis, Ill., five bass, 9-12

10th: Doug Weiser of Springdale, Ark., five bass, 9-10

Big bass

Jimmy Cox of Bono, Ark., caught the Snickers Big Bass in the Co-angler Division on day one weighing 4 pounds, 7 ounces.

Day two of the FLW Tour event on Lake Norman will begin Friday at 6:30 a.m. from Blythe Landing located at 15901 NC Highway 73 in Huntersville, N.C.