Niche fishing

Championship success likely to come down to one crucial factor on Pickwick Lake

FLORENCE, Ala. – For one guy, it’s the bait. For another, it’s the current. For somebody else, it’s the location. Whatever it is, at this week’s EverStart Series Championship on Pickwick Lake, fortune seems to have come down to one particular thing for the top 10 pros still fishing today.

At first, No. 2 pro Gabe Bolivar said the key to his success this week was simply good luck, but upon further questioning, he revealed that current seems to be the key.

“The only thing I don’t understand is how the current works,” he said. “The fish bite when the current’s right. With the short day, I have to pull in there and everything has to work out right.”

Indeed, today’s fewer hours of fishing time has more than one angler nervous. It’s a tight race at the top, with Bolivar trailing leader Steve Kennedy by only 4 ounces.

Oklahoma pro Sam Newby is behind Bolivar by more than a pound with a 10-pound, 10-ounce day-three catch. He believes today’s winner will have a two-day total of around 23 or 24 pounds. For him, the key is the bait.

“This lake’s fishing really tough,” Newby said. “Right now, you’ve got to have a little niche.”

His is a jig that he has fished everywhere from 3 feet deep to 16.

“I’ve caught every fish I got this week on that jig.”

The winner of the $1 million EverStart Series Championship will be crowned at today’s weigh-in, which begins at 3 p.m. at the Wal-Mart store located at 3100 Hough Road in Florence.

Saturday’s conditions:

Sunrise: 6:15 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 62 degrees

Expected high temperature: 78 degrees

Wind: S at 12 mph

Maximum humidity: 69 percent

Day’s outlook: clouds early with peeks of sunshine; stray storms possible