The checkered flag is out
Wal-Mart FLW Tour anglers make one last pass around Lake Norman
CONCORD, N.C. – As they say on the final lap of a NASCAR race: The checkers are out.
The top 10 pros in the Wal-Mart FLW Tour National Guard Open headed out for their last lap on Lake Norman Sunday morning.
Leading by a car length is one of the wily veterans of the sport, Chevy pro Larry Nixon, who was feeling good about his chances today.
“I’m going to a different area this morning to work on a limit first,” Nixon said of his final-lap plan. “It’s not the area I’ve been catching the best quality in, but I want a few keepers in the box to get me settled down. Then I’m going to go to where the bigger ones have been biting. If I can get 11 or 12 pounds today, I’ll feel good.
“My goal coming into this event was consistency. I wanted to post 12 pounds per day. So far, so good. But I’ve got one more round to go. If one of these guys catches a big 16- or 17-pound bag, then so be it. I just want my 12.”
Down the dock, local favorites Hank Cherry and Bryan Thrift, longtime fishing friends, consoled each other about missing the five-fish mark yesterday.
“I can’t remember the last time I didn’t weigh in a limit in a tournament on this lake,” Thrift lamented. “And it had to be in the finals of the FLW.”
“That same thought haunted me all night,” Cherry said. “When was the last time I couldn’t produce a limit here? Unreal.”
But don’t count these two guys out, yet. They know where the big ones live on Norman, and either one is capable of getting a run on Nixon going into turn four.
The last lap has begun. See who crosses the start-finish line first today when the final weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. on FLW Live at FLWOutdoors.com.
If you want to see the weigh-in in person, come to the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center located at 4751 Highway 49 N. in Concord, N.C. The free Family Fun Zone begins at noon, and the final weigh-in begins a 4 p.m.
Sunday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:33 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 60 degrees
Expected high temperature: 81 degrees
Water temperature: 70-72 degrees
Forecasted winds: WNW at 15 to 25 mph
Day’s outlook: sunny and breezy