Fog delays finals at Beaver Lake
Cuts fishing time to about four hours
ROGERS, Ark. – Everyone arrived before dawn for the final-round takeoff at the $1 million Wal-Mart Open. The race-detailed boats were gassed. The anglers were amped. But when the sun finally came over the horizon, it might as well have stayed down all morning.
Thick fog caused a two-hour delay at the beginning of Saturday’s Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition at Beaver Lake. Tournament officials hoping to send the 10 pro finalists out at safe light shortly after 6 a.m. had to wait until roughly 8:10 a.m. to begin today’s competition due to visibility concerns. During the worst of the fog, visibility was reduced to about 40 feet.
The delay shortened what is already a shorter day of fishing for competitors. Saturday’s check-in time is at 1 p.m., which is an hour earlier than the opening round and over two hours earlier than yesterday. That means anglers will effectively have about four hours of actual fishing time, depending on how far they run.
“It hurts me,” said Clark Wendlandt, who is attempting to defend his 2001 Wal-Mart Open title today. “For a guy who’s just going out fishing, it doesn’t hurt. But for what I’m doing, it’s no good.”
Darrel Robertson seemed less concerned with the fog delay. He is one of those guys who plans “just to go fishing. If the sun was shining, I was going to go sight-fishing. If not, I was going to throw a spinner bait.”
As the fog held and the delay passed from minutes into hours, some anglers began to feel the pressure of fishing for so much money in such a short period of time. The top prize after today’s one-day shootout is $210,000.
“I had a plan,” said Randall Hutson, “but it’s fading fast.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty much messing with my mind right now,” said Tracy Adams.
Still, one pro seemed completely unfazed by the delay. “I’m liking it. It kind of puts the pressure on everybody,” said day-three leader Dean Rojas, smiling. “Let’s just get it on.”
Today’s final weigh-in begins at 2 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located at 2110 West Walnut in Rogers. The show will be broadcast nationwide live on the PAX network at 2 p.m. CST.
Vital statistics:
Sunrise: 6:36 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 68 degrees
Expected high temperature: 71 degrees
Water temperature: 61 degrees
Wind: From the southwest at 5 mph
Relative humidity: 78 percent
Day’s outlook: Partly cloudy with scattered thunderstorms, a few could contain large hail and damaging winds this afternoon.
Day-four link: