Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Lake Wheeler, Florence, Ala.
Opening round, Wednesday
Large smallie … Congrats to Cullman, Alabama’s Robin Cummings for pulling in the biggest bass of the day in the Pro Division. He weighed in an enormous smallmouth bass at 6 pounds, 14 ounces on a day when many of the smallies caught lived up to their diminutive name. With today’s fish, Cullman nearly doubled his previous career best big-bass attempt of 3-15.
Cold bite … The icy clutches of winter have curtailed what should otherwise be some pretty spectacular fishing here on the Wheeler, Wilson and Pickwick chain of lakes this time of year. The bass are ready to spawn but the cold weather has dropped water temperatures – in places by over 10 degrees over the last two weeks – and held the fish to deeper water. “Right now, the fish want to be shallow,” said pro leader Alton Jones of Waco, Texas. “But it’s too cold.” Lexington, N.C., pro David Fritts caught five bass using his trademark crankbaits today, but they only weighed a collective 7 pounds, 6 ounces. “You really have to aggravate (the bass) to catch them,” he said. “And they’re really sluggish. You can barely feel it when they do bite.” Anglers are not losing faith, however. Pro Jimmi Leuthner of Windsor Locks, Conn., who is in contention again after posting a four-bass, 9-4 weight on opening day, said, “If it warms up, they’ll move right up.”
Stone cold third … What is it about Linden, N.C., pro Marty Stone when he comes here to fish FLW tournaments? To wit: 1998 FLW Tour at Wheeler Lake – third place; 2000 FLW Tour at Pickwick Lake – third place. Today: 2002 FLW Tour at Wheeler Lake, day one – third place. He caught five bass weighing 13 pounds to capture his usual position at this tournament. So what’s the deal? “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess on certain lakes you just have a certain rhythm. … I surprised myself. Today I caught a few in areas where I’ve never fished before.” So is he simply a fan of cold, deepwater fishing? “Heck no. I’m one of those guys who, when it gets below 40 degrees, thinks we ought to call off the tournament.” Uh, by the looks of the leaderboard, I’m guessing that Marty might be rethinking that philosophy this week.
Wouldn’t be a leaderboard without him … Don’t look now, but look Hoot’s back near the pole position in Co-angler Division. Bryant, Arkansas’ W.D. “Hoot” Gibson, who led day one at the EverStart Series Central Division contest at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas just last week, caught four bass today weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces and claimed second place on day one here at Lake Wheeler. He also caught the biggest bass of the day for the co-anglers with a 5-pound, 3-ounce largemouth. Gibson, the 2001 FLW Co-angler of the Year, took three top-10 finishes on tour last year, including one victory. Simply put, there is not another co-angler on tour – maybe even pro angler – who is more consistent than Hoot at the moment.
Sound Bite
“I still can’t believe it. I walked into the meeting last night and saw myself right there on the TV.”
– Jimmi Leuthner, describing how he is still reeling from his out-of-nowhere second-place finish at FLW Lake Okeechobee last month. FLW officials played a highlight reel from that tournament at Tuesday night’s registration meeting for all the competitors. For the record, on day one here at Wheeler, Leuthner caught four bass weighing 9 pounds, 4 ounces and sits near the cutoff point in 24th place.
Quick Links, Day 1
Jones grabs lead on Lake Wheeler
Photos
Results
Tomorrow’s pairings
Press release