BENTON, Ky. – Pro David Fritts of Lexington, N.C., hauled in 10 bass that weighed 34 pounds, 9 ounces over two days to lead the opening round of the four-day, $900,000 Wal-Mart FLW Tour event presented by Pedigree on Kentucky Lake. He leads the list of 200 pros who fished for two days for one of 10 slots in Friday and Saturday’s competition, and the final 10 will duke it out in the final rounds for a top pro award of $100,000 cash.
Fritts caught five bass Wednesday that weighed 20 pounds, 12 ounces to sit in the No. 1 spot after day one, and he followed that up Thursday with another five bass that weighed 13 pounds, 13 ounces to lead by a 1-pound, 9-ounce margin.
Competitors again eluded rain and storms Thursday, but cloud cover continued to make the fishing tough on Kentucky and Barkley lakes. “It was a lot tougher today,” said Fritts, who won the FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake in 1997. “The fish have been biting later in the day. I only had two by 11:30 this morning, and I was about to hit the panic button. The cloud cover hurt today; if it had been sunny, it would have been a lot better.”
Fritts led the tournament a second consecutive day despite losing quality fish during both competition days. “I lost two more good ones this morning,” he said. “I should have had 27 pounds yesterday. I did catch seven keepers; I just sort of messed around. I fished a lot of what I did yesterday, but I looked a lot, too.”
Fritts is catching his fish in 8 to 12 feet of water cranking a Rapala DT series crankbait, historically his most productive lure. “I’d like to have 25 pounds tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in this lake. Lake Eufaula and this lake are my two favorite lakes.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Shinichi Fukae of Osaka, Japan (10 bass, 33 pounds); Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C. (10 bass, 32 pounds, 6 ounces); Yamaha pro Alton Jones of Waco, Texas (10 bass, 31 pounds, 12 ounces); and Terry Segraves of Kissimmee, Fla. (10 bass, 31 pounds, 7 ounces).
Team Yamaha angler Frank Divis Sr. of Fayetteville, Ark., leads the 200-angler Co-angler Division thanks to a two-day total of eight bass that weighed 22 pounds, 12 ounces. The top 10 co-anglers based on their accumulated opening-round weight will compete Friday, after which the co-angler winner will receive $20,000 cash.
Divis – one of the tour’s most prolific co-anglers with seven FLW Tour top-10 finishes to his credit – vaulted from 51st place after day one to take the lead.
“The fish are anywhere from 8 to 12 feet deep, and we caught some spinnerbait fish really early this morning that weren’t big enough,” said Divis, who then pulled out his signature jig that he says has earned him most of his nearly $80,000 in winnings in FLW Outdoors events. “I’ve been using this jig for 10 years. I had a limit by 11:30 and was able to cull two or three. This is just a fantastic lake that’s full of big fish. If I’m deep (tomorrow), I think I can do something a little different to catch some fish. I’m just happy to be here. I blanked one day at Beaver Lake, my home lake, so here I just went for broke. The only way I could get into the championship was to get a top 20 here and at (the next FLW Tour stop) on Lake Champlain. I may wind up 10th tomorrow, but at least I got my points.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are day-one leader Stephen Tosh Jr. of Waterford, Calif. (eight bass, 22 pounds, 3 ounces); Greg Gulledge of Monticello, Ark. (eight bass, 21 pounds, 9 ounces); Jeff Stegner of Fair Grove, Mo. (nine bass, 20 pounds, 7 ounces); and David Hudson of Jasper, Ala. (eight bass, 19 pounds, 14 ounces).
Just missing the top-10 cut was local favorite and 2003 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year Dan Morehead of Paducah, who finished 11th with a two-day total of 29 pounds, 14 ounces – 1 ounce shy of the 10th-place weight. Also missing the cut on the co-angler side by a mere ounce was 16-year-old angler Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. Blaylock was fishing his first career FLW Tour event.
Marty Fourkiller of Sylva, N.C., earned $750 Thursday as the Snickers Big Bass winner in the Pro Division with a 7-pound, 15-ounce bass. Divis took co-angler Snickers Big Bass honors and $500 with a 6-pound, 7-ounce bass. Fourkiller also earned $1,000 from Snickers for catching the heaviest bass of the tournament. Snickers will award an additional $5,000 at the end of the year to the angler who catches the heaviest bass during the regular season. Currently that mark belongs to Yamaha pro Dean Rojas of Grand Saline, Texas, who caught a 10-pound largemouth on Lake Okeechobee in January.
Weights are cleared for Friday’s competition, and anglers will take off at 8 a.m. from Kentucky Dam Marina in Gilbertsville. Saturday’s takeoff will also be held there beginning at 6:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 310 W. Fifth St. in Benton beginning at 5 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively.
The community is encouraged to attend the Family Fun Zone Friday and Saturday outside the weigh-in tent in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Family Fun Zone features interactive displays, product samples and games for the entire family to enjoy. The Fun Zone will open Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m.
In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. Two hundred points are awarded to tournament winners, with 199 for second, 198 for third, and so on. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points.
Coverage of the Kentucky Lake tournament will be broadcast to 65 million subscribers of the Outdoor Life Network on the “FLW Outdoors” television program. A tournament preview show featuring bass-fishing legend Hank Parker will air May 30 at 1 p.m. Eastern time and June 3 at 5 p.m. Eastern time, and fishing fans can watch the tournament weigh-in with hosts Carlton Wing, Taylor Carr and Charlie Evans June 6 at 1 p.m. and June 10 at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Tournament veteran Larry Nixon will host a tournament wrap-up show June 13 at 1 p.m. Eastern time, and that show will re-air June 17 at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
The winner of the FLW Tour stop on Kentucky Lake will also be featured on “FLW Outdoors Presented by Wal-Mart” on Sunday from 9-11 a.m. Eastern time. The cutting-edge radio program hosted by Keith Lebowitz and Tony Casillas is broadcast live on the World Wide Web at FLWOutdoors.com. The show is also broadcast throughout Texas and parts of Oklahoma on Fox Sports 1190 AM KFXR in Dallas. Listeners who would like to ask a question of any show guest can e-mail the question to [email protected].
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, the Wal-Mart FLW Tour is administered by FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing. Other FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails are the EverStart Series, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour, the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League and the Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its six tournament trails. Wal-Mart has been the title sponsor of FLW Outdoors since 1997.