Posted - June 21st, 2008 7:20pm CST

Dudley In Second, Martin In Third

Story by Dan O'Sullivan - Photos by  Matt Pangrac

Knoxville, TN – When the first day of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour’s fifth stop was over, St. Claire Shores, Mich. pro Art Ferguson had weighed in a solid 13 pounds, 10 ounces. The result of his first day’s effort gave him a respectable 19th place opening round position.

Things looked bleak however, as by midday of Friday’s second day of competition, as he only had three small keepers in his livewell. Then, everything changed. Ferguson’s Co-angler hooked a small keeper only moments before the pro was about to leave the spot, and the complexity of the event was about to change.

In the next 15 to 20 minutes, while his Co-angler was working on unhooking his deep hooked fish, and retying his lure, Ferguson put 18 pounds, 11 ounces of Ft. Loudoun bass into his boat, now things looked promising. The veteran pro had every reason to be hopeful as his performance pushed him to the top 10 for the 23rd time in his career.

Ferguson returned to his newly discovered real estate on day three and wound up crushing a 19-pound, 2-ounce limit to wrestle the lead away from Lynchburg, Virginia’s David Dudley; FLW’s all time leading money winner. 

Dudley, who has earned more than $2.1 million in his career, stands the chance to pad his bank account a little further as he put up 14 pounds, 9 ounces of his own. By doing so, Dudley kept close to the pace set by Ferguson, and applied a little pressure in the mean time. Dudley is chasing his fifth win in FLW competition.

Also in the hunt at day’s end was Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla. who pulled together a solid 13-pound, 10-ounce limit from the waters of Ft. Loudoun to put himself in 3rd place in pursuit of his third FLW victory. 

Two local FLW Tour pros put themselves in position to make the hometown crowd proud, as Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn. and Brandon Coulter of Knoxville, Tenn. rounded out the top five.

Powers coaxed 11 pounds, 5-ounces from the East Tennessee impoundment to grab hold of the 4th position headed into the final day. While Coulter was only able to bring four keepers to the scales, the quality of his fish was evident, as he weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces to claim 5th place.

Del Rio, Tex. pro Jerry Green placed 6th by catching an 8-pound, 7-ounce limit.

Ferguson: Riding One Area
The topic of how Ferguson found his area has been discussed, but what he had not yet disclosed was how he had approached the spot, and how he is targeting it. “I am throwing a 5/8-ounce football jig that I got at the Hook, Line and Sinker tackle shop in Rogers, Ark.,” the Michigan pro said. “It is a green pumpkin color with some crawdad accents to it, and I’m putting a chunk trailer on it.”

While he has pulled all of his weight from the area the last two days, he still is not exactly sure why the fish are holding there. “It takes me as many as 20 casts to relocate it after I catch a fish off of it,” he explained. “The best I can tell is that it is around 12 feet of water and the bottom composition feels different than the surrounding are; it must be a different type of gravel.”

He also explained that there are bunches of fish in the area, and that the baitfish population is huge, “my Lowrance lights up with activity when I get on top of it,” he said. “I think that the jig must trigger something in those bigger fish, with that many baitfish in the area, they seem to respond better to the jig.”
“I really need to thank my second day Co-angler, Grant Holderman (of Augusta, Kan.),” Ferguson said. “Had it not been for his one fish, I wouldn’t have been in this position, I had a great day with him, and just hope I can close this out; I’m going to sit on it tomorrow and go for broke.”

Dudley: Struggled with Traffic
The leading money winner in FLW history was very brief in his discussion after the weigh-in concluded, saying that he struggled with local traffic. “I really struggled out there today,” he said. “I thought that I had a good area, but it didn’t produce like I’d hoped.”

“There were 25 boats on my spot when I got there this morning, and 25 people following me, I don’t know what they did before I got there, or what they did after I left,” he said before cutting the post weigh-in interview short, “I hope they weren’t fishing, but I’ll probably have to try and find another school tomorrow.”

Martin: What Can ‘Brown’ Do for You?
A resident of Florida, Martin is accustomed to chasing largemouth, and that was what he set out to do in Tennessee, until he found a productive offshore smallmouth pattern. “I didn’t start out fishing for smallmouth, but they seem to be bunched up out there,” he explained. “I went to my primary, shallow stuff this morning early, but things were different; so I adjusted to deeper water.”

He revealed his first approach was to go after shallow water largemouth with a Spro Little John crankbait, but after his first two stops, he knew something had changed. “The bait had pulled off the bank out deeper, and I got no response there,” he said. “So, I went to the ledges to go after the smallmouth on the shell mounds.”

His approach is to go after them with two baits. “I’ve been throwing a jig and a crankbait at them, and will do the same tomorrow,” he said. “I had an opportunity to add to my weight today but lost a four pounder, and I never got a big largemouth.” 

“I will try to duplicate what I did today, but will try to find a big largemouth bite to go with it.”

Powers: Top Shelf Pattern
A resident of nearby Rockwood, rode the top of an emotional swell all day, and his approach to fishing was the tops as well. “I had such a great time today because my family is all here, I had two cousins following me on the water, it’s been great,” he said. “I have done what I do best in this tournament which is to fish my style.”

He let on that his style includes throwing a Rebel Pop’ R, which he committed to throwing all day. “I’ve been targeting isolated pieces of cover, and it relates to sun positioning,” he said. “Most guys stop throwing topwater early, but the sun shrinks the strike zone and puts the fish on predictable places; those are what I have been going after.”

Being local, Powers said that he is overwhelmed by the amount of family and friends that have come out to support him. “It’s such an awesome feeling,” he said before heading out to have dinner with his family. “I’d love to win this thing, but I’m so happy with the way it’s gone so far, I’m not sure it could.”

Coulter: Covering Water
A resident of Knoxville, Coulter too said the local response has been touching. “I had so many people following me here on the water today that it was touching,” Coulter said. “My wife and I have a State Farm insurance agency here, and to see so many of those folks come here to support me is amazing.”

Coulter said that he covered a bunch of water again on Saturday, and that he left a little disappointed. “I had the bites to do really well today, I just lost a couple of fish,” he said after weighing in four fish. “I lost a four pounder that jumped off, and one I never saw, it’s frustrating cause I think those fish would have put me in second place.”

He said that he would still do the same thing tomorrow. “I’ll probably hit 50 spots again tomorrow and try to make up some ground.”

THE TOP 10 AFTER DAY THREE