Mark Rose of Marion, Ark., stood atop the leaderboard on the first day of competition at the Stren Series Championship on Pickwick Lake after weighing five fish for 22 pounds, 5 ounces and ended the day with a commanding 3-pound, 2-ounce lead.
“I had a limit this morning in about 30 minutes,” said Rose, who has won more than $887,000 in FLW Outdoors competition. “That settled me down and allowed me to just go fishing.”
Rose said he began the day fishing a school of fish close to the McFarland Park launch and caught his limit and then made a run to his next spot. He said caught his largest fish, a 7-pound, 6-ounce largemouth, at 11 a.m. and then culled fish the rest of the day. Rose said he caught 13 or 14 keepers throughout the course of the day.
Rose said after he hit the first two schools of fish, the rest of the day was spent catching lone fish in random spots. He said he would pull up to a spot and fish 10 minutes then move on.
“I was just hitting old waypoints I’ve got,” Rose said. “If this water would stop falling, the fish would start biting … some of my offshore fish. That’s what I’m really banking on.”
Rose said the majority of his bites came off of ledges, where he caught bass on topwater baits as well as deeper in the water column. He said his big bass came in 10 feet of water.
Rounding out the top five places are Team National Guard pro Jonathan Newton of Rogersville, Ala. (five bass, 19-3); Team Kellogg’s pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa. (five bass, 19-0); Keith Pace of Monticello, Ark. (five bass, 18-5); and Robert Robinson of Mobile, Ala. (five bass, 16-9).
Rose also earned the day’s $500 Folgers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to his 7-pound, 6-ounce largemouth bass.
Overall there were 835 bass weighing 1,733 pounds, 13 ounces caught by 185 pros Thursday. The catch included 143 five-bass limits.
George Yund of Albany, N.Y., leads the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 13-2 followed by David Kayda of Crosby, Texas, in second place with five bass weighing 12-4.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Mark White of Tucson, Ariz. (five bass, 11-4); Jeff Grant of La Mirada, Calif. (five bass, 11-3) and Phil Jarmon of Apex, N.C. (five bass, 11-2).
Mike Power of Canyon Lake, Texas, earned the day’s $250 Folgers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 5-pound, 13-ounce bass.
Overall there were 549 bass weighing 909 pounds, 8 ounces caught by 175 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 51 five-bass limits.
In the Stren Series Championship anglers are vying for their shot at $115,000 in the Pro Division and $43,000 in the Co-angler Division.
