Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 30, 1990 TAG: 9006300088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The fellows from Georgia got together in the night to compare notes.
These are some of the adjustments fishermen in the Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championship made after the Smith Mountain Lake bass shut out nearly half the field Thursday, opening day of the $50,000 tournament.
It worked. Catches were up appreciably Friday. Two competitors landed limits. Only nine anglers did not boat a bass big enough to weigh.
At the front of the field of 40 were the tournament's two youngest competitors, only two ounces separating them.
Lee Byrd, a 25-year-old construction manager from Stone Mountain, Ga., maintained the lead, with a 14-pound, 3-ounce total going into today's final round.
Springing from 10th to second place was Art Ferguson, a 25-year-old plumbing apprentice from Rochester, Mich. Ferguson weighed the tournament's biggest catch Friday, a five-bass limit that totaled 10 pounds, 10 ounces. That gave him a 14-pound, 1-ounce total.
"I am not burning a lot of gas now," Ferguson said at Friday's weigh-in. "I am covering the water a lot better. I got nine keepers today; every one got bigger as I went."
A man who doesn't plan to be unclogging drain pipes all his life, Ferguson was cagey about revealing what technique had unlocked the tight-jawed bass of Smith Mountain.
"If we get sun tomorrow, I will be OK," he said.
"What does sun have to do with it?" a reporter asked.
"It determines where the fish are holding on the structure," he said.
"You mean they are in the shade?"
"Yes."
"What kind of structure?"
Ferguson flashed an "I'll tell you tomorrow afternoon" grin.
Jerry Elder, the tournament favorite from Lynchburg, plummeted from third to eighth, catching only a single bass Friday.
He did what some of his fishing buddies said he wouldn't: stick to a pattern although it wasn't working, remembering those times when it did produce bass.
"I should have went on and left my pattern altogether, but I tried it again," Elder said. "Every once in a while, one acted like it was going to hit. I don't know what I will do next, but it will be different."
A limit catch by Hurlbert of Virginia Beach put him into fourth place. He was one of 17 competitors who failed to weigh a keeper the first day.
"I was onto fish yesterday, but I kept breaking them off and losing them," he said at Friday's weigh-in. So he changed line.
Hoot Gibson of Philadelphia, Miss., used a top-water lure Friday to land the tournament's best bass, a 3-pound, 12-ounce largemouth.
The angler with the heaviest three-day total after today's 2:30 p.m. weigh-in at the LancerLot will win $7,000 and be named the nation's best amateur bass fisherman.
The second-day standings:i
INDIVIDUAL
1, Lee Byrd, Stone Mountain, Ga., 14 pounds-3 ounces. 2, Art Ferguson, Rochester, Mich., 14-1. 3, David W. Barnes Sr., Weeks Mill, Maine, 13-3. 4, Carlos Sellers, Fort Belvoir, 10-7. 5, Joe Lee Hurlbert, Virginia Beach, 8-10. 6, Stephen Hicks, Riverdale, Ga., 8-6. 7, Hoot Gibson, Philadelphia, Miss. 7-4. 8, Jerry Elder, Lynchburg, 7-3. 9, William Byrd, Lawrenceville, Ga., 6-9.
10, Mike Holt, Lexington, Tenn., 6-7. 11, Dean Matts, Yukon, Okla., 5-13. 12, Jeff Boyer, Kent, Wash., 5-5. 13, Kerry Schlipp, Chicago City, Minn., 5-4. 14, Bert Thompson, Shreveport, La., 5-2. 15, Burl Triplett, Woodbridge, 4-15. 16, Cameron G. Copp, Woodstock, 4-9. 17, Bill Mason, Aurora, Colo., 4-5. 18, Roy Harrelson, Morgan City, La., 4-2. 19, David Truax, Austin, Texas, 4-1. 20, Harry J. Dalton, Farmington, N.M., 3-10.i
TEAM
1, Eastern Division, 50 pounds-3 ounces, Barnes leader. 2, Southern Division, 41-10, Byrd. 3, Northern Division, 35-3, Ferguson. 4, Central Division, 31-1, Gibson. 5, Western Division, 20-1, Jeff Boyer.
by CNB