All week long, fantasy players heard from the pros how tough the fishing would be on the Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes. At the midway point in the day-one weigh-in, things don’t exactly look tough. Currently leading the tournament is David Dudley with just over 20 pounds. Dudley wasn’t the only one to catch them either. Pretournament favorites Andy Morgan and Craig Powers also had banner days – Morgan catching 19-7 and Powers reeling in 17-10.

Everyone is seemingly catching fish although not all are keepers. Some pros said they caught over 30 bass on the day, but the majority were under the 14-inch minimum length limit. Conventional thinking says a lot of the shorts came from shallow water while the big stringers were caught deep. Simply put, it appears the leaders are willing to work all day for just a handful of key bites.

With local pros David Walker and Ott Defoe yet to weigh in, things are just beginning to get interesting in Knoxville. Stay tuned.