Quick Bites: FLW Lake Ouachita, Day 1
Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Lake Ouachita, Hot Springs, Ark.
Opening round, Wednesday
Quick Number
1: Out of a tournament field of 350 anglers, the total number of those who caught a limit of five fish on day one at Lake Ouachita.
Fog bankrupt … Even the best anglers in the world have a tough time catching fish, particularly so, it seems, when they’re not actually fishing. The troops didn’t take off from Mountain Harbor Marina until 11 o’clock or so this “morning” due to a big fog delay and it greatly impacted the catch weights. For the first time in FLW history only one angler, pro Greg Hackney of Oak Ridge, La., caught a limit of five bass. In fact, only four other pros weighed in as many as four. Hackney, who caught all of his 15 pounds, 8 ounces in the first hour, was surprised by his five-fish performance. “They bit a little bit better than I thought they would,” he said. But he was the lucky one – literally. With the delay, many anglers had as little as just an hour or two for actual fishing after making their runs. Of the 97 out of 175 pros who weighed in, 56 of them caught only one keeper fish – which is not necessarily a bad omen. Hot Springs, Arkansas’ own George Cochran sits as high as 36th place with his one fish that weighed 4-1. The man on the cut line for tomorrow, 20th-place pro Jeffrey Thomas of Broadway, N.C., only caught two fish weighing 5-13. Realistically, that means the door is open for everyone – even those who blanked today – to make a push into the top 20 Thursday. Of course, that all depends on the fog.
No one lands ’em like Nolan … While everyone was scrambling to catch fish quickly, pro Jim Nolan of Bull Shoals, Ark., was making the most of his short time on the water. He caught an enormous 8-pound, 9-ounce largemouth that not only took big-bass honors for the day, it set the mark for biggest bass of the year. “When I first set the hook I thought it was another nice Kentucky (spotted bass),” he said. “I had no idea it was that big. My heart was racing so much I couldn’t even cast after that.” While he only caught two keepers, the massive fish launched him into fourth place with a total weight of 10 pounds, 13 ounces. In an odd twist, Nolan is also the record holder for the biggest bass ever caught in an FLW tournament. In 1996, the first year of the tour, he caught a largemouth weighing 11 pounds, 14 ounces at Lake Santee Cooper, S.C., that still stands as the fish to beat. For the record, Nolan caught his hog today using a green-pumpkin Zoom ringworm on a drop-shot rig fishing a ledge at a depth of 25 feet.
Bass warming up … Today’s low weights weren’t any indication of the kind of fishery that is Lake Ouachita, they were mostly the result of a shortened fishing day. There’s more fish out there like Nolan’s, and don’t be surprised if another 8-, 9- or 10-pounder comes across the scale over the next few days. The fish have been holding in deeper water due to unseasonably cold weather, but that’s about to change. A warm south wind and temperatures forecasted to reach near 80 degrees tomorrow could be enough to bring a few monsters out of the deep and into striking distance. “The big ones are moving a little late this year,” said Mike Wurm, a local from Hot Springs in sixth place, “I’m sure they’re anxious to get up (into the shallows) and breed, and they’re probably a little hungry, too. If they start biting like that, look out.”
Sound Bites
“It definitely messed with everybody’s mind, but this is just a matter of how you deal with adversity.”
– Pro Shad Schenck, talking about the fog delay. He dealt well with the adversity, landing four bass weighing 11 pounds, 7 ounces for third place.
“I didn’t think my reel held that much line.”
– Pro Wesley Strader, describing how deep he caught his fish on day one. He placed 18th.
Quick Links, Day 1
Hackney hauls in opening-round lead on Lake Ouachita
Photos
Results
Tomorrow’s pairings
Press release