Williams whips up on West Point

Kentucky pro begins sweet revenge at Stren Series

LAGRANGE, Ga. – West Point Lake played hard ball with the 200 pros and 200 co-anglers in the Stren Series Southeast event Wednesday.

Consider that the Georgia lake dealt the Pro Division 73 goose eggs and the Co-angler Division another 115 zippos. Only four five-bass limits crossed the stage today and the top-20 cut mark on the pro side stands at 7 pounds, 3 ounces.

Those stats do not seem to matter to Tommy Williams of Shepherdsville, Ky., who leads the event with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 8 ounces. Williams came to West Point looking for revenge, and he got it today.

“I’ve been waiting to come here again this time of year since 1999, the last time the Stren Series came to West Point in the winter,” Williams revealed. “I got on a load of fish in that event that should have put me in the winner’s circle. That was only my second Stren Series event; I was a little green and really didn’t understand how to maximize the fish I had found.”

Since that heart-breaking experience, Williams has patiently waited for a rematch with a cold, ornery West Point – and he got it.

“When I first saw this tournament in the Stren Series brochure, I put my crosshairs on it,” he said. “I even went practicing around lakes back home in Kentucky to prepare for this event. We have several lakes there that lay out just like West Point with this low, cold water.”

Williams revealed that he is cranking very shallow water to catch his fish. He caught nine keepers today and culled four fish.

“I gave myself three days of practice here and went straight to the place where I lost the tournament here in 1999,” Williams said. “I caught nine keepers pretty quick and left.”

Williams plans to stay completely off his primary area tomorrow and fish other areas to survive the cut.

“I did find some other areas that are similar to my best spot, which are also holding some fish,” he said. “I plan to fish those tomorrow.”

Mortenson second

Mike Mortenson of Westland, Mich., is in second with a five-bass limit weighing 15 pounds, 8 ounces.

So how does a guy from Michigan come to Georgia and find such quality fish in such a tough event? Practice, and lots of it.

“I’ve been here about two and a half weeks,” Mortenson said. “I fished enough places where they weren’t and finally ran into them.”

Mortenson is fishing current-related bass in about 10 feet of water.

“When I found these fish in practice, they were much shallower,” he noted. “This morning it took me a while to realize that they had backed out deeper. But once I reconnected with them, I caught them pretty good.”

Tucker Third

Terry Tucker of Gadsden, Ala., caught three bass weighing 12 pounds, 7 ounces for third place.

“The sudden drop in water temperature has really hurt this place,” Tucker said. “It went from the low 50s to the low 40s in just a couple of days, and that’s put a real damper on my areas. The highest water temperature I saw in my area today was 48 degrees.

“I’m catching them in about 5 to 6 feet of water on sunny banks, but I need more sun to warm the water. Hopefully it will warm up tomorrow and they will bite a little better.”

Knapp fourth

Coming to West Point after Lake Murray last week, Wal-Mart FLW Tour pro Jason Knapp of Uniontown, Pa., only had a day and a half of practice for this event.

Given the constraints, he decided to spend today milking one area, and it paid off with four bass weighing 11 pounds, 12 ounces for fourth place.

“I’m fishing an area, not really a pattern,” Knapp said. “I know they live in this one place, so I just camped in there with a jig and a worm and fished extremely slow.

Gainey fifth with big bass

In the fifth position is Nick Gainey of Charleston, S.C., with 10 pounds, 12 ounces.

Gainey’s catch included the Pro Division big bass, weighing in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces and worth $750.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros in the Stren Series Southeast Division event on West Point Lake:

6th: Jesse Millsaps of Tate, Ga., two bass, 10-9

7th: Scott Hamrick of Denver, N.C., three bass, 10-7

8th: Timothy Little of Acworth, Ga., five bass, 10-5

9th: James Kemper of Frankfort, Ky., four bass, 10-1

10th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., four bass, 10-0

Ray leads co-anglers

Rodger Ray of Social Circle, Ga., leads the Co-angler Division of the Stren Series Southeast on West Point Lake with two bass weighing 11 pounds, 10 ounces.

Two bass may not sound like many to take a tournament lead, but considering one of his bass weighed in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces, it’s a little more understandable.

Ray’s big bass easily claimed the day-one big-bass award in the Co-angler Division worth $250.

“I caught it on a crankbait at about 8:30 this morning,” Ray said. “I had it on 12-pound-test line, so it was quite a battle.”

Steve Morgan of Grand Bay, Ala., weighed in two bass today at 9 pounds, 14 ounces for second place.

Mark Denney of Somerset, Ky., caught three bass weighing 9 pounds, 5 ounces for third place.

Bill Huston of Sunset, S.C., had two bass weighing 7 pounds, 9 ounces for fourth place.

Don Melvin of Tar Heel, N.C., weighed in two bass for 7 pounds, 6 ounces to take fifth.

Rest of the Best

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers in the Stren Series Southeast Division event on West Point Lake:

6th: Kevin Roberts of West Chester, Ohio, two bass, 7-3

7th: William Sentell of Clinton, Tenn., two bass, 7-0

8th: Timothy Dehaan of Cartersville, Ga., three bass, 6-15

9th: M.L. Callahan of Independence, Ky., three bass, 6-11

10th: Nathan Fuller of Hillsboro, Ga., three bass, 6-0

Day two of the Stren Southeast event on West Point Lake starts Thursday at 7:30 a.m. at Highland Marina.