CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Eric Ambort of Mabelvale, Ark., caught a five-bass limit weighing 14 pounds even Friday to capture the lead in the Walmart FLW Tour’s $1.1 million National Guard Open on Lake Norman with a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 25-13. He now holds a slim 6-ounce lead in the tournament featuring 154 pros and 154 co-anglers from across the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan.
“I was in sixth place at this event two years ago, but fell off and got the last check,” said Ambort, who is in his third year of FLW Tour competition. “Last year I tried to just go fishing here and didn’t catch much. This feels great.”
Ambort said he has caught eight keepers each of the first two days of competition mostly by sight fishing with a six-inch Berkley PowerBait Hand Pour Finesse Worm that he said closely resembles the shad found in the lake and a soft plastic creature bait.
“This morning I went to an area that I had fished the past two years,” Ambort said. “I really struggled in practice to get a bite. I had decided I was going to mostly site fish during the event.
“I went back to one of those areas this morning because I didn’t have anything else to go to and had five fish when I left there at 9:30,” Ambort added.
Ambort said he doesn’t feel the fish he’s targeting have received heavy fishing pressure, but he isn’t attacking them aggressively.
“A lot of the ones I catch I have to back off of and let them relax and forget about me,” Ambort said. “I feel like of the eight keepers I’ve caught each day, at least two have been thrown at in some way.”
Ambort said he caught a 3 1/2-pounder on his last cast of the day on Thursday and had a similar situation occur on day two.
“I found one on the bed and was quite a ways from the ramp,” Ambort said. “I figured I had about 20 minutes to fish. The buck didn’t even bite. Maybe I’ll catch him tomorrow. But the good Lord blessed me with her today.”
Sean Hoernke of The Woodlands, Texas, advanced to the final round of 10 pros in the No. 2 spot with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 25-7.
“The whole deal here is converting on your big ones,” Hoernke said. “That’s why I fish new water every day. Last year, a lot of people said, `Well, he’s just going around and didn’t know what he was doing.’
“That’s not really the case,” Hoernke said. “There’s so many fish here of the same caliber, the deal is you just have to run and run and run until you find that one good one.”
Hoernke said fishermen who rely on pounding GPS waypoints deplete their fish and end up struggling in the Lake Norman event.
“I pushed `delete’ on my waypoints and went fishing,” Hoernke said. “That’s the key here. If you start running what you saw yesterday, you’re in trouble.
“I don’t think it matters if I fish in this cove or up by the river,” Hoernke added. “I’m going to find the big ones at the end of the day. Other guys are seeing them; I’ve just figured out a way to catch them.”
Rounding out the top five pros who will continue competition Saturday and Sunday are Keith Williams of Conway, Ark. (10 bass, 25-1); Team Berkley pro Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. (10 bass, 24-7); and Dale Evans of Summerville, S.C. (10 bass, 24-4).
Also clearing the top-10 cut weight of 22 pounds, 9 ounces and adding to this already power-packed top-10 field are Team Iams pro Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla.; Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn.; Team Snickers/M&M’s pro Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala.; Team BP pro Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minn.; and Day 1 leader Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va.
Montgomery earned the day’s $1,000 Folgers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 5-pound, 4-ounce bass.
Pros are competing for a top award of $200,000 this week plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol and BP, which will be held July 30-Aug. 2 on the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa., where they could win as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award.
Spencer Shuffield of Mablevale, Ark., leads the Co-angler Division with an opening-round total of 10 bass weighing 16 pounds, 11 ounces, followed by Dearal Rodgers of Camden, S.C., in second place with 10 bass weighing 16-8.
“We started out this morning and my pro had a limit in about an hour and I had three,” Shuffield said. “It was pretty slow the rest of the day.”
Shuffield said he targeted fish around docks with a wacky-rigged soft plastic stick bait, stumps with a shaky-head rig and used a jerkbait over points and down the sides of docks.
“I need to catch 8 pounds tomorrow, and if I catch five fish, I think I can do that,” Shuffield said. “I need the wind to blow tomorrow. If the wind will blow, I can catch a big sack.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Day 1 leader David Hudson of Jasper, Ala. (seven bass, 16-2); Jason Ober of Johnstown, Pa. (10 bass, 15-14) and Grant McPeters of Marion, N.C. (10 bass, 15-8).
Also clearing the top-10 cut weight of 12 pounds, 15 ounces in the Co-angler Division are Bob Bjorkland of Centennial, Colo.; David Lauer of South Bend, Ind.; Shane Lehew of Charlotte, N.C.; Jeff Freeman of Max Meadows, Va.; and Fred Martin of North Little Rock, Ark.
Bjorkland earned $500 for the day’s Folgers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 3-pound, 2-ounce bass he caught while fishing with Adam Postelle of Rocky Face, Ga.
Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $40,000 this week.
Anglers will take off at 7 a.m. Saturday and Sunday from Blythe Landing located at 15901 North Carolina Hwy. 73 in Huntersville, N.C. Saturday and Sunday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center located at 4751 Hwy. 49 North in Concord, N.C., beginning at 4 p.m.
In conjunction with the weigh-ins Saturday and Sunday, FLW Outdoors will host a free Family Fun Zone and outdoor show at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center beginning at noon each day. The Family Fun Zone offers fans a chance to meet their Fantasy Fishing team anglers face-to-face and review the latest products from Berkley, Lowrance, Ranger, Evinrude, Yamaha and other sponsors while children are treated to giveaways, fishing themed games and rides like the Ranger Boat simulator. Children 14 and under visiting the Family Fun Zone on Sunday will receive a free rod and reel combo while supplies last. One lucky member of the audience will even win a new Ranger boat during the final 4 p.m. weigh-in Sunday, April 26. Admission is free, and you must be present to win.
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. The full field competes in the two-day opening round for one of 10 slots in Saturday’s competition based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for day three, and co-angler competition concludes following Saturday’s weigh-in. The top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from days three and four.
The total purse for the National Guard Open event at Lake Norman is more than $1.1 million, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division.
Coverage of the tournament, hosted by the Charlotte Sports Commission, Visit Lake Norman, Visit Charlotte and Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau, will be broadcast on Versus, the network which brings anglers the best fishing programming on television featuring the most-trusted authorities on the water. The Emmy-nominated “FLW Outdoors,” will air May 31 from 12:30 to 1:30 ET. “FLW Outdoors,” hosted by Jason Harper, is also broadcast internationally through agreements with WFN (World Fishing Network) and Matchroom Sport to more than 429 million households in such countries as Canada, Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world.
The FLW Tour will award more than $8 million cash to the world’s top bass anglers in 2009. Regular season competition includes three qualifiers and three opens. Each event takes anglers a step closer to the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol, which will be held July 30-Aug. 2 on the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa. The prestigious championship and outdoor show hosted by Visit Pittsburgh will feature 77 pros, 77 co-anglers and bass fishing’s largest cash award – a potential $1 million first-place prize for the winning pro.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. FLW Outdoors also is taking fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports, $10 million in cash and prizes. Sign up for Player’s Advantage for only $10 to get your edge and win.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com