SHREVEPORT, La. – Dick Shaffer of Celina, Ohio, landed five bass weighing 14 pounds, 2 ounces Thursday to lead the 20th annual Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League All-American Championship on Cross Lake.
The impressive opening-day catch virtually guarantees Shaffer a spot in Saturday’s 10-angler final round, where he will fish for a top award of $100,000 cash.
“I feel pretty good, but I don’t know if I can duplicate this,” said Shaffer, who caught three bass over the lake’s restrictive 17-inch slot limit and two bass under the 14-inch limit. “I was targeting smaller fish, but I couldn’t find them. I went with a small bait, but my first fish was a 4-pounder.”
Shaffer said he fished structure in five different areas, but trees were his primary targets.
“I just got really lucky,” he said. “Five bites were all I had.”
Lucky or not, Shaffer holds a 2-pound, 2-ounce lead over second-place boater Greg Gutierrez of Red Bluff, Calif., who landed four bass weighing 12 pounds.
Maurice Freeze of Kannapolis, N.C., with five bass weighing 9 pounds, 4 ounces, is in third place; Jay Hulsey of Bourbon, Mo., is in fourth with five bass weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces; and Ricky Smith of Collinsville, Miss., is in fifth with five bass weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces.
Only the top 10 boaters following Friday’s weigh-in will advance to Saturday’s final round where competitors start from zero and fish for the heaviest five-bass limit.
Jeremy Ives of Burgaw, N.C., leads the Co-angler Division with three bass weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces. If his 1-pound, 15-ounce lead over second place co-angler Gary Fowler of Gordon, Ga., holds up Friday, Ives will win $50,000 cash. Fowler landed one bass weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces.
T.J. Edwards of Waldron, Ind., is in third place with two bass weighing 3 pounds, 14 ounces; Willard Norton of Jacksonville, Ala., is in fourth with two bass weighing 3 pounds, 10 ounces; and Randy Johnson of Hogansville, Ga., is in fifth with one bass weighing 3 pounds, 5 ounces.
Robert Ewick of Indianapolis is the boater big bass leader with a 4-pound, 6-ounce largemouth, and Gary Fowler is the co-angler big bass leader with a 4-pound, 4-ounce largemouth.
All-American qualifiers are the best anglers from the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League’s 22 divisions nationwide. Each competitor earned a berth in the All-American by finishing 30th or better in his division after four one-day qualifying tournaments and a two-day super tournament in 2001. Each boater and co-angler then finished eighth or better in one of five regional championships. A sixth (Western) regional advanced four boaters and co-anglers to the All-American, and six boaters and co-anglers who failed to qualify for a regional championship advanced through the Chevy Trucks Wild Card Regional.
Competition on Cross Lake resumes Friday at 7 a.m. at the American Legion Boat Ramp. Friday’s weigh-in starts at 3:30 p.m. at the L. Calhoun Allen Exposition Hall on Clyde Fant Parkway. Saturday’s final takeoff begins at 7 a.m. at the American Legion Boat Ramp, and the championship weigh-in starts at 2 p.m. at the exposition hall. Doors open to the public at noon Friday and Saturday. Admission is free. There are also free children’s games, sponsor giveaways and a free drawing for a fully rigged Ranger 216 B Cherokee bass boat.
The final weigh-in will be broadcast live as part of FLW Outdoors on the PAX TV network.
Sponsors of the 2002 Wal-Mart BFL are Wal-Mart, Alpo Pet Foods, BC Powder, BFGoodrich Tires, Castrol, Chevy Trucks, Coleman, Conseco, Energizer, EverStart Batteries, Evinrude, Faded Glory, Frito-Lay, FujiFilm, Garmin, Kellogg’s, Land O’Lakes, Minn Kota, Newell Rubbermaid, Pepsi, Poulan, Ranger Boats, Shop-Vac, Snickers, Stanley Works, Stren, US Bank, Weed Eater and Yamaha Outboards. Associate sponsors are Abu Garcia, Berkley, Eagle Claw, Laker, Maxwell House, Plano and Solar Bat.
The Shreveport Regional Sports Authority sponsors the Wal-Mart BFL All-American locally.