SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER, La. – The Red River has been good to Craig Powers over the last two years. On Saturday, the Rockwood, Tenn., native landed his first Wal-Mart FLW Tour victory and $100,000 on the river with five bass weighing 14 pounds, 11 ounces, and last season the river provided his previous best finish-a third place showing at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this win,” said Powers, who finished in the top 10 on four other occasions. “It has been a long time coming.”
Powers advanced to the semifinal round of 10 competitors Thursday in fourth place with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 28 pounds, 9 ounces. He then qualified for the five-man final round in second place after catching five bass weighing 13 pounds, 1 ounce Friday. He caught his winning limit of bass Saturday by flipping a jig into flooded timber in shallow oxbows.
“I had one little shoot where I got every quality bite since I’ve been here,” Powers said. “Then the river came up 4 inches overnight and instead of a little current, I had a lot of current. That allowed me to extend my pattern into another oxbow where I caught three real good fish.”
Second place in the $500,000 event presented by ALPO Pet Foods went to Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., who won $35,000 with five bass weighing 13 pounds, 15 ounces. This was VanDam’s third second place finish in as many top-five appearances. He finished second on Lake St. Clair in 1999 and on Lake Okeechobee in 2001.
Bill Chapman of Salt Rock, W.Va., took third place and $20,000 with five bass weighing 13 pounds, 2 ounces, while Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn., finished fourth and collected $16,000 with five bass weighing 10 pounds, 1 ounces. Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., finished fifth and earned $14,000 with three bass weighing 4 pounds.
Horton won the Energizer “Keeps on Going” award for the greatest comeback during the event. He fought back from 23rd place on opening day to qualify for the final round in third place. Chapman earned the Conseco “Step Up” award for the highest finish of his career and the Shop-Vac “High Performance” award for the heaviest total of bass over the first three days of competition-42 pounds, 15 ounces.
Competition began Wednesday with 350 anglers from 36 states competing in two divisions, pro and co-angler. 20-year-old Brandon Ledford of Rome, Ga., won $15,000 and a year’s supply of CITGO gasoline Friday with five bass weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces that he caught while fishing with Chapman.
The sixth stop on the seven-event Wal-Mart FLW Tour is the Forrest Wood Open June 20-23 on Lake St. Clair in Detroit, Mich. The tournament presented by Kellogg’s features a $1 million purse with $200,000 going to the winning pro.