Pro finalists face colder, windier conditions
Some plan to make the run to the Pascagoula, others to stay home on the Biloxi
D’IBERVILLE, Miss. – A cold front moved through the Biloxi area last night bringing with it a biting wind and steady rain. As the top five FLW pro finalists put in at D’Iberville City Marina on Biloxi Bay this morning, the fog that had held up action the previous three days was gone, but temperatures had plummeted to around 40 degrees and the wind was still blowing.
The cool weather caused concern that the front would further slow down an already sluggish fish bite in the tournament waters. But that won’t prevent these pros from going all out for the $100,000 brass ring.
And some of them are going to go a long way for it.
Johnny McCombs of Morris, Ala., Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., and Chuck Economou of Redington Beach, Fla., all said they would attempt to make the taxing hundred-mile run back to the Pascagoula River and back to the fish that put them in the finals.
“I’m going to go for it,” Biffle said. On day one, Biffle had so much confidence in his location that he predicted that he would win the tourney if only he could reach his spot, which was losing water each day.
The other two finalists, Dale Teaney of Williamsburg, Ohio, and Rick Clunn of Ava, Mo., decided they would stay near Biloxi Bay.
Teaney, who is in his first year on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and fishing in his first FLW final round, said nerves might play a role for him in today’s competition.
“It’s not the money that makes me nervous,” he said. “It’s the competition out here.”
One of his biggest worries might be Clunn, who hinted that tough fishing conditions and smaller catch weights could be an advantage to him.
“It’s just as interesting to me as if we were going to go out there and catch huge stringers,” he said.
Today’s finals weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located at 3615 Sangani Blvd. in D’Iberville. The Family Fun Zone opens at 11 a.m.
Vital statistics
Sunrise: 6:34 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 42 degrees
Expected high temperature: 61 degrees
Water temperature: 59 degrees
Wind: North 12 mph
Relative humidity: 81 percent
Day’s outlook: Partly cloudy