Fishing News - 1/22/04
From Operation BASS
NIXON LEADS PROS IN $6.8 MILLION WAL-MART FLW TOUR SEASON OPENER ON LAKE
OKEECHOBEE
CLEWISTON, Fla. (Jan. 21, 2004) – Based on Larry Nixon’s tournament-leading
catch Wednesday of five bass weighing 28 pounds, 6 ounces, the $6.8 million
Wal-Mart FLW Tour season opener presented by EverStart Batteries on Lake
Okeechobee could become a battle of the 30-pound-plus limits for those pros who
are dialed in to the massive lake’s most productive patterns.
So what are the patterns? The answer depends on who you ask, and with $100,000 on the line for the winning pro and $15,000 on the line for the winning co-angler, most competitors aren’t talking specifics just yet.
“When you come to Florida you throw soft plastics, and that’s what I love to do more than anything,” said Nixon, whose opening day limit ranks as the third heaviest FLW Tour catch of all time and the heaviest Okeechobee catch since the tour began in 1996. “I thought I was on some good fish, but I had no idea they were this good.”
The Evinrude veteran from Bee Branch, Ark., said he is fishing three spots
where bass are bedding in 3 to 4 feet of water, but he has yet to see any of the
fish that have hit his Berkley Power Worm. He also stressed that he has not seen
another boat in the area, which he declined to name so early in the tournament.
“I hope to catch about 15 pounds tomorrow,” he said. “That should keep me
in the hunt. Twenty-eight and 15 is a pretty good weight.”
With a new moon overnight and stable 70-degree weather in the forecast, there
are likely to be plenty of 8-pound-plus bass brought to the scale this week in
addition to a glut of smaller fish. Normal water levels, plenty of vegetation
and widespread areas of clear water are additional promising factors that
contributed to an outstanding opening day catch for the field of 200 pros and
200 co-anglers representing the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.
Every pro and 184 co-anglers landed at least one bass, contributing to a total
catch of 1,589 fish weighing 3,170 pounds, 5 ounces, including 248 five-bass
limits. The Snickers Big Bass in each division belonged to pro Steve Tosh of
Waterford, Calif., who landed a 9-pound, 11-ounce largemouth worth $750 and
co-angler Thomas Bryant Jr. of Summerfield, Fla., who caught an 8-pound,
10-ounce largemouth worth $500 while fishing with pro Tom Mann Jr. of Buford,
Ga.
Top tactics mentioned by pros and co-anglers alike include burning spinnerbaits
through vegetation, flipping heavy-weight jigs through thick hydrilla mats, and
dead sticking Brush Hog and Senko-style baits in clear-water pockets.
Chris McCall of Jasper, Texas, landed an impressive 27-pound, 3-ounce limit to
start his sophomore season on the FLW Tour in second place, just 1 pound, 3
ounces behind the legendary Nixon, but just minutes after crossing the weigh-in
stage, he was informed that his mother, 48, had passed away unexpectedly. McCall
plans to continue fishing Thursday.
Yamaha pro Alton Jones of Waco, Texas (five bass, 24 pounds, 12 ounces); Castrol
pro David Dudley of Manteo, N.C. (five bass, 23 pounds); and Shinichi Fukae of
Osaka, Japan (five bass, 22 pounds, 11 ounces) rounded out the top five pros.
Mark Martin of Vidor, Texas, led the Co-angler Division with a limit weighing 19
pounds, 10 ounces that he caught while fishing with pro Jackie Davis of Willard,
Mo., who landed five bass weighing 14 pounds, 9 ounces to finish the day in 38th
place.
“If every tournament starts like this, I’ll be a happy man at the end of the
season,” said Martin, an FLW Tour rookie who is fishing Lake Okeechobee for
the first time.
Joel Etheredge of Springville, Ala. (five bass, 15 pounds, 2 ounces); Thomas
Bryant Jr. of Summerfield, Fla. (five bass, 13 pounds, 13 ounces); Simon Morrow
of Alexander City, Ala. (five bass, 13 pounds); and Ken Murphy of Meridian,
Miss. (five bass, 12 pounds, 5 ounces) rounded out the top five co-anglers.
The four-day, $500,000 tournament is the first of seven FLW Tour events that
will culminate with the record-setting $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour
Championship and Outdoor Show in Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 11-14, where the winning
pro earns the sport’s largest cash award, $500,000, and fishing fans are
treated to hundreds of displays featuring special offers on everything from
crankbaits to bass boats. .
Coverage of the Lake Okeechobee tournament will be broadcast to 65 million
Outdoor Life Network subscribers on the “FLW Outdoors” television program. A
tournament preview show featuring bass-fishing legend Hank Parker will air Feb.
8 at 1 p.m. Eastern time and Feb. 12 at 5 p.m. Eastern time, and fishing fans
can watch the tournament weigh-in with hosts Carlton Wing, Taylor Carr and
Charlie Evans Feb. 15 and Feb. 19. Tournament veteran Larry Nixon will host a
tournament wrap-up show Feb. 22 and Feb. 26.
Anglers take off beginning at 7 a.m. each morning from Roland Martin’s Marina
in Clewiston. Thursday’s weigh-in, which starts at 3 p.m., will also be held
at the marina. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart
store located at 1005 W. Sugarland Highway in Clewiston beginning at 5 p.m. and
3 p.m., respectively. The FLW Tour’s Family Fun Zone featuring product
giveaways, interactive displays and games for fishing fans of all ages will open
in the Wal-Mart parking lot Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m.
The full field competes in the two-day opening round for one of 10 slots in
Friday’s competition based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are
cleared Friday, and co-angler competition concludes. The final 10 pros continue
competition Saturday, with the winner determined by the heaviest two-day weight.
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.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, the Wal-Mart
FLW Tour is administered by FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of
competitive fishing. Other FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails are the
EverStart Series, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye
Tour, the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League and the Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s most respected companies support FLW Outdoors
and its six tournament trails. Wal-Mart has been the title sponsor of FLW
Outdoors since 1997.
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