Photo by Will Brantley / Flwoutdoors.com
Curt McGuire of Lawrenceberg, Tenn., finds himself in a familiar position tonight, leading the FLW American Fishing Series event on Kentucky Lake going into the final round. In 2005, McGuire lead on day three heading into the final day. He managed 14 pounds on the final day but Terry Bolton bested him with a 22-pound limit that included an 8-pound kicker.
That finish was McGuire's best finish at the time in FLW Outdoors Competition. Since then he's had another second place finish, also on Kentucky Lake.
But tomorrow he looks to change all that. He started early in this event, and he has no plans to let off the gas tomorrow. The first day he was done fishing at 11:45 a.m. and brought five bass weighing 24-11 to scale. On day two he was done fishing his primary areas at 9:30 a.m. and brought another 22-9 to wow the crowd. His 47-4 leads by nearly 7 pounds.
McGuire spent most of Friday looking for similar areas that matched what his primary areas had to offer. He's not finding big numbers of fish in his areas, but he's finding the right ones.
"My hands hurt so bad from these fish, but I love it," McGuire said. "I'm catching them out (offshore). Theres not a lot of fish out there yet and they are having a hard time seeing the baits. Several have been missing the bait or barely getting hooked."
"Today on my last cast on my primary area, I caught a 5 pounder on one hook and a 14-incher on the other hook. You know you're doing something right when that happens. So I sure can't complain."
McGuire is about as personable as they come, but he had a hard time shaking hands today with his bruised, cut and bleeding palms and thumbs, compliments of some very mean and large Kentucky Lake bass.
McGuire has been throwing a variety of baits to finish out his limits. More details on that coming tomorrow.
Randy Haynes of Counce, Tenn., a well-known stick on Pickwick Lake, held down the second-place spot with a two-day total of 40-10. Shawn Murphy of Nicholasville, Ky. was third with 36-3, Mike Terry of Troy, Tenn. was fourth with 35-11 and National Guard pro Ramie Colson was fifth with 35-2.
