Clark Takes Co-Angler Crown on Cumberland
First-year co-angler come from behind
Jeff Clark spent the entire weigh-in Friday at the FLW Tour event at Lake Cumberland presented by T-H Marine thinking about the five-pound smallmouth he lost 25 minutes before he and his day two partner, Bono, Ark. pro Kerry Milner, had to be at the tournament check-in.
“I thought losing that fish was what was going to lose the whole thing for me,” the Fort Smith, Ark. resident admits. “I was pretty nervous.”
He shouldn’t have been. Even without the lost fish, Clark’s day two bag of three bass for 9 pounds, 2 ounces made his 20-pound, 1-ounce two-day total enough – just – to edge out Frank Divis, Sr.’s 19-8 and give Clark $20,100 and his first win as an FLW Tour co-angler.
Clark, who travels with FLW Tour pro Dylan Hays, fished with Ottawa, Ohio pro Kyle Weisenburger on day one, working the bank along creek arms off the main lake.
“Dylan and I caught them in practice on a crankbait,” says Clark. “But the water Kyle was fishing was cleaner so I threw a Megabass Vision 110 in western clown for the dingy water and Table Rock shad for the clean water. I caught four on that and then it got kind of still, so I picked up a wacky-rigged worm and caught my fifth one.”
On day two Clark fished with Milner, targeting small main-lake points and coves.
“With Kyle we were back in the creeks, but today we were on the lake fishing very small pockets and cuts. Any little thing that had a point we fished both sides,” says Clark.
Friday Clark threw a 4.3-inch Kietech Swing Impact FAT in rainbow shad, but switched to a green pumpkin Kietech later in the day as the water dirtied up.
Clark, who plans to fish the remainder of the FLW Tour events as a co-angler, says winning the co-angler title was definitely timely.
“My wife and I just made an offer on a house the day I left, so now we’ve got down payment and closing costs,” says Clark.