COLUMBIA, S.C. – It was cold, it was cloudy, and it was windy. Then it was warmer, sunny and calm. Then it was windy and cold again. No matter. Most of the top anglers from day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Chevy Open kept their roll going at Lake Murray despite the fussy weather on day two. Pro Tim Carroll managed to hold onto the lead by catching a huge kicker largemouth that weighed 9 pounds, 10 ounces by itself – and that wasn’t even the biggest bass of the day.
Carroll – the pro from Owasso, Okla., who led Wednesday with a five-bass limit weighing an astonishing 28 pounds, 1 ounce – wrapped up the opening round Thursday with a two-day total of 44-9, topping the rest of the pro field by over 2 1/2 pounds. Carroll caught 16-8 today, but that weight, amazingly, came from just three bass.
“Actually, I struggled a little bit today, and I didn’t go to my best water,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to tomorrow.”
In fact, Carroll’s struggles might have been more a strategic move than anything else. He established such an outstanding weight on day one – which tied for fourth-heaviest one-day catch in FLW Tour history – that he spent the early part of the day fishing new water. Around 10 a.m., he caught his first fish and it was a doozy: 9 pounds, 10 ounces. After that, he caught a couple more keepers and decided to call it a day so he could save some for the final round.
“I like it when the sun’s out. The clouds hurt me a little bit today, but once the sun popped out, they started eating again,” he said. “After I caught that last one, I thought, `That’ll do it.'”
Carroll is fishing a pattern that doesn’t seem especially unusual, given his second-day description of it. He’s throwing what he called “just a silly old jig,” a ¾-ounce football-head, on 17-pound fluorocarbon line into deep water around points and rock piles. The key, he said, is the depth at which he’s fishing, which he understandably didn’t yet reveal. He has five solid main-lake fishing areas where he’s confident he can catch good bass, and after today’s big catch, he’s added a sixth.
“I’ve seen a lot of guys fishing what I’m fishing, but their boats are sitting on top of where they should be fishing,” said Carroll, explaining that other boats in his areas have been fishing a little too shallow to effectively target the same fish he’s on. “This pattern’s held up for two weeks. With the way I’m fishing, it should just get better every day.”
Carroll, a fourth-year pro, has made his first FLW Tour top-10 cut in grand fashion and was excited about finally breaking through to the finals. Like many pros this week, he looks forward not just to the chance to fish for $200,000 but also for the opportunity to keep going after the ridiculously large fish in this lake with most of the competition out of the way.
“It has obviously been a goal of mine to make the cut, if not win one of these things,” he said. “So I’m tickled to death.”
Gags second, staring down the home stretch
Hometown favorite Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C., rounded up a limit weighing 15 pounds even Thursday and held on to the second-place pro position with a weight of 41-14 despite a rough start to his day.
“I didn’t catch these fish until about 2:30 today. I fished a lot of new areas without success, and then I ended up fishing my best areas to catch these fish,” he said.
Gagliardi tried to start the day by fishing shallower than he did on day one but found that the wind hampered his efforts. By afternoon, with a light 9 pounds or so in his livewell, he decided that he had to go back to the well that coughed up a big portion of his 26-14 weight on day one.
“Yeah, I was a little worried,” he said. “I thought I could catch enough shallow to make the cut, but it didn’t work. So we ran back to where (co-angler) Judy (Israel) and I caught all those fish yesterday.”
Gagliardi said he’s caught the bulk of his good bass on jigs and drop-shots with a 4-inch finesse worm in water as deep as 35 feet.
“Plus, I’m throwing something else that I’d rather not mention,” he said. “It’s not a big secret around here, but it’s working for me.”
Segraves slides up to third
In fourth place Wednesday, pro Terry Segraves of Kissimmee, Fla., moved up into third Thursday with an opening-round weight of 40 pounds, 14 ounces. He caught a limit on day two worth 18-11.
“I’ve got a little crankbait bite going,” he said. “The last time I was here (in 2003 FLW competition), I caught 26 pounds on the first day and didn’t catch a fish the second day. So, hopefully, I do a little better this time around.”
Segraves caught his fish in shallow main-lake pockets on a Lure Jensen Speed Trap. A number of anglers are saying the bass are itching to come up and spawn, even with the cold weather. Segraves seemed to be taking advantage of those fish that have started to brave the shallows.
“It’s surprising how shallow these fish are,” he said. “With that wind blowing, they were moving around today. It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, because that wind really moved them off the structure.”
Kindy climbs to fourth
Jeremiah Kindy of Benton, Ark., moved from sixth to fourth place on the pro side with an opening-round weight of 39 pounds, 9 ounces.
He caught his 18-pound, 5-ounce limit Thursday by sticking with a crankbait pattern even though the conditions shifted throughout the day.
“I’m just throwing a flat-sided crankbait on rocky points,” Kindy said. “We had three or four different weather changes today alone, but I’ve been kind of hard-headed about keeping that crankbait in my hand. I only caught six fish all day, but I kind of changed areas a little bit to protect my fish for tomorrow.”
Bosley bounces back big, takes fifth
With a catch of 26 pounds, 5 ounces buoyed by an 8 1/2-pound kicker largemouth, pro Brennan Bosley of Benton, Ark., posted the day’s biggest limit. He rebounded from 74th place Wednesday to qualify for the finals in fifth Thursday with a two-day weight of 37-10.
“I actually struggled this morning, but when that little front came through and the wind picked up, I just did what I know how to do,” he said. “I just went to the windiest bank I could find and started throwing a crankbait. It seemed like there were fish on every little point I could find. It was just a run-and-gun thing.
“I had been catching them big in practice, but I lost an 8(-pounder) and a 5 yesterday. I did the same thing. It just worked today, and I didn’t lose them.”
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros to make the cut at Lake Murray:
6th: Katsutoshi Furusawa, Tokyo, Japan, 10 bass, 37-5
7th: Clifford Pirch, Payson, Ariz., 10 bass, 36-5
8th: Matt Herren, Trussville, Ala., 10 bass, 35-15
9th: David Smith, Del City, Okla., 10 bass, 35-9
10th: David Wolak, Warrior Run, Pa., 10 bass, 34-9
Jordon lands potential bass of the year
In general, like Wednesday, the bass remained big and burly as they crossed the scale Thursday. The pros caught 111 limits, many of which contained fish weighing more than 5 pounds.
Danny Correia set a hefty big-bass mark Wednesday at 9 pounds, 5 ounces that seemed impressive until Carroll came in with his 9-10 kicker Thursday.
Then Kelly Jordon of Mineola, Texas, quashed all debate by catching a 9-14 largemouth that won the day’s $750 Snicker’s Big Bass award in the Pro Division, $1,000 for big bass of the tournament and will likely win the $5,000 award for biggest bass of the year. Jordon said that he caught the fish on a crankbait.
Thrift leads co-anglers by over 9 1/2 pounds
Bryan Thrift’s luck just keeps on running. The co-angler from Shelby, N.C., posted a four-bass weight of 13 pounds, 15 ounces and extended his lead to almost 10 pounds over the rest of the field with an opening-round total of 33-6.
“I’m still doing the same thing,” said Thrift, who fished with pro Tony Couch Thursday. “I’m throwing a 1/2-ounce Outlaw jig with a Zoom Big Salty chunk on 20-pound Berkley Vanish.”
Thrift said he caught his kicker fish, a 7-pound largemouth, on his fourth cast today.
“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I caught it, then I caught another one shortly after that. Then it slowed down considerably. Later I got four bites, caught two of them and lost two.”
David Brunaugh of Carbondale, Ill., qualified for the co-angler finals in second place with an opening-round weight of 23 pounds, 12 ounces.
Co-angler Mike Devere of Berea, Ky., placed third with a two-day weight of 23 pounds, 5 ounces.
Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., placed fourth for the co-anglers with a weight of 21 pounds, 10 ounces.
Charles Ward of Greer, S.C., rounded out the top five co-anglers with 21 pounds, 6 ounces.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers to make the cut at Lake Murray:
6th: Matthew Parker, Whitesburg, Ga., 20-8
7th: Judy Israel, Clewiston, Fla., 19-15
8th: Sondra Rankin, Paducah, Ky., 19-12
9th: Ken Murphy, Meridian, Miss., 19-10
10th: Mark Cummings, Pembroke, N.C., 19-4
The co-anglers caught 32 five-bass limits Thursday.
Day three of competition at Lake Murray begins as the 10 pros and 10 co-anglers take off from Jakes Landing at 7 a.m. Eastern time Friday for the second half of competition. The co-anglers will wrap up competition Friday while the pros are fishing the first half of a two-day final round.
For this tournament, the top award for the winning pro is $200,000. The winning co-angler will earn $40,000.