Caldwell maintains upper hand
EverStart Eastern leader being chased by two Lake Martin rookies
ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. – Ted Caldwell of Alexander City, Ala., maintains a strong lead in the EverStart event being held on Lake Martin. Even though he did not need to catch a fish to make the top 20, he still caught 9 pounds, 8 ounces to keep his lead. His two-day total is 29 pounds, 14 ounces.
Caldwell said he stayed away from his primary area today and went practicing on new water. He will do the same thing tomorrow.
“I think my patterns will work in other areas, and that is what I am going to do tomorrow – try to make the patterns work on water I have not fished yet,” Caldwell said. “If it doesn’t work out, then I will start fishing my way back towards my primary area.”
Being a local, Caldwell has the luxury of two productive patterns: a largemouth pattern and a solid spotted-bass pattern. He will fish for both tomorrow and try to determine which one is a better bet, should he make the final round.
“The largemouths are just now moving up,” he said. “They have not moved all the way to the backs of the pockets yet. I don’t want the water to come up anymore so they will hold right where they are.”
Caldwell being chased by Lake Martin freshmen
This is the first time Tony Christian of Hull, Ga., has fished a tournament on Lake Martin, and he is in second with 24 pounds, 13 ounces. Not bad for a newcomer.
Christian is cranking submerged laydowns and says he has a good feeling about his area. “I stayed away from it today,” he said. “I went in there for about 30 minutes, caught two largemouths and left. After that, I just went fishing for spots to finish out my limit.”
Christian said he will fish in his primary area until he gets about 11 pounds tomorrow.
Another Lake Martin rookie is William Davis of Centerstar, Ala., still in third place. Davis says he has not fished the lake before and is unfamiliar with it. In order to get more familiar with it, he has been fishing a lot of places each day. He estimates that he fished about 25 places today.
“I spend about 15 minutes on each spot and then go to the next one,” he said. “I have only flipped about 30 minutes each day and caught fish that way. I think I’ll do a lot more flipping tomorrow, especially if the sun comes out.”
Joe Nichols of Ahoskie, N.C., made the comeback of the day, moving from 40th place to fourth. He brought in the day’s biggest stringer – 13 pounds, 13 ounces – for a two-day total of 22 pounds even.
“I fished the exact same water with the exact same lures,” Nichols said. “The big ones just bit today.”
Nichols fished 20 to 25 feet of water with a jighead worm to catch his stringer today.
In fifth place is another Lake Martin local, BJ Barnett of Alexander City, Ala. He brought in 10 pounds, 10 ounces to make the cut today.
New co-angler leader
Tommy Carpenter of Senoia, Ga., moved into the co-angler lead today. He has a two-day total of 13 pounds, 11 ounces.
“I have been catching them on a 4- to 6-inch Texas-rigged worm,” Carpenter said. “I don’t plan to change anything tomorrow. Wherever my pro takes me, that’s what I will throw.”
In second place is yesterday’s leader, Shane Patterson of Alexander City, Ala. He did not weigh a keeper today, but then again, he did not need to. His day-one weight was more than enough to get him into the finals.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top five in the Co-angler Division are Ken Crumpler of Marianna, Fla., (third) with 12 pounds, 7 ounces; George Fyksen of Sarasota, Fla., (fourth) with 12 pounds, 1 ounce; and Jonathan Collins of Vinemont, Ala., (fifth) with 12 pounds even.
Anglers start from zero tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. at Wind Creek State Park.
Day-two links: