Quick Bites: Wal-Mart Open, Day 2

Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Wal-Mart Open
Beaver Lake, Rogers, Ark.
Opening round, Thursday

Come low or high water … The high water threw a lot of pros off their sight-fishing game plans in the opening round, but it just doesn’t seem to matter what the conditions are at Beaver Lake for defending champ Clark Wendlandt. The Cedar Park, Texas, sight-fishing specialist continues to establish his dominance here, taking over the lead once again at the Wal-Mart Open. Since the FLW Tour began coming here, this marks the third time that Wendlandt has taken the lead at Beaver Lake – the first two being on crucial Saturdays that gave him his two prior victories (1999 and 2001). Since 1998 Wendlandt has finished no lower than 36th place at Beaver and has collected $380,000 in prize money from this tournament alone over the years. “I really don’t know what to say except that I like fishing here,” he said. “I don’t know why this place fits me so well, but it does.” One theory has it that Beaver Lake fishes a whole lot like Wendlandt’s farm pond back home in Texas, which he agreed was true. “I’m just comfortable here,” he said.

Mineola, Texas, pro Mark Pack also seems to fit pretty well at Beaver Lake. In his three years on tour, he also has finished no lower than 36th place and came in fourth here last year. He qualified for the semifinals this week in second place.

Martens’ motor croaks … Aaron Martens already has two top-five finishes in just a year-and-a-half on the FLW Tour. But this week he has had motor problems, only eight hours of practice at the lake prior to the tournament, and couldn’t maneuver his way onto the spawning beds he wanted to go sight-fishing in the opening round. No problem. The California kid “scrambled” his way to five bass weighing 9 pounds, 1 ounce Thursday – including the biggest bass of the day, 5-7 – to push his two-day total to 18-9 and fourth place heading into the semis. While he caught his quality fish on a Zoom brush hog in stained water, Martens was frustrated about his motor Thursday afternoon, which has trouble pushing his boat onto plane. “I can’t figure it out. It’s been doing that for months,” he said. “I can’t run it good like I want to and I can’t go anywhere.” At least for the rest of the week, Martens has no worries as far his motor goes. Everybody’s fishing from new boats provided by FLW Outdoors for the semifinal and final rounds.

Hackney’s hot streak … One of the hottest pros on tour right now is Greg Hackney of Oak Ridge, La. He has made four straight cuts in the last four tournaments he’s fished. The streak started in February when he finished in 18th place at the Ranger M1 on the Mobile Delta. In March he captured 12th at FLW Lake Ouachita and, earlier this month, fifth at EverStart Grand Lake. Thursday he qualified for the semis at Beaver Lake in 10th place. Said Hackney, “(The fish) I find in practice are working and I’m fishing error-free for the most part. I’m fishing really confidently right now and, when I get ready to move (locations), I make the right move.”

Mind games … Pro Dean Rojas of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., made his second FLW cut of the year this week. As he weighed in Thursday, he also fired a little shot across the bow of his fellow competitors for Friday’s semifinals. Said Rojas furtively, “I’ve got a surprise for tomorrow if I make it.”

Two’s the magic number … Co-angler Fred Hill of Roxboro, N.C., who recently won the EverStart Central Division contest at Grand Lake, has a history of twos at Beaver Lake. He placed second for the opening round this week, finished the tourney in second place last year, and finished in 22nd place in 2000. While he’d probably prefer all those twos to be ones, second place is nothing to sneeze at in these tough tourneys – especially on the co-angler side where consistency is a rare asset.

Sound Bites

“This is what it smells like when you fish with your head in your butt all week.”
– Ever-quotable pro Gerald Swindle, who won the Wal-Mart Open in 1999, colorfully describing how bad his fishing “stunk” this week. He finished in 137th place with 4 pounds, 7 ounces over two days.

“You talk about execution? I got executed today.”
– Pro Kevin VanDam, who could only muster four small bass weighing 4-14 Thursday. He finished in 39th place.

“It just goes to show how humbling this sport really is and how much I have yet to learn.”
– Gary Klein, a fishing legend in his own right, who finished in 83rd place. In four years of competition, Klein has never before finished below 26th place at the Wal-Mart Open.

Quick Links, Day 2:

Wendlandt works Beaver Lake magic … again
Photos
Results
Tomorrow’s pairings
Press release