Unstoppable Powers

Recent West Point winner takes charge again, leads opening round at Kerr

HENDERSON, N.C. – Craig Powers, a pizza man by trade, is on a fishing streak right now that is as hot as one of his pies fresh out of the oven. Directly off his first EverStart Series win at the Southeast Division’s West Point Lake two weeks ago, Powers commanded the pro lead yet again Thursday with two-day weight of 34 pounds, 13 ounces in the opening round of Northeast Division competition at Kerr Lake.

Powers – a Domino’s Pizza store owner from Rockwood, Tenn., who also has an FLW Tour victory under his belt – hammered an 18-pound, 14-ounce five-bass limit today. In just the last two EverStart tournaments combined, West Point and Kerr, he has caught a limit six out of six days of competition, all of them weighing more than 12 pounds per day.

His biggest stringer in that stretch was today’s 18-14, and Powers earned every ounce. A cold front that brought incessant rain all day seemed to stifle the topwater, shad-pattern bass bite that produced so many good limits on day one. On day two the limit count was down significantly: The pros caught just 66 of them compared to 104 the previous day. But Powers, who also won the West Point tournament using a Pop-R topwater bait, kept throwing the same thing here and proved that the bite wasn’t completely off.

“Man, it’s just they way I like to fish,” he said. “That Pop-R’s been my best friend for years. You know, that’s catching them on a topwater, too. You end up missing a lot of the bites. If I had caught some of the other ones that I saw, it would have been insane.”

Powers beat the odds in more ways than one Thursday. He started the day slowly, extremely slowly. In the morning, a battery on his boat died, which kept his mobility to a minimum and his fishing stalled. Fortunately for him, this is the EverStart Series, so fresh boat batteries aren’t all that difficult to come by in the heat of battle. Head EverStart rep James Key brought him a new battery and, by 12:30 p.m., Powers was back out running around, hitting pockets and points with his Pop-R. He filled out his limit and, toward the end of the day, he landed his kicker, a 5-pound, 7-ounce largemouth.

“I didn’t catch as many today as I did yesterday, but I caught some good ones,” he said at the weigh-in podium. “James Key saved me today. If there weren’t so many people here right now, I’d probably kiss him on the mouth.”

As for the fishing, there was much grumbling from some anglers about the difficult topwater bite Thursday. But not from Powers.

“Everybody here thinks the bass have pulled out of the bushes,” he said. “But if they’re pulled out right now, I’d like to be here when they’re in the bushes.”

Wilhoit climbs to second

After a fifth-place performance on day one, Brian Wilhoit of Oxon Hill, Md., climbed into the second-place qualifying position in the Pro Division on day two with an opening-round weight of 31 pounds, 6 ounces.

He, too, caught fewer keepers today and even lost a pair of nice 4-pounders. Still, he managed a solid 14-pound, 4-ounce limit by fishing a Zoom Super Fluke on points not far from the tournament base at Satterwhite Point.

“It was rough out there,” he said. “I was right in the middle of all the waves, hanging out. Yesterday I could spot them, but today they held a lot tighter to rocks on the points. If you didn’t hit that rock perfectly, they wouldn’t bite.”

Gluszek slips to third

After a dominating day-one limit weighing 22 pounds, Pete Gluszek of Franklinville, N.J., fell to the third spot for the pros after catching a limit weighing just 9 pounds, 5 ounces on day two. His opening-round total was 31-5.

“The weather conditions just didn’t really cooperate today,” he said. “But I think that’s going to change tomorrow. If it gets hot and sticky again, I think that will play right into my hands.”

Sorrell fourth

Pro Rodney Sorrell of Stokesdale, N.C., grabbed the fourth slot with a two-day weight of 30 pounds, 13 ounces. His limit Thursday, 14-3, weighed about 2 1/2 pounds less than the one he caught Wednesday.

“Between yesterday and today, there were totally different conditions,” he said. “I just didn’t catch them like I did yesterday.”

Plemmons fifth

Bob Plemmons of Kernersville, N.C., moved up to the fifth spot in the Pro Division by catching the third-heaviest limit Thursday – 18 pounds, 2 ounces. His opening-round total was 30-9.

“Oh yeah,” he said when asked how he’s fishing. “I’m catching some shallow and some medium-deep.”

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros to make the opening-round cut into Friday’s competition at Kerr Lake:

6th: Jeffrey Thomas of Broadway, N.C., 10 bass, 30-0

7th: Chris Baldwin of Lexington, N.C., 10 bass, 29-14

8th: Jack Gadladge of Benton, Ky., nine bass, 29-5 (Gadladge caught Thursday’s heaviest limit, 19-8)

9th: Chris Daves of Hopewell, Va., 10 bass, 28-15

10th: Brent Brannon of Cumming, Ga., 10 bass, 28-10

David Diodato of Fort Plain, N.Y., earned $750 as the winner of the Snicker’s Big Bass award in the Pro Division, thanks to a 5-pound, 14-ounce bass.

Castle storms into co-angler lead

Piecing together two equally solid days of fishing in the opening round, Miller Castle of Abingdon, Va., grabbed the top spot in the Co-angler Division with an opening-round total weight of 23 pounds, 8 ounces.

Castle caught an 11-pound, 9-ounce sack on Wednesday by throwing mainly a Carolina rig. Thursday, he found that he had to change with the winds and ultimately landed another limit worth 11-15.

“Today, the first place we stopped, the shad weren’t up,” he said. “I guess the wind kept them down. It just changed on me, the wind, so I decided to throw a 1-ounce spinnerbait. I caught one within six or seven casts on the spinnerbait, and I caught two good fish on it in 3 1/2 hours. I didn’t catch a lot of fish; they were just quality bites when I got bit.”

Tony Dorman of Springville, Pa., grabbed the second co-angler qualifying spot with a two-day weight of 23 pounds, 5 ounces.

Ryan Bowman of Seneca, S.C., placed third for the co-anglers with an opening-round weight of 23 pounds, 4 ounces.

Co-angler Shannon Fletcher of Honaker, Va., placed fourth with 22 pounds, 11 ounces.

Douglas Grant of Manchester, Conn., rounded out the top five co-anglers with a weight of 22 pounds even.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers to make the cut:

6th: Jeff Slute of Seagrave, Ontario, nine bass, 22-0

7th: Andy Staple of Youngsville, N.C., seven bass, 21-10

8th: Mark Cummings of Pembroke, N.C., eight bass, 20-1

9th: Kenneth Roderick Jr. of Norwich, Conn., 10 bass, 18-15

10th: Alan Hench of Lititz, Pa., nine bass, 18-9

Staple also earned $250 for catching the Snickers Big Bass in the Co-angler Division, a 4-pound, 13-ounce largemouth.

Into the cut

Day three of Northeast Division competition at Kerr Lake begins as the semifinal-round field of 10 boats takes off from Satterwhite in Henderson at 6 a.m. Eastern time. Anglers’ weights are reset to zero for Friday, and winners in both fields are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight over the next two days.