Quick Bites: FLW Tour, Lake Martin, Day 1

Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Tour Stop #3
Lake Martin, Alexander City, Ala.
Day 1, Opening Round

A lesson well-learned … Lexington, S.C., angler Ricky Shumpert brought in a whale of a stringer today. He topped the Pro Division with a five-fish weight of 16 pounds, 8 ounces, beating runner-up Greg Carpenter (five fish, 14 pounds, 1 ounce) of Royal, Ark., by over 2 pounds. Shumpert found some big fish today and decided he wasn’t going to hold back even though he knew he probably only needed about 11 pounds to break the top 10 – and for good reason. At the FLW tournament at Lake Okeechobee, Fla., in January, Shumpert eased into eighth place on day one with a middling weight of 14 pounds, 5 ounces. He had saved some of the bigger fish at his location as kickers for day two. However, when he returned to the spot the next day, the fish absolutely refused to bite. He landed only one bass weighing 2 pounds, 2 ounces the second day, fell out of contention and missed the cut. So today when he found that he was on some bigger fish, Shumpert fished as hard as he could to land them. He had learned his lesson. “I decided I’m not going to do that again,” he said.

Konnichiha … This Wal-Mart FLW tournament marks the world’s first attempt to bridge the Pacific Ocean with bass fishing. At Operation Bass’ invitation, four anglers from Japan’s professional bass fishing tournament circuit are competing this week at Lake Martin in the Co-Angler Division. In exchange, several FLW anglers will go to Japan next fall to fish in one of their pro tournaments. Operation Bass President Charlie Hoover said it is an exchange program, of sorts, aimed at linking the American pro bass fishing scene with the Japanese version, which is hugely popular over there. “There are mobs of people at their weigh-ins over there,” Hoover said. “Our pro anglers are treated like rock stars by the fans.” … There may be good reason for the acclaim Japanese bass anglers receive in their homeland. Simply put, they’re excellent fishermen. After day one, three of the Japanese co-anglers finished in the top 50, including Nariaki Narita who placed eighth with five fish weighing 8 pounds, 5 ounces. Narita was one of only seven co-anglers to weigh in a full five-fish stringer today. … Speaking of Japan, a tip of the hat needs to go to pro angler Takahiro Omori, who weighed in a good five-fish sack and finished in 20th place today. Omori, a Japanese native who now resides in Emory, Texas, is a six-year veteran of the FLW Tour’s Pro Division and deserves credit as one of the key trailblazers in Japanese-American bass fishing relations.

Also on the trailblazing front … Mary Parnell of Casselberry, Fla., has found herself in seventh place in the Co-Angler Division after day one. She was the only lady angler in either division to crack the top 10 today. And she she the potential to go the distance. She already has two FLW co-angler top-10 finishes under her belt.

Big hawg … Notorious pro Johnny McCombs of Morris, Ala., made headlines last month for blowing the win at the FLW event in D’Iberville, Miss., because he returned late to the final-round weigh-in; but he’s making different headlines here at Lake Martin. He won today’s $750 Big Bass award with a 5-pound, 13-ounce largemouth – the second time in as many FLW tournaments that he has captured the award. Last month he crushed the field on day two with a 7-pound, 14-ounce bass, which was no small feat considering it was a tournament where a 2-pound fish was considered a great catch. Today he landed in 17th place with only three fish weighing 9 pounds, 11 ounces – including the Big Bass. Look out for the young McCombs this week. He’s fishing well; his name is sprinkled all over the respective leaderboards of FLW events over the last year or so. And it appears he has bounced right back from the crushing disappointment of a month ago.

Quick Number:

10: The number of times estimated by Johnny McCombs, in good humor, that he checked his watch today.

Sound Bites:

“By a miracle.”
– 129th-place finisher Brad Peterson of Benton, Tenn., when asked how he caught his one fish that weighed a mere 14 ounces – a near-record low today in the Co-Angler Division. If true, it would appear that Peterson has cornered the market on miracles. In 1997 he was a multi-million-dollar winner in the Georgia State Lottery.

“I learned that `Get the net!’ was the same in Japanese as it is in English.”
– Pro Larry Carpenter, who fished with co-angler Mitsuhiro Handa of Japan today, when asked about his day. Handa placed 40th while Carpenter placed 69th.

“I’ve been here five days and I absolutely don’t have a clue.”
– Pro Jerry Williams of Conway, Ark., when asked how he was fishing the changing conditions at Lake Martin. He finished day one in 104th place.

Quick Links, Day 1:

Pro Shumpert takes early lead at Lake Martin tourney
Results
Photos
Press release