KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Roy Hawk of Salt Lake City, Utah, crossed the stage Wednesday with a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 14 ounces to lead day one of the FLW Tour event presented by Folgers on Fort Loudoun/Tellico lakes. Hawk now holds an 11-ounce lead in the tournament featuring 280 anglers from all across the country.
“I felt like (today) would be good,” said Hawk, who has won more than $322,000 in FLW Outdoors events. “For sure. I’d been catching some decent fish throughout the week doing a variety of things.”
Hawk said he caught a total of 10 fish throughout the course of the day, including seven keepers, and weighed two smallmouth. Hawk said he caught the two smallies early and then moved to an area where he had been catching decent largemouth and boated a largemouth that weighed about seven pounds. Hawk said he then relocated with four fish in the livewell.
“Then we moved to another area and I caught my fifth one and then caught a couple of little ones that helped a little bit, but nothing major,” Hawk said.
“There’s some good smallmouth and good largemouth around, for sure,” said Hawk. “I’ve got a couple of different areas that are working, so hopefully I can maintain and stay in that top 5, I hope.”
“I had five smallmouth on beds and I caught all five of them by 9 o’clock,” said second-place angler Bryan Thrift of Shelby, N.C., who is coming off a March FLW Tour victory at Lake Norman. “Then I went and looked for more the rest of the day and I think I saw one more that might have been a keeper, so I think I’ve got one keeper smallmouth to go catch tomorrow.
“I actually ended up catching a 3-pound largemouth that I ended up culling one of my smallmouth with,” added Thrift, who weighed five bass for 20-3. “So tomorrow I’m going to keep looking for those smallmouth, because I definitely think that’s the way to win this tournament.”
Rounding out the top-10 pros after day one on Fort Loudoun/Tellico lakes are:
3rd: Glenn Browne, Ocala, Fla., five bass, 17-0
4th: James Watson, Waynesville, Mo., five bass, 16-8
5th: J.T. Kenney, Palm Bay, Fla., five bass, 16-6
6th: Ott Defoe, Knoxville, Tenn., five bass, 16-1
7th: Chevy pro Jay Yelas, Corvallis, Ore., five bass, 15-11
8th: Goodwill pro Chad Grigsby, Maple Grove, Minn., five bass, 15-0
9th: Mike Wurm, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 14-12
10th: National Guard pro Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., five bass, 14-11
Overall there were 578 bass weighing 1,180 pounds even caught by 137 pros Wednesday. The catch included 84 five-bass limits.
Pros are competing for a top award of up to $125,000 this week plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the Forrest Wood Cup which will be held Aug. 5-8 at Lake Lanier in Atlanta, Ga., where they could win as much as $600,000 – the sport’s biggest award.
Keith Honeycutt of Temple, Texas, leads the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 11-10 followed by Brian Wilson of Somerset, Ky., in second place with four bass weighing 11-4.
Honeycutt took the early lead in the tournament while fishing with Terry Baksay of Easton, Conn., who is currently in 106th place with four bass weighing 5-12.
Rounding out the top-10 Co-anglers are:
3rd: Hector Delagarza, Sunnyvale, Texas, five bass, 10-1
4th: Darrell Mitchell, Taneyville, Mo., five bass, 9-11
5th: Doug Caldwell, Kane, Penn., three bass, 9-3
6th: Ryan Lapine, Portage, Mich., four bass, 9-1
7th: Tyler Bray, Malvern, Ark., five bass, 8-8
8th: Mike Devere, Berea, Ky., five bass, 8-2
8th: Derrick Snavely, Rogersville, Tenn., five bass, 8-2
10th: Kevin Hawk, Ramona, Calif., four bass, 8-0
Overall there were 236 bass weighing 434 pounds, 13 ounces caught by 102 co-anglers Wednesday. The catch included eight five-bass limits.
Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $25,000 this week plus valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup.
Anglers take off from Tellico Recreational Area Ramp east of Lenoir City, Tenn., at 7 a.m. each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at Tellico Recreational Area Ramp beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Knoxville Convention Center located at 701 Henley St. in Knoxville beginning at 4 p.m.
Fans will be treated to a Family Fun Zone & Outdoor Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Saturday prior to the final weigh-in from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a drawing for a Can-Am ATV courtesy of WNML-AM and rod and reel combos will be given to the first 300 kids under 14 in attendance on Saturday compliments of the Knoxville News Sentinel. The Family Fun Zone & Outdoor Expo includes Ranger boat simulators, the opportunity to interact with professional anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors, and learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities. All activities are free and open to the public. For a full schedule of events, additional information and to register for the ATV, visit http://www.flwoutdoors.com/knoxville/.
Coverage of the Fort Loudoun/Tellico lakes tournament will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on VERSUS. “FLW Outdoors,” will air June 6 from 12:30 to 1:30 ET. “FLW Outdoors,” hosted by Jason Harper, is broadcast to approximately 500 million households worldwide.
About FLW Outdoors
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 189 tournaments in 2010. FLW Outdoors has also taken fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing awarding the largest prizes in the history of fantasy sports. FLW Outdoors memberships are available featuring numerous benefits including Player’s Advantage. For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FantasyFishing.com.