Martin charges to the front

Lake Dardanelle gives up loads of bass at FLW Series Eastern

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Rising water, clouds and rain showers came together Wednesday to show what Lake Dardanelle is made of as Wal-Mart FLW Series pros and co-anglers hauled limit after limit across the BP Eastern Division stage on day one of competition.

In all, over half the pro field scored five-bass limits, a solid 13 pounds is now the 50th-place mark, and nearly 16 pounds is needed to claim territory inside the coveted top 10.

Pretty good fishing, no matter how you slice it.

What’s more, pros seemed to catch bass just about any way they wanted to fish today. Some caught fish out deep, some caught them shallow, and some caught them both ways.

Such is the case with National Guard pro Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., who fished both shallow and deep to collect 21 pounds, 1 ounce to take the day-one lead.

Martin started the day out deep, fishing breaks that dropped from 6 to 15 feet with a 3/4-ounce All-Terrain tackle football-head jig.

After catching four solid keepers deep, he went in to the bank to flip a shallow spot and was rewarded with a 6-pound kicker.

“I have both shallow and deep fish and used them both today,” Martin said. “I had what I weighed in by 11:30 and decided to use the rest of the day to look around and see what areas of the lake are getting pressured. It’s a luxury to be able to do that, but I think investing time observing the pressure zones helps formulate a game plan for the coming days.

“For instance, I went to one bay today that had a bunch of boats fishing some stuff I was going to fish tomorrow, so I won’t even go there,” he continued. “But I went to a couple of other places that had no boats on them. Knowing that helps in the long-term strategy of knowing where to start in the morning.”

Fisher second

Al Fisher of nearby Hackett, Ark., landed the Snickers Big Bass today in the Pro Division, and it weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces, anchoring a 19-pound, 14-ounce limit, which put him in second place.

Fisher also fished both shallow and deep to catch a total of eight keepers.

Fisher has a lot of experience on the Arkansas River and knows how to maximize the weather windows that Mother Nature throws his way.

“It started off really slow,” he said. “I only had one keeper at 10:30. But at about noon, the sun came out and it got hot, sunny and still, and I knew what to do. I went out to an offshore ledge that tops out at about 4 feet and started throwing a crankbait, and it was on.

“For some reason, those offshore fish like it best when the sun is high and bright – that’s the witching hour on this river. And I did most of my damage during that period of time. Once it clouded up again, that bite completely died, and I had to go shallow.”

King third

Charlie King of Shreveport, La., landed 19 pounds, 1 ounce of bass for third place.

“I’m fishing one little spot, and this lake fishes so small that I’m trying to protect it, so I don’t want to say a whole lot,” King said. “I found these fish before cutoff, and amazingly they’re still there.

“I caught my fish pretty early,” he added. “I had pretty much everything I weighed in by 11:30 and felt it safe to leave my fish. I tried a couple of other spots and should have culled another time or two, but had one break off and a couple others pull off.”

Fukae fourth

BP pro Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas, was pleasantly surprised by his catch of 18 pounds, 15 ounces today to start the event in fourth place.

If you’re wondering what Fukae’s secret was, it was not a lure or a place; it was actually his co-angler, Pam Wood of Jonesboro, Ark.

The last time Fukae fished with Wood was when he won the Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake last year.

“She is what I call a `lucky lady,'” Fukae laughed. “I had a terrible practice here. I did not find very many good fish. But when I got her for a co-angler, I know she brings very good luck! And today I caught almost 19 pounds. I wish she could fish with me the next two days.”

Fukae secured a limit by finesse-fishing early. Then he moved to creek channels where he caught two 4-pounders on a Carolina rig, which bolstered his limit.

Williams fifth

Jerry Williams of nearby Conway, Ark., is in fifth place with a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 10 ounces.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros in the FLW Series BP Eastern event on Lake Dardanelle:

6th: Tommy Martin of Hemphill, Texas, five bass, 17-7

7th: David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., five bass, 16-15

8th: Terry Bolton of Paducah, Ky., five bass, 16-9

8th: Marty Sisk of Evansville, Ind., five bass, 16-9

10th: Greg Ault of Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 15-15

10th: Jason Meninger of Gainesville, Ga., five bass, 15-15

Hand leads co-anglers

Ben Hand of Memphis, Tenn., is leading the Co-angler Division of the FLW Series on Lake Dardanelle with five bass weighing 13 pounds, 7 ounces.

Chapman, Weisinger close behind

Terry Chapman of Stanley, N.C., is in second place with 13 pounds, 3 ounces.

“I fished with Kota Kiriyama today, and we both had a great day fishing together,” Chapman said. “We mostly fished shallow. I caught one good one on a jig and the rest of them on a ChatterBait. This place is perfect for a ChatterBait – stained water and grass – it’s my kind of fishing.”

Jerry Weisinger of Wyandotte, Okla., fished with pro Sam Bass today to collect 13 pounds, 1 ounce for third place.

“Once I got my limit at about 1 o’clock, I quit fishing out of respect for Sam,” Weisinger said. “He’s got to get two more days out of those fish, so I laid off.”

Weisinger noted he caught his fish on a 3/8-ounce Eakins jig and 3/8-ounce spinnerbait.

Rest of the best

James Richardson of Harrison, Ohio, is in fourth place with five bass weighing 13 pounds.

Bob Bjorklund of Centennial, Colo., is in fifth place with five bass weighing 12 pounds, 10 ounces.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers in the FLW Series BP Eastern on Lake Dardanelle:

6th: Bud Strader of Rockwood, Tenn., four bass, 12-6

7th: Robert Horick of St. Petersburg, Fla., four bass, 12-3

8th: Mark Vos of White Heath, Ill., five bass, 12-2

9th: Kevin Koone of Greenbrier, Ark., four bass, 12-1

10th: Mike Jones of Lebanon, Mo., four bass, 11-8

10th: Kevin Thomas of Miramar, Fla., four bass, 11-8

Big bass

Eugene Moore of Little Rock, Ark., caught the day-one Snickers Big Bass in the Co-angler Division. The lunker weighed 6 pounds, 1 ounce.

Day two of the Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern event begins Thursday at 6:30 a.m. CDT at Lake Dardanelle State Park.