Bolton blows in with 20 ½, leads at home
All 10 pros catch limits in first half of Kentucky Lake finals
BENTON, Ky. – The wind screamed like a banshee Friday in the opening salvo of the final round of Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition at Kentucky Lake, which seemed to help local pro Terry Bolton as it generally held the big bass bite in check and gave him a good lead with 20 pounds, 9 ounces.
While it was sunny, the wind didn’t quell the bite so much as it stifled anglers’ attempts to reach and stay on good fish. All 10 of the pro finalists caught five-bass limits despite battling bow-smashing breakers all day thanks to the constant westerly breeze, but it did blow them around enough to keep most of them from being able to find the big ones. Bolton leads second-place Steve Kennedy and the rest of the bunched-up field by over 4 1/2 pounds.
Even Bolton, who hails from Paducah, Ky., and calls Kentucky and Barkley lakes his home water, had trouble with the windy conditions.
“It didn’t help any because it made positioning very difficult,” he said. “A lot of places that I wanted to fish, I just couldn’t fish them. I like the sun better than the clouds that we had the first two days, but I’d just like a little less wind so it would open up the lake. I didn’t even feel most of the bites I had today.”
Still, Bolton said, “I feel like a kid at school. I was just having a ball out there today doing what I know how to do. I was just going to a lot of places, hitting little key areas and going back to them again and again.”
Bolton fished Kentucky Lake Friday and it’s no real secret what he’s doing. A renowned deepwater angler, the local pro has made a name for himself by cranking big bass off ledges in this water. He has no fewer than 25 FLW Outdoors top-10 finishes at Kentucky Lake alone, including victories in Stren Series and Wal-Mart BFL competition.
Today, he said he didn’t catch anything on crankbaits, instead relying on a 5/8-ounce homemade jig with a green-pumpkin Zoom chunk trailer, a ¾-ounce spinnerbait and a 10 1/2-inch Zoom Old Monster worm. But he did stick to the ledges, targeting big bass that are moving out after the spawn.
“I think they’re staging, stopping off points,” he said. “I just happen to know one little sweet spot on a ledge, and I think they’ll be there all summer. I fished two places today that I haven’t fished all week. I can’t explain it; I `m just fishing really hard. And when the fish are doing what they’re doing right now, I don’t know, I’m just good at catching them.”
There’s little doubt about that. David Walker, who posted a sixth-place weight Friday said, “I think we’re all pretty much fishing for second place at this point. Terry’s got it.”
Still, for all his success here at home, Bolton has yet to clinch the big one, at Kentucky Lake or anywhere else. He has five previous FLW Tour top-10 finishes since the tour started in 1996, but he has never won.
“Tomorrow, I’m just going to go have fun and go fishing,” he said. “It’s Kentucky Lake, and it’s just another bass tournament. The fish don’t know that it’s for $100,000.”
Kennedy rises to Kentucky challenge again, in second
Kennedy posted a weight of 15 pounds, 15 ounces and grabbed second place for the pros. With a string of top finishes in just about every tournament he fishes this season, the pro from Auburn, Ala., is arguably the hottest stick in fishing at the moment and poses a real threat to Bolton’s first win despite the weight deficit.
And that’s not even mentioning that Kennedy has already won this event at Kentucky Lake, in 2003.
“I had two fish off my first spot this morning,” he said. “I’m just throwing a football-head jig out there and dragging it on the bottom.”
Kennedy, who had precious little practice time before this tournament, explained his success at Kentucky Lake: “At (lakes) Eufaula and West Point (in Alabama), we grew up fishing ledges down there. And there’s no better ledge fishing than Kentucky Lake.”
Yamamoto stays shallow, takes third
While taking a different approach from Bolton and Kennedy, Gary Yamamoto of Mineola, Texas, elicited similar results by catching a limit weighing 15 pounds, 2 ounces and staying in the hunt in third place.
Instead of fighting the wind to work offshore ledges, Yamamoto tucked in along a windward bank and threw a prototype cut-tail worm in shallow water.
“I’m happy. This morning started a little slow, but it started to pick up after that,” he said. “I hope (the wind blows Saturday) because I hide in the marinas. I had a good time. It was calm and secluded in there.”
Lytle fourth, Dudley fifth
Day-one leader Curt Lytle of Zuni, Va., caught 13 pounds, 13 ounces and grabbed the fourth-place spot.
“That sounds like an unlucky number, but I’m happy with it,” he said. “The wind actually helps me. I’m looking for areas where baitfish are moving through, and the wind helps push them around a little bit.”
David Dudley of Lynchburg, Va., rounded out the top five pros with a weight of 13 pounds, 6 ounces.
The $1.2 million winner of the 2002 Ranger M1 and 2003 FLW Tour Championship, it’s been long time – roughly two years – since Dudley has sniffed around a tour-level top 10. But one of his last top-10s was here at Kentucky Lake, in 2004, and he knows what it takes to succeed on this water.
“I know you can come back at this place,” he said. “I did it two years in a row.”
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros heading into Saturday’s final-round action at Kentucky Lake:
6th: Walker, of Sevierville, Tenn., 13-2
7th: Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minn., 11-13 (opening-round leader)
8th: Toshinari Namiki of Mineola, Texas, 11-12
9th: Matt Herren of Trussville, Ala., 11-11
10th: David Fritts of Lexington, N.C., 10-5
Final round Saturday
Day four of Wal-Mart Tour competition at Kentucky Lake begins as the final-round field of 10 boats takes off from Kentucky Dam Marina in Gilbertsville, Ky., at 6:30 a.m. Central time Saturday. Friday’s weights carry over to Saturday, and the $100,000 Pro Division winner will be determined by two-day combined weight.