15 Pound Limit Puts the FLW Tour Rookie On Top.......Davis & Others Lurking

Story by Brent Conway

Hot Springs, AR – First things first: there’s $1 million dollars on the line for the winner of the The Forrest Wood Cup on Arkansas’ famed Lake Quachita. In case you’re not doing the math right – that’s $1,000,000.00 for the pro who wins this week’s championship contest. This kind of top-prize has never before been offered until this week – history will be made regardless of who the winner ultimately is. 

There is a catch to earning the million-dollar top prize – you have to be a registered Ranger owner AND you have to top the other 80 guys vying said million-dollar pay day. If you’re not a registered Ranger owner, the payout drops to $500,000. However, the good news is that a full 80% of the contestants are Ranger owners, so chances are that the winner will indeed walk away with a seven figure paycheck.

The other challenge this week is that the bite is off on Quachita…some would say that it’s way, way off. While anglers are generally a very tight-lipped bunch – particularly when there’s this much money on the line – there’s no denying the fact that the Arkansas’ biggest pond is in its summertime doldrums making finding the much-needed gang of 15+-inch keepers a true test of wit and skill.

Problematic is the deep bite – the most prevalent summer pattern on Quachita. High waters have kept the grass line at bay, stumping many in the field. Another sure alternative in most times of the year is the river fish; however, they seem to be hit and miss…mostly miss from all indications. Still, as Thursday’s weigh-in ensued, it became clearly evident that regardless of a tougher-than-normal bite, there were some keepers being caught and either you were on ‘em, or you weren’t.

As the weigh-in procession commenced, the high water marked hovered at 10 pounds until Bryan Thrift, of Shelby, NC crossed the stage with a five-fish limit of bass weighing 15 pounds and 7 ounces. Thrift took top honors for the day, and has a 10-ounce cushion over second place to start Friday morning. 

In second after all the dust had settled was odds-on favorite Scott Suggs, from nearby Bryant, AR. Suggs crossed the stage with a day-one weight of 14 pounds and 14 ounces. Ending the day in third was John Sappington, from Willard, MO, with a bag tipping the scales at 13 pounds 13 ounces.

Ending the opening day in fourth place was FLW Series angler Rusty Salewske, from Alpine, CA, with a limit weighing in at 13 pounds even. Rounding out the top five was Castrol pro Darrell Robertson, from Jay, OK, who brought in a limit weighing 12 pounds 10 ounces.

Here’s how the remainder of the top 10 faired shaped up Thursday:

6. Greg Pugh 5 12-5
7. Mark Davis 5 12-0
8. Kevin Vida 5 11-14
9. Jason Borofka 5 11-8
9. Shad Schenck 5 11-8

With day one in the books, and some of the best bass fishermen in all the land vying for a shot a million bucks, Friday has the trappings of a great mystery novel. Friday will be moving day for many as the field will be cut to 10 anglers for the weekend. Weights will be zeroed for the two-day challenge leaving the best man standing at the end of it all.

Thrift Surprised 
Bryan Thrift came to Hot Springs last week for the first time in his life. Prior to last Thursday, all that he knew about Arkansas’ largest lake was that it was big, it was clear, and the fishing would be tough. Basing his tournament on his practice, Thrift didn’t hold much hope for his first day, but things changed in a big way once it was over.

“I only caught six keepers all day,” he said. “The Lord blessed me with a big bite to go with the four that I kept. From practice, I would’ve thought that what I had today would be next to impossible to do.”

Practice for Thrift worsened progressively throughout the week. “Last Thursday and Friday, my practice was pretty good. From there, it just went downhill to the point that I was sure eight pounds a day would get you to the cut.”

Thrift admitted that his unfamiliarity of Quachita could be helping him more than anything else. “I burned through $70 worth of gas today,” he said. “I went from the dam to the river and fished all the way there I think. That’s pretty much what you have to do right now though, I think.

“It’s the middle of the summer, and from I know of this lake, it’s the toughest. So, your best bet is to have as many spots to run as possible and hit everyone of them.”

Tomorrow, Thrift has a pretty low goal thinking that to exceed it means he a shoe in for Saturday. “I’m going to go out tomorrow and hope for three or four bites,” he said. “I’ll take my chances to get into Saturday if I can that.”

Suggs is Shocked 
Scott Suggs has logged countless hours fishing on Quachita over the years. As such, he’s been looking forward to this moment since learning of the scheduled championship. Suggs doesn’t mince words though when asked of his day’s performance. “If someone would’ve told me yesterday that they would give me 11 pounds, and I wouldn’t have to get out bed, I would have jumped all over it,” he exclaimed.

“I really thought that it would take more like 16 pounds to make the cut, but now it looks like it’ll be closer to 22.”

Suggs said that Thursday was one of his better days on the lake, and that he’s hopeful tomorrow will be more of the same. “Between my partner and I, we caught 18 keepers,” he said. “I don’t know that anyone else could say that.”

Fishing suspended fish “from the one end of the lake to the other,” Suggs is hoping for eight pounds Friday. “I’m going to go out tomorrow and get me three or four bites,” he said. “They need to weigh around seven or eight pounds. If that happens, I’ll see you Saturday.”

Robertson Had a Slow Day
There aren’t many guys on the FLW Tour that can boast the sort of credentials that Robertson can – in fact, there’s only one other. Robertson knows how to win, and he knows how to win big. Thus, it’s not a surprise that he’s sitting inside the top 10 on the tournament’s first day; however, at 10:00 this morning, he wouldn’t have given very good odds that he would end up where he did.

“The day started really slow,” he said. “I went to two different places and couldn’t catch a bass. My co-angler caught two, so I was starting to get discouraged. I moved to another spot and had a four pounder on that came off right at the boat. That was at 10:15, and by then I was really discouraged.”

Darrel explained that shortly after the four pounder came unbuttoned, he and his partner started getting bit. “I finally put a fish in the box and took some of the pressure off,” he said. “From there, it was just a bite every now and then. It was just really slow.”

Robertson explained that every fish he caught was with him when he crossed the weigh-in stage. “I had six bites all day,” he said. “One of them came off, and the other five went to the weigh-in. That’s pretty much how my day was.”

Fishing in the mid-lake area, Robertson explained that he’s “probably fishing like everyone else is” with a 10-inch worm around grass. However, after his performance today, he’s excited about Friday’s potential. “I didn’t think that we’d see this many fish come in,” he said. “Practice was so poor, but the hazy conditions today and (Friday) might make them turn on.

“I’m going to go out tomorrow and fish as hard as I can – for three bites. If I can get three bites tomorrow, I feel pretty sure that I’ll slide into the top 10. Then it’s a different deal.”

THE MORGENTHALER FILE (An inside look at the FLW Cup with Chad Morgenthaler)

Practice was a little unusual because of the lack of information that I was able to get from the fish. I spent the first two days trying to establish a deeper, but I never really got a handle on much of anything out deep. The bite was really sporadic. When I would finally catch one it was usually quality, but the problem was that you couldn’t really count on too much and that didn’t leave me with much confidence.

The good news is that I did find an area pretty close to Brady Mountain, so I can spend all of my day trying to get the six or seven bites I need to have a decent limit. 

Today went about as I had planned. I stuck with my game plan, stayed focused, stayed shallow, and I stayed fishing. I had eight good bites to show for it, but the problem was that I only landed four of them. When you don’t get every bite to the boat in a tournament like this, it makes it tough to be in contention.

Tomorrow, I’m going to spend eight hours doing the same thing. The only change that I will make is to make a small change with my topwater bite, and fish the edge a little bit more than what I did today. I think if I can get 12 pounds tomorrow – which I should’ve had today – I’ll squeak into the cut.

DAY ONE STANDINGS