Quick Bites: FLW Lake Murray, Day 2
Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Lake Murray, Columbia, S.C.
Opening round, Thursday
Record rundown … Several FLW Tour firsts and near-records were recorded at Lake Murray Thursday:
– Pro Darrel Robertson set the opening-round, two-day weight record with 49 pounds, 8 ounces. He eclipsed the mark of 47-5 set by Peter Thliveros in 1998 at Kentucky Lake.
– Pro Stanley Mitchell‘s five-bass weight of 28-1 Thursday became the third-heaviest one-day stringer recorded on tour. The top two weights are Jeff Coble‘s 29-6 at Santee Cooper in 1996 and Joe Thomas‘ 28-7 at Kentucky Lake in 1997.
– Two women made the cut past the opening round in the same tournament. Pamela Wood and Laura Aldridge placed first and eighth, respectively, after the first two days of Co-angler Division competition. Thursday, Wood became the third female angler ever to lead an FLW tournament (co-anglers Beverly Little, Pascagoula River, 2001, and Judy Israel, Lake Champlain, 2002, were the first two) and the fourth to make the top 10.
– All four Snickers Big-Bass awards – pro and co-angler on days one and two – went to bass weighing over 9 pounds. Thursday, Bud Pruitt collected the pro big bass with a 9-3 and John Ax won the co-angler award for a 9-2. Wednesday, pro Dave Lefebre won with a 9-1 and co-angler Greg Scott won with a whopping 9-10.
Rain? What rain? … Yes, despite heavy thunderstorms in the morning, FLW anglers managed to go out onto Lake Murray Thursday and top the eye-popping weights posted Wednesday. While 13 pros caught stringers weighing over 20 pounds on day one, 18 of them broke the 20-pound barrier on day two. On day one, the pros and co-anglers caught 966 bass for a total weight of 2,743-10. On day two, they caught exactly 1,000 bass for a weight of 2,937-8.
Robertson’s record revealed … Leading the heavy charge, of course, was past FLW and Ranger M1 champion Darrel Robertson. He was proud of the 26-13 weight Wednesday that anchored his record-setting opening-round total. “That’s the biggest stringer I’ve ever caught in a tournament. I think my best before this was 19 pounds. (Actually, it was 19-2, also at Lake Murray, incidentally, in 2000.) Here, I beat that two days in a row,” he said. Amazingly, Robertson said that he could have posted even more weight had he not broken off a big bass Wednesday. “Yeah, I lost a 7- or 8-pounder yesterday,” he said. “But I guess (the opening-round record) is some consolation. I am very pleased with it.”
Morehead moves up … Dan Morehead officially took control of the top spot in the pro standings by making the cut this week, overtaking Gary Klein, who finished in 73rd place. Morehead’s going to be hard to beat the rest of the way, too, because the next three tournaments are just about tailor-made for his style of fishing. In the last three years, he hasn’t finished worse than 28th place at Beaver Lake, and he practically knows exactly where every fish lives in Kentucky Lake, his home lake where he has won numerous tournaments at every level of FLW Outdoors competition. Plus, he likes his chances at Wheeler Lake. “Wheeler definitely suits my style, which is deep-water fishing,” he said. Still, he claimed he’s not too worried about his prospects for Angler of the Year – yet. “You try not to dwell on it too much,” Morehead said. “Nothing is automatic.”
Sub, uh, marine homesick blues … While 10th-place pro Stanley Mitchell reveled in his near-record stringer, another pro, Anthony Gagliardi, felt its pain. Gagliardi finished 11th Thursday, just 1 ounce behind Mitchell, and missed the cut. Making matters worse, Murray is Gagliardi’s home lake. “The fish are about to move up to spawn,” he said. “I would have had a good chance to do well (if I made the cut) because I know the areas along the bank where they spawn.” But the crowning blow came when he lost a 5-pound bass Wednesday that would have put him over the edge. “Yeah, I’m disappointed,” he said. “Oh well, I hope we come back here next year.”
Comebacks of the day … Go to Mitchell, who went from a weight of 6-15 Wednesday to 28-1 Thursday and made the cut; J.T. Kenney, who went from 1-8 to 21-0; Carl Svebek, who went from 0-13 to 21-6; and Johnny McCombs, who went from 0-0 to 23-3. Said Kenney, who was spanked on day one by co-angler partner Laura Aldridge: “I just took Laura’s advice and did what she told me to do.”
Quick numbers
35-0: Opening-round weight needed to make the pro cut at 2003 Lake Murray. The FLW top-10 cut record weight is 37-7.
24-9: Weight needed to collect a check in the Pro Division. That’s the 75th-place weight.
9: Number of bass, out of 10 keepers, landed by Darrel Robertson over the first two days that were caught on a crankbait borrowed from fellow pro Wesley Burnett.
Quick links, Day 2:
Photos
Results
Tomorrow’s pairings
Press release
Robertson sets FLW record on Lake Murray