Defoe defeats fog
Tennessee pro makes best of short day for Stren Series lead on Gaston
BRACEY, Va. – With just five hours to fish on day two thanks to a three-hour fog delay Thursday morning, Ott Defoe of Knoxville, Tenn., averaged about one keeper bass per hour to take the lead in the Stren Series Northern event on Lake Gaston.
Defoe had just four bass in his livewell this afternoon with about 10 minutes left to fish when he made the cast that made the difference.
“I had to check in at 3:10, and at 2:55 I pulled up to a little spot my co-angler showed me yesterday, made one cast and caught that 6-pounder,” Defoe recounted.
His kicker fish actually weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces and not only won the Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division, but also anchored his 14-pound, 10-ounce limit, which put him in the lead with a two-day total of 30 pounds, 1 ounce.
“I started with a topwater again this morning, but they were not eating as well as they did yesterday, and I missed a couple,” Defoe said. “So I switched to a Senko and went back through the area, and it made a difference – I boated three keepers.”
Defoe continued to use the Senko the rest of the day to boat his final two keepers, including the big bass.
Wright moves to second
David Wright of Lexington, N.C., kept grinding his crankbait in 10 to 12 feet of 
water today to catch 13 pounds, 3 ounces and move into second with a two-day total of 28 pounds, 4 ounces.
“I caught about a dozen keepers today, and here’s the bait I caught them all on,” said Wright, candidly displaying a Zoom 300-E crankbait. “I can just about guarantee that no one in the tournament has one of these – it’s too old.”
The crankbait master is focusing his efforts on offshore cover.
“Sometimes when I catch one, it pulls the rest of the fish off the cover,” he added. “I know that’s what is happening, because on the very next cast after catching one, I’ll get bit right at the boat instead of down in the cover. That tells me those fish are following the hooked fish to the boat.”
Baumgardner third
Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., holds down the third-place position with a two-day total of 25 pounds, 7 ounces.
The Snickers pro backed up his 15-pound, 12-ounce catch from yesterday with 9 pounds, 11 ounces today.
“I started on my topwater fish for about 30 minutes this morning, and it just didn’t feel right,” he said. “So I moved into the back of a little creek that’s holding a bunch of small fish, and I banged out five on a ChatterBait.”
The ChatterBait has been Baumgardner’s go-to lure this year. He used the unique “cranking jig” to win the Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on the Potomac and has collected a few other nice checks on it as well.
“It’s just a big-time confidence bait for me right now,” he said. “I look for the right water to use it, and it works. I’d hate to see where I would be in the standings without it.”
Powroznik sight-fishes for fourth
Bounty pro Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va., weighed in the heaviest 
limit today – 15 pounds, 12 ounces – to move into fourth place with a two-day total of 23 pounds, 3 ounces.
Powroznik said he is “sight-fishing,” but not the springtime type of bed fishing; rather, he is seeing bass cruising the shallows.
“The ones I’m catching are cruising the shallows, feeding on bream,” Powroznik said. “They hunt in little wolf packs that have about four or five bass per pack. The key is to get one of the fish to bite. Once you do that, it fires the rest of the group up, and I can catch another fish or two from the pack.”
To catch the cruisers, Powroznik is employing a small ¼-ounce jig.
“I’ll see the fish from a long way off, make a long cast to them and then swim the jig right in front of them. It takes some time to get one to commit to it, but once the group gets turned on, they all start eating.”
Wilks fifth
Rounding out the top five pros is Dustin Wilks of Rocky Mount, N.C., with a two-day total of 23 pounds, 10 ounces.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros in the Stren Series Northern Division event on Lake Gaston after day two:
6th: Vic Vatalaro of Kent, Ohio, two-day total of 23-3
7th: Joel Richardson of Kernersville, N.C., two-day total of 22-7
8th: Bill Chapman of Salt Rock, W.Va., two-day total of 22-1
9th: Joe Balog of Harrison Township, Ohio, two-day total of 21-13
10th: Tommy Farley of Colonial Heights, Va., two-day total of 21-10
Crowder leads co-anglers
Kermit Crowder of Matoaca, Va., leads the Co-angler Division of the Stren Series event on Lake Gaston with a two-day total of 22 pounds, 5 ounces.
Crowder fished with Bill Chapman of Salt Rock, W.Va., to bag four fish for 12 pounds, 14 ounces today.
“Let me just say that my pro today, Bill Chapman, is a fine gentleman – a true class act,” Crowder said. “His sponsors ought to be proud to have him on their teams – he is a tremendous representation of what this sport is about.”
Richardson rests in second
James Richardson Sr. of Harrison, Ohio, a co-angler who is always snooping around the top-10 cut, is in second place with a two-day total of 21 pounds, 2 ounces.
Richardson caught four bass weighing 13 pounds, 9 ounces while fishing with pro J. Todd Tucker today.
“I fished with a super guy today,” Richardson said. “J. Todd held the boat in a perfect 
position along a ledge so I could fish it too. I caught my four bass on jigs and crankbaits.”
Rest of the best
Day one leader, Gary Guilliams of Troutville, Va., slid back to third place today with a two-day total of 17 pounds, 15 ounces.
Lynn Baciuska of Afton, N.Y., is in fourth place after boating the Snickers Big Bass in the Co-angler Division that weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces. He now has a two-day total of 16 pounds, 8 ounces.
John Shultz of Trucksville, Pa., is in fifth place with a two-day total of 15 pounds, 10 ounces.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers in the Stren Series Northern Division event on Lake Gaston after day two:
6th: Edward Piwonski of Granby, Conn., two-day total of 15-8
7th: Paul Mueller of Southbury, Conn., two-day total of 14-10
8th: Glenn Stephenson of Willow Springs, N.C., two-day total of 14-8
9th: Jerry Hayden of Charlotte, N.C., two-day total of 14-7
10th: Jason Sherwood of Damascus, Md., two-day total of 13-13
Rat fishing
In his many of years of bumping and checking fish for FLW Outdoors, tournament staff member Duane Link has seen more than his share of shad, bream and crawfish that have been regurgitated by bass in weigh-in bags.
But today Link got a bit of a surprise when he dumped one angler’s fish into the bump tank and discovered one of the bass had spit up a large rat.
The half-digested rat, which came from about a 2 1/2-pound bass, was a bit gruesome to look at, but for those who are infatuated with what bass will eat, it was an interesting discovery.
Day three of the Stren Series event on Lake Gaston begins Thursday morning at 7 at Americamps, located at 9 Lakeside Lane Bracey, Va.