Quick Bites: Flw Tour, Red River, Day 1

Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Tour Stop #5
Red River, Shreveport-Bossier, La.
Day 1, Opening Round

The early fish gets the worm … Paducah, Ky., pro Dan Morehead landed an impressive five-fish catch weighing 15 pounds, 1 ounce to put himself into third place today. More impressive was that he spent most of the day not fishing. The reason: Morehead, who admitted he’s sitting on one very productive fishing spot this week, caught his limit by 7:15 a.m. and took it easy the rest of the day. The location is evidently very well stocked with quality bass because pro Kelly Jordan of Mineola, Texas, landed himself in sixth place with five keepers weighing 14 pounds, 10 ounces caught from the same area.

Clark rebounds … Another pro who didn’t quite get in a full day of fishing was Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, Texas, although for a slightly different reason. Wendlandt ran into some early boat trouble that cut his fishing time down to about three or four hours today. No worries for the winner of last month’s Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake, Ark., though. He still managed to scramble for a full five-fish stringer weighing a respectable 11 pounds, 3 ounces to land in 31st place and stay in contention.

Practice? Who needs practice? … Pro Keith Green of Arkadelphia, Ark., placed 11th today with a solid five-bass weight of 13 pounds, 7 ounces. He did so despite having no pre-fishing time at all on the Red River prior to this tournament. He came to Louisiana directly from Lake Hamilton, Ark., where he competed in the Wal-Mart BFL All-American just last week. Said Green, “I was practicing today.”

Breaking the line … With much of the tournament field focusing on the jungle of standing timber in the Red River to catch fish, it’s no surprise that many anglers told tales of lost fish today. The scraggly limbs into which these competitors are casting their lines are merciless, and many a hooked 4- and 5-pound bass was reportedly lost to snapped monofilament. “I lost a couple of good ones, but I bet you’ll hear that quite often today,” Georgia pro Tom Mann Jr. told FLW host Charlie Evans.

Bushed … Pro Steve Daniel of Clewiston, Fla., a former winner on the FLW Tour, only caught one keeper weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces and landed in 159th place today. To hear him tell it, his day was doomed from the beginning. “I had one bush in a flat with a big fish in it, but I couldn’t find it again,” he explained. “All of a sudden, I looked up and I ran right over it. That’s how my day started.”

This just in from the Huh? Department … James Sprague, a pro from Kansas City, Kan., caught two fish for 2 pounds, 8 ounces and 147th place today. He offered this perplexing tidbit about his strategy for tomorrow: “I’m just going to do the same thing, but I’m just going to try to catch fish tomorrow.”

Don’t believe it for a second … Tommy Szwankowski of Hope, Ark., explained his Co-Angler Division-leading five-fish catch of 11 pounds, 2 ounces this way: “I got lucky. I was flippin’ from the back of the boat and I got five good bites.” But there’s more to Szwankowski’s success than chance. He’s a perennial contender in Operation Bass tournaments; he already has two top-10 finishes on the FLW Tour in the last two years as well as two top 10s in the EverStart Central Division in 1999. Luck? Szwankowski placed runner-up here at the Red River in last year’s FLW Championship.

Timing is everything … Four anglers from Team Alpo each caught five-fish limits today, the first day of this year’s only FLW tournament sponsored by Alpo Pet Foods. Elton Luce of Nederland, Texas, Rick Lillegard of Atkinson, N.H., Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn., and Tony Couch of Buckhead, Ga., all reached their limits. At one point early during the weigh-in, Luce and Lillegard were even leading the tourney in first and second place. They were eventually bumped down to seventh and 14th place, respectively. Horton placed 23rd and Couch placed 69th.

Quick Number

7-8: Weight, in pounds and ounces, of pro leader Kevin VanDam’s massive Big Bass winner today.

Sound Bites

“By accident.”
– Thirty-second-place co-angler Frank Meyer of Pembroke Pines, Fla., when asked how he caught his three bass today.

“It’s strange. Fishing’s a humbling sport … to go from third place to here.”
– Pro Randy Howell of Trussville, Ala., who finished third at last month’s Wal-Mart Open and came in 158th place today.

Quick Links, Day 1:

Photos
Results
Day-one pairings
Press release
VanDam proves fan-tastic during opening round of FLW competition on Red River