There's an intangible quality by which all professional athletes are measured – the ability to close. Countless athletes can approach a goal, but so very few have that innate ability to finish what they started.
And in professional fishing, David Dudley's name is certainly part of that elite group. Back when the pro-bass purses were still building, he won the two biggest payouts in the sport in back-to-back seasons – the Ranger M1 in 2002 for $700,000, and the FLW Tour Championship in 2003 for $500,000.
On day 4, he's all business, and he did it again today at the Ft. Loudoun-Tellico FLW Tour.
He began the day in 2nd and 4 1/2 pounds in back of leader Art Ferguson III. Ferguson fanned today with a four-fish, 7-11 bag. Dudley, on the other hand, caught 15-02 (9 ounces more than he caught yesterday).
Ferguson fell to 3rd, Scott Martin moved up to 2nd, and Dudley, with his 29-11, 2-day total, clinched his third tour-level win by a 1-04 margin.
The win pushed his FLW Outdoors career earnings to $2.3 million. He also moved up to six spots to 5th in the FLW Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) race. And he'll likely move well inside the Top 10 in the BassFan World Rankings once the numbers are calculated.
What's so remarkable about his win is he did it, at least in large part, with a technique he'd shunned in the past. In his own words, he "hated" deep-cranking until a few years ago. But he decided to apply himself to the technique with vigor, and in the past year, it's "become an addiction."
And although his crankbait bite dwindled today, and he had to move to a big worm and football-head, he rode the hardbait heavily the first 3 days.
Martin continued to benefit from beefy smallmouth bites and weighed 14-13 today, and said he lost the winning fish – a 5-pound smallmouth that jumped off within 3 feet of his net.
Local and Tour sophomore Brandon Coulter wowed the hometown crowd with a 17-02 limit – the heaviest of the day – and moved up a spot to finish 4th.
And Hank Cherry, who fished docks, caught 13-13 and improved three spots to finish 5th.
Dudley's Prayers Answered
Dudley said he doesn't "believe in targeting big fish," but his morning prayer was that God would give him the right bites to do what he needed to do. "And I want to thank God," he said.
"It feels good – especially to win it in a way that 2 years ago I was practically cussing if we had a tournament during this time of year on deep water," he added. "But just over the past couple of years, I've kind of forced myself to fish the way (tournaments) should be won during this time of year. You just learn little by little, then all of a sudden the picture starts to become clearer and clearer.
"Now I absolutely love it, and it's played a huge role in some of my finishes. And this is the first tournament since I started (learning the technique) that you pretty much knew it was going to be won this way. I love it."
Scott Martin said he learned a valuable lesson – work hard and more opportunities will come.
He rode a single area to the cut – and in fact defended it on day 2 when others wanted to fish it. That's where he spent the bulk of his time yesterday. Most of the fish he weighed today came from that same hole, although he had to change baits.
"I caught them pretty steady all day up until about 12:30 or 1:00," he noted. "Then it just got a little tougher on me and I elected to run around a little more than I did yesterday."
He fished main-river ledges and threw an undisclosed crankbait throughout the tournament that was custom-painted by 6th-plce finisher Craig Powers. But today the crank-bite slowed and he moved more to a 10" Berkley Power worm and an undisclosed football-head jig with a Berkley Chigger Chunk trailer.
The full details of his winning pattern, and pattern information for the other top finishers, will be posted soon.
2nd: Martin's Work 'Paid Off'
About his finish, Martin said: "I'm truly blessed. I put a lot of had work in. I put in 96 hours of the hardest, most intense fishing I've ever had. It almost paid off for me with a win, and I'm proud of it.
"What I mean by that is, I practiced 14 hours a day for my 4 days of practice. I was on the water before daylight, and off after daylight, then 8 hours each tournament day. The hard work paid off."
About the fish he lost today, he said: "I hate saying this, but I jumped a humongous smallie off at the boat. It was three feet from the net. It was a 4 1/2- or 5-pounder. I caught a 5-pounder yesterday, and caught them in practice, and I saw the entire fish – she was a giant. And she came off.
"And I lost a 4-pounder yesterday," he added. "It was unfortunate. I asked Dudley if he lost any fish, and he said he didn't."
Overall, he's "very happy to take home a 2nd. I've won before, and I definitely wanted to win again. I had the opportunity to do that. It just didn't work out this time. But I did learn some valuable lessons, and that's to work hard. If I do it again, I feel like I'll be in this position a lot more times."
Art Ferguson regrets a decision today – he left a spot early without he tanked a limit.
3rd: Ferguson Mixed About Finish
Ferguson experienced the classic Tennessee River letdown today – a hot hole that seemed capable of winning just up and dried out.
He's not the first to experience it, and he won't be the last.
"The fish didn't bite," he said. "I only had four keeper bites all day. I started on the same area, just hoping that they were going to be there. My partner yesterday caught two fish that I was hoping would key me into something a little more within a cast away of (my best) area.
"I caught a keeper over there pretty quick," he added. "Then I spent a good long time on this one little area and within an hour I had two fish. One was over 3, and I thought, 'Here we go, with this kind of lead, I just need four more 3-pounders.'"
Things then slowed to a lull and at 10:30, he decided to make a run. He caught two fish on his first stop, then pulled out.
"I should have stuck there until I got my limit," he noted. "That's one thing I regret in the tournament. Then I just started running around and it wasn't paying off."
He went back to his starting spot around 1:00, but never got his fifth fish.
"At least I didn't miss three or four fish that cost me a bunch of money. I just didn't get the bites. It was Dudley's turn. I kept calm all day, and thought I was making the right decisions. It's bass fishing."
He's somewhat mixed on his finish. On the one hand, he came in with the goal of a Top 50 to preserve his berth in the Forrest Wood Cup. He did that and more, and now heads to his home water (the Detroit River), where he should be a lock for the Cup.
On the other hand, he had a chance to win.
"To have what happened at the end of day 2 and be sitting in 4th place going into (day 3) – if I was to complain about anything, I'd be an idiot," he said. "But once you're on top with a 4 1/2-pound lead, your hopes are even higher that maybe you're going to win.
"Obviously, $100,000 compared to $40,000 would be a whole lot more money to go do something with for the family. I'm very thankful I made the Top 10, and I'm a little disappointed I didn't win. But the points are going to set me up really good going to the Detroit River."
4th: Coulter Happy
"Man, it feels great," Coulter said after the weigh-in. "It's my hometown, and last year was just awful for the locals. We redeemed ourselves a little bit there in the Top 10.
"I had a tough break yesterday," he added. "I lost a big one, and opened the door for David Dudley, and that's not very smart. There's nobody in the business that closes it better than he does. But I had the biggest sack of (today), and it was a great day. There was tons of people cheering me on, and my son was out there with my dad, and it was just awesome."
Brandon Coulter's happy with his finish, even though he lost a fish yesterday that would have tied or beaten Dudley today.
He said the fish he lost yesterday was around 4 pounds. He only weighed four fish yesterday, and lost to Dudley by exactly 4 pounds.
5th: Cherry Happy Too
"I'm happy with it," Cherry said. "I pretty much knew going into today that I couldn't win, unless those guys screwed up. So I went and fished for big fish and had a lot of fun. I stayed on the channel, but fished the bank. I didn't go out on the ledges.
"As the week went on in practice, each day got a little better and better," he added. "I thought I had a legitimate chance to win. I didn't know if I'd catch enough to win, but I thought if I caught 13 to 15 a day, that would be about the range. I wasn't quite there the last 2 days, but the first 2 days were all right."
One possible regret concerns yesterday. The water dropped, but he stayed tight to the bank. "Maybe I could have caught a couple extra fish if I moved (out a little). You live and learn."
Additional Notes
Following are some highlights from today's weigh-in.
> 6th: Craig Powers – "I've been friends with Dave a long time, and we were fishing something totally different, so I didn't feel like I was hurting myself by helping him out (with a custom paint job). And for him to do what he did on the crankbaits I painted, that's a compliment to myself, and I'm tickled to death for him and awful proud of him."
> 7th: Andy Montgomery – "I messed up a little bit yesterday swimming my jig. I was going up the lake and was going to run some new water yesterday. I got halfway up there and turned around and came back down the lake. Boy that was a dumb decision. Today at like 10:30 I didn't have a bite, so I took off up there. I stopped on the first dock and caught one of those good ones. The next cast I caught another good one. I lost a good one off that dock, then started catching them."
> 8th: Andy Morgan – "I've been pretty much on a downhill slide since the first day. I didn't really have an area that was outstanding. I just had to hustle around and fish. I basically ran new water today and fished docks all day and covered a lot of water. That's what we used to do here back years ago, and I just said 'Hey, I'll go give it a shot today' and I caught 11 pounds."
> 9th: Jerry Green – "They just kind of played out on me today. (My area) was up around Turkey Creek. There's three major bays that are real close to it, and also a loading ramp that a lot of tournaments go out of. Between the three bays, and a lot of fish coming back to the loading ramp from other tournaments, there's just a lot of fish in that area."
> 10th: Ramie Colson, Jr. – "I'm very tickled to get my first FLW Tour Top 10. I finally broke the ice this year, and finally won a tournament (in) the FLW Series. Yesterday was disappointing. I only caught two, but there's 190 other people that would love to be in my shoes, so I just went fishing today and caught five."
Notable
> Day 4 stats – 10 anglers, 8 limits (same as yesterday), 1 four, 1 three.
> FLW Outdoors changed its weigh-in format today. Instead of each angler weighing fish until he retires the leader or retires himself, the final three anglers (Dudley, Martin and Ferguson) weighed one fish each, then another fish each, and so on. The jury's out on whether it's an improvement.
> Morgan, as noted the previous 2 days, retained his AOY lead. To view the updated standings, click here.
Day 4 (Final) Standings
1. David Dudley -- Lynchburg, Va -- 5, 14-09 -- 5, 15-02 -- 10, 29-11 -- $100,000 + $25,000
2. Scott Martin -- Clewiston, Fl -- 5, 13-10 -- 5, 14-13 -- 10, 28-07 -- $50,000
3. Art Ferguson III -- St. Clair Shores, Mi -- 5, 19-02 -- 4, 7-11 -- 9, 26-13 -- $40,000
4. Brandon Coulter -- Knoxville, Tn -- 4, 8-09 -- 5, 17-02 -- 9, 25-11 -- $30,000
5. Hank Cherry -- Maiden, Nc -- 5, 7-13 -- 5, 13-13 -- 10, 21-10 -- $20,000
6. Craig Powers -- Rockwood, Tn -- 5, 11-05 -- 5, 10-01 -- 10, 21-06 -- $19,000
7. Andy Montgomery -- Blacksburg, Sc -- 5, 8-04 -- 5, 11-11 -- 10, 19-15 -- $18,000
8. Andy Morgan -- Dayton, Tn -- 5, 7-08 -- 5, 11-04 -- 10, 18-12 -- $17,000
9. Jerry Green -- Del Rio, Tx -- 5, 8-07 -- 3, 7-14 -- 8, 16-05 -- $16,000
10. Ramie Colson, Jr. -- Cadiz, Ky -- 2, 2-08 -- 5, 7-14 -- 7, 10-06 -- $15,000
