Seven for seven

Powers limits again, remains poised for second consecutive EverStart title

HENDERSON, N.C. – Two EverStart Series tournaments, seven days of fishing: 35 bass. Numbers like that have positioned Craig Powers for his second consecutive tour win, a feat as yet unaccomplished at the FLW Outdoors pro level. Friday, the pro from Rockwood, Tenn., grabbed the lead again in Northeast Division competition at Kerr Lake by catching a five-bass limit weighing 15 pounds, 15 ounces.

After leading the opening round, Powers’ catch Friday put him 2 1/2 pounds in front of his closest challenger, Pete Gluszek, heading into the second half of the final round.

Powers, who won the Southeast Division event at West Point Lake two weeks ago, has caught limits all seven days of competition over the last two EverStart tournaments. One more day with a decent-sized limit and he goes down in the record books as the first to win back-to-back EverStarts as well as the first Northeast Division champion.

“Man, why do you have to say that?” Powers said. “I can’t even think about that right now.”

Maybe he’s not thinking about it, but everyone else is. Despite nine pro limits crossing the scale, most anglers reported another tougher day of fishing at Kerr. Schizophrenic weather – clouds, rain, some wind and strange temperature changes – gave the anglers fits. After seeing Powers bring in another sack over 15 pounds under these conditions, third-place pro Chris Baldwin didn’t like his chances for a comeback win Saturday.

“Craig’s going to have to stumble a little bit,” said Baldwin, who sits 2 pounds, 14 ounces behind Powers. “I don’t think I can get a really big bag tomorrow with what I’m doing, but I think I can get a little better bag than I had today.”

But Powers is the hot hand right now. One of the reasons for that is that he’s apparently fishing a little differently than everyone else. Almost everyone in the top 10 is catching them on the southern end of Kerr, throwing a topwater bait on points for bass on schooling shad. Powers, while fishing the same area of the lake, is catching his fish among the remaining submerged bushes in coves, which seems to be the difference. Even he admitted that this tournament is basically his to lose tomorrow.

“In the morning, I know exactly the first three places I’m going to go,” he said. “If I can catch those bites, I think I’ll be in good shape. If I can catch my bites, they’ll have to beat me because I won’t beat myself, if that makes any sense.”

Perfect sense. He’s rolling and he knows it, though he’d never say it.

Still, Powers said that he, too, had trouble Friday, pointing out that he only had about 20 bites on his Pop-R.

“I caught my first two, then I had 12 more bites until I caught the next one,” he said. “I started the day 12 for 14. Not good. The thing is, I got lucky when I caught those two big ones early. Today, if I catch all those bites, I would have had more than 20 pounds.”

Two factors put a dent in Powers’ fishing strategy: the shaky weather and the falling water, which left some of his favorite bushes high and dry.

“The weather changed and it messed with my head a lot,” he said. “Plus, they dropped the water last night bad, and that really hurt me today.”

Still, he managed to eke out the lead with his Pop-R. He even caught one of his bass on one of the homemade, shallow-running plugs – a “C.P. Special,” he calls it – that he and fellow pro Koby Kreiger designed.

“It’s the same plug that he used to catch them at (Lake) Eufaula,” Powers said.

At that event, Kreiger finished fourth. And even though the top 10 weights are still grouped up pretty tightly, all Powers needs is for that plug – and, more importantly, his Pop-R – to produce just one more day and he’ll make history.

Gluszek second, plans on big Saturday

Gluszek, the pro from Franklinville, N.J., who led on day one, caught a limit worth 13 pounds, 7 ounces. Like Powers, he also said his stringer should have been bigger. Much bigger.

“I had a couple as long as my arm roll in and suck it down,” said Gluszek, who fished postspawners with a topwater bait. “I just didn’t get them in the boat.”

As conditions changed, Gluszek said he figured out a new pattern Friday that will help him Saturday to land the big ones that got away. What that is, however, he’s not saying yet, of course.

“A lot of us in the top 10 are doing it the same way,” he said. “But I found something a little different today. I think I can get a lot more bites tomorrow.”

Baldwin third

Baldwin, a BFL standout and two-time All-American runner-up from Lexington, N.C., caught a limit weighing 13 pounds, 1 ounce for third place in the Pro Division.

“The key is having to change with the fish,” he said. “I’m just trying to cover some water and get them in the boat.”

Daves fourth

Chris Daves of Hopewell, Va., the son of Bassmaster Classic champion Woo Daves, grabbed the fourth pro slot with a limit weighing 13 pounds even.

“When I came down here, I was hoping that they would suck the water out of the bushes and the sun would come out so I could fish deeper. Plus, that would make it harder on Craig. I was half right,” he said. “But I think the sun will come out tomorrow, so that’ll help.”

Sorrell fifth

Rodney Sorrell of Stokesdale, N.C., placed fifth for the pros with a limit weighing 12 pounds even. He caught a kicker fish that weighed 5-3.

“Yeah, I really struggled today,” he said. “I really didn’t catch anything until about noon today, and I lost a good fish with about two minutes to go.”

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros heading into Saturday’s action at Kerr Lake:

6th: Jeffrey Thomas of Broadway, N.C., five bass, 11-15

7th: Brian Wilhoit of Oxon Hill, N.C., five bass, 11-6

8th: Jack Gadladge of Benton, Ky., five bass, 11-0

9th: Bob Plemmons of Kernersville, N.C., five bass, 8-10

10th: Brent Brannon of Cumming, Ga., four bass, 6-11

Perennial EverStart finalist Cummings leads co-anglers

Mark Cummings of Pembroke, N.C., grabbed the top co-angler slot with an impressive limit from the back of the boat that weighed 13 pounds, 13 ounces. He amassed a lead of 2-11 over second-place Shannon Fletcher.

“This morning I caught one off the bat, then it was quiet for a couple hours,” he said. “I was sweating bullets. But then we caught some shallow and some medium deep.”

Cummings, fishing his third EverStart tournament, has already top-10ed in his previous two tries.

Fletcher, of Honaker, Va., caught five bass weighing 10 pounds, 2 ounces.

Andy Staple of Youngsville, N.C., placed third in the Co-angler Division with four bass weighing 9 pounds, 5 ounces.

Co-angler Ryan Bowman of Seneca, S.C., placed fourth with a limit weighing 9 pounds, 4 ounces.

Seagrave, Ontario’s Jeff Slute rounded out the top five co-anglers with four bass weighing 8 pounds, 11 ounces.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers:

6th: Douglas Grant of Manchester, Conn., four bass, 8-5

7th: Alan Hench of Lititz, Pa., three bass, 6-11

8th: Tony Dorman of Springville, Pa., three bass, 6-8

9th: Miller Castle of Abingdon, Va., one bass, 4-4 (opening-round leader)

10th: Kenneth Roderick Jr. of Norwich, Conn., one bass, 2-5

Final round Saturday

Day four of Northeast Division competition at Kerr Lake begins as the final-round field of 10 boats takes off from Satterwhite Point Marina at 6 a.m. Eastern time Saturday. Friday’s weights carry over to Saturday, and each division’s winner will be determined by two-day combined weight.