Pro Mark Rose of Marion, Ark., caught a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 1 ounce Thursday to capture the lead in the FLW Series Eastern Division event at Lake Chickamauga with a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 32-8.
“I’ve got a lot of things going in this one little area,” Rose said. “Actually two areas, because I caught some key fish late in the day today that confirmed my other fish that I really haven’t been beating up are still there. It’s not near as good, but I think I can catch a keeper or two off of it.”
Rose said his primary area is a “square hump” with a corner that features stumps, a side composed of a shell bed and a “gut”.
“So there’s really three locations … those locations are a couple of hundred yards apart,” Rose said. “If they’re not on one, they’re on the other.
“Now today in the gut where they were, the gut goes a long way, and they were a long way from where they were yesterday,” Rose added. “I’m just having to fish hard. It seems like it’s opposite from normal ledge fishing, and that’s why you can’t ever go into something with a preconceived notion.”
Rose said he normally likes to get fish “fired up” with a spoon or crankbait to trigger the bite, but he had to throw a ¾-ounce green pumpkin Strike King football-head jig with a Strike King Rage Craw trailer to get the fish to bite and get them excited. He then targeted the fish with a rootbeer colored Strike King 6 XD crankbait or a Strike King Sexy Spoon.
“Always keep an open mind on the Tennessee River,” Rose said.
Rose now holds a substantial 3-pound, 9-ounce lead over second place pro and day one leader Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., who managed to haul in a total of 10 bass weighing 28-15 during the first two days of competition.
Rounding out the top-10 pros at Lake Chickamauga are:
3rd: Derek Remitz, Grant, Ala., 10 bass, 27-13
4th: Folgers pro Scott Suggs, Bryant, Ark., 10 bass, 26-1
5th: Goodwill pro Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 10 bass, 25-10
6th: Pete Thliveros, Saint Augustine, Fla., 10 bass, 25-7
7th: Tom Mann Jr., Buford, Ga., 10 bass, 25-2
8th: Patrick Baynes, Chatsworth, Ga., 10 bass, 25-2
9th: Terry Bolton, Jonesboro, Ark., 10 bass, 25-0
10th: Jeff Knight, Cleveland, Tenn., 10 bass, 24-3
Overall there were 366 bass weighing 835 pounds, 6 ounces caught by 102 pros Thursday. The catch included 45 five-bass limits.
In FLW Series competition, pros are competing for a potential top award of $50,000 plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for a shot at the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of bass fishing.
Aaron Combs of Jackson, Ky., leads the Co-angler Division with a two-day total of nine bass weighing 24-4 followed by Patrick Roy of Syracuse, N.Y., in second place with nine bass weighing 20-1.
Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers are:
3rd: Ralph Mulleins, Cumberland, Va., nine bass, 17-3
4th: Jeff Gengler, Tulsa, Okla., seven bass, 16-0
5th: Jerry Hayden, Charlotte, N.C., six bass, 14-10
6th: Lonnie Tidwell, Harriman, Tenn., six bass, 14-4
7th: Roger Wideman, McCormick, S.C., six bass, 13-14
8th: Miller Castle, Abingdon, Va., six bass, 13-4
9th: Ray Pettit, Pacolet, S.C., five bass, 12-11
10th: James Sharp, Leesburg, Ga., five bass, 12-3
Overall there were 164 bass weighing 366 pounds, 13 ounces caught by 77 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included four five-bass limits.
