Snowden Leads At Cut, Some Big Names Ousted

The rejuvenated bite on North Carolina's High Rock Lake held up on day 2 of the Bassmaster American Major, but not for all of the same anglers who fared well yesterday. A quartet of guys with Western roots made big moves to claim spots in the Top 12, which experienced a 50% turnover.

Missouri's Brian Snowden led the cut by a large margin after his 21-09 bag today moved him up one spot and gave him a 40-03 total. That was 6-10 ahead of Arizona's John Murray, who improved 13 places to the No. 2 position with 19-08 today and a 33-09 total.

Day-1 leader Edwin Evers of Oklahoma caught 13-15 today and dropped two spots to 3rd with a 33-07 total. Arkansas' Mike McClelland bagged 11-14 and fell one place to 4th with 30-05.

Gerald Swindle of Alabama weighed 12-09 today and maintained his 5th-place position with 29-11.

Here are the rest of the anglers who'll advance to fish at Lake Townsend tomorrow:

6. Dean Rojas: 29-10
7. Ish Monroe: 28-15
8. Lee Bailey: 28-07
9. Ray Sedgwick: 28-06
10. Fred Roumbanis: 28-04
11. Russ Lane: 28-03
12. Mark Tucker: 28-00

Snowden caught his big bag by flipping shallow willows. Dean Rojas, a Texan by way of Arizona, equaled it with a sack of frog fish that bumped him up 37 places to 6th. Those were the only 20-pound-plus stringers caught during the High Rock portion of the tournament.

Californians Ish Monroe (7th) and Fred Roumbanis (10th) both moved up 20 spots with bags that weighed 17-13 and 16-11, respectively. Roumbanis made the cut despite coming in one fish short of a limit on both days.

Also new to the Top 12 today were South Carolina's Ray Sedgwick (9th), who caught 15-11 today to gain 12 places, and Missouri's Mark Tucker (12th), who climbed four spots with a 14-02 bag.

Those who fell below the cutoff mark included the defending champion (Dave Wolak), the Top 2 anglers in the Elite Series Angler of the Year (AOY) standings (Skeet Reese and Kevin VanDam) and the guy who won the 1998 Bassmaster Classic on this same body of water (Denny Brauer).

Wolak brought in just three fish for 6-06 and tumbled from 4th to 28th. Reese caught a limit, but it weighed just 9 pounds, and he fell from 8th to 24th.

VanDam brought in a respectable 12-02, but it nonetheless cost him three places (11th to a tie for 14th). Brauer's 10-08 bag sent him from 9th to 18th.

The others who headed south were Shaw Grigsby (6th to 25th with three fish for 8-08 today) and Mike Wurm (7th to a tie for 14th with four fish for 11-01).

The action now shifts to Townsend, a 1,500-acre municipal impoundment just north of Greensboro. Weights will be zeroed and the Top 12 will start over from scratch, and only the Top 6 will advance to fish Sunday.

Townsend will be split up into a six-hole course, with the anglers fishing each hole for 70 minutes. They'll be allowed to fish wherever they want for the final 80 minutes of the day.

Townsend has a reputation as a big-fish pond, but numbers can be problematic.

"It's a very tough lake to fish, and I don't know if it's from pressure or just a lack of fish," said Dave Farrington, owner of Dave's Tournament Tackle in Greensboro. "It has quite a few that are 6 pounds and above, but you might fish out there for a month and only catch three or four fish."

He said the maximum depth is about 30 feet. It has a clay bottom, and the structural features are stumps, rocks and laydowns.

In addition to largemouths, it's home to wipers (white bass/striper hybrids), catfish and crappies.

"The fact that they're going to have to fish a hole course might make it more difficult," Farrington said. "There won't be a lot of time to figure anything out, and they might just have to fish general patterns and try to stumble across something.

"Coming from High Rock, they might think they've gone from heaven to hell. I think you'll see some big fish, but there might not be a lot of limits. It could be a dull weigh-in."

At least they won't have to battle crowds on the water – the City of Greensboro has closed the lake to recreational boaters for the next 2 days.

Snowden Stays Shallow

Snowden flipped creature baits in foot-deep water around willows and caught about a dozen keepers. But unlike on day 1, it took awhile before he got into a groove.

"The first day I caught pretty much all my weight early," he said. "Today I had two fish by 7:00, but I didn't catch another one until 9:30.

"From then until 12:00, it was really good."

His biggest fish weighed about 5 pounds. He had two others in the 4s and two in the mid- to high-3s.

Naturally, he'd like to continue fishing High Rock.

"That's my story – as soon as I figure a place out, they take me somewhere else. I'd like to have 2 more days on this place because I'm pretty sure I could get 15 pounds a day."

He drove around Townsend for about an hour this evening.

"It looks like a farm pond. I saw some fish around bridges and points, and there's lots of laydowns. It doesn't have any willows, though."

2nd: Murray Rocks 'Em

BassFan Big Stick John Murray found a great-looking rockpile in practice, but couldn't pull anything but bluegill off of it. But that was in practice, when hardly anybody could catch anything, anywhere.

He went back late on day 1 and caught a couple of weigh-in fish, and then slammed a 19 1/2-pound bag there in the first 2 hours this morning.

"That place looked perfect and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't catch anything there (in practice)," he said. "I was very pessimistic, but this lake has made the biggest turnaround I've ever seen. It's been unbelievable."

His bag was topped by a 5-09. All five of his fish bit a Skinny Bear jig with a Yamamoto Hula Grub trailer.

He caught just six keepers, and lost a 5-pounder when he tried to swing it into the boat.

"They'd move up for about 20 minutes and it would be boom, boom, boom, then they'd be gone," he said. "But when they bit, the hit (the bait) hard."

3rd: Evers Takes it Easy

Evers had nearly 14 pounds by 10:00. He knew that'd be enough to put him inside the cut, so he pulled off his best stuff and invited Grigsby to fish it.

"Shaw's helped me a bunch in the past, and I was just trying to repay a favor," he said.

He caught weigh-in fish on four different baits today – two crankbaits, a football jig and a worm. He boated 12 keepers and the biggest was a 4 1/2-pounder.

The impression he got from his tour of Townsend was that it "looks fishy."

"I graphed a whole bunch of shad. We'll just have to go over there and see what happens."

4th: McClelland's Action Slows

McClelland lost just one rung on the leaderboard despite a bag that was 6 1/2 pounds lighter than his day-1 haul.

"I had some opportunities for the same kind of bag I had yesterday (18-07), but I lost a couple that were definitely good ones," he said.

He's an oddity among the cut survivors – he caught almost all of his weigh-in fish offshore in 12 to 18 feet of water. A jig was his primary weapon, but he also employed other baits.

"I didn't have my first keeper until 9:30 today. Then I don't want to say I panicked, but I went and fished a Carolina rig on brush to make sure I could fill out my limit."

He caught only five keepers, the biggest of which weighed 4-05. That one was an adventure.

"The Lord was looking down on me there. When she finally came up, she was straight under the boat, and all I could do was swing her.

"She went about 2 feet above the rub rail and the bait came out of her mouth in midair, but the momentum carried her over by the driver's-side rod box, and I was able to tackle her on the floor. If I'd lost that fish, it would've knocked me out (of the cut)."

He said Townsend will probably be "a bank-beating affair."

"It's got a little bit of structure and some decent color. I think a guy's just going to have to put his head down and throw a jig or a spinnerbait, or possibly a crankbait, and just feel it out."

6th: Rojas Keeps 'Em On

Rojas did the same things today that he did yesterday, when he weighed just 8-01. The only difference was that he put his best bites in the boat today.

He caught all of his weigh-in fish on his Spro BronzeyeFrog65.

"It worked like a charm today," he said. "It's neat to catch that much weight on a frog at a place that's known as a cranking lake.

"The frog's been kind of hit-or-miss this year, and this is the first time it's really taken off. I feel really good about the way I finished up today and I'm looking forward to moving on to Townsend."

He caught 10 keepers for the day. The biggest one was a little over 5 pounds, and the others were all right around 4. "They were all from the same year-class."

He doesn't know whether the frog will be effective at Townsend, but he's eager to find out.

"It's a new lake, so I'll have to go back to fishing what's in front of me and playing the conditions. But if I see a bush hanging over the water, I'll be giving Kermit a heave."

24th: Reese's Rock Bite Chills

Numbers were the biggest difference between days 1 and 2 for Reese – he caught 15 keepers yesterday, but just five today.

He flipped laydowns and also worked rocky points and boulders on day 1. He stayed away from the laydowns today.

"I just didn't feel like the flipping fish would replenish," he said. "I stayed on the rock and rotated areas, waiting for the fish to stage up and do something. It didn't pan out too well."

He caught just five keepers today and lost one. Still, he fared a lot better than he expected to after a dismal practice.

"The way I have to look at it is, if I hadn't caught what I did yesterday, I would've thought I'd have smoked their (butts) with what I caught today."

Weather Forecast

Here's the forecast for the remaining tournament days. For more weather news, including radar and satellite imagery, visit OutdoorsFanWeather.com.

> Fri, May 18 – Mostly Sunny – 71°/44°
- Wind: From the N at 13 mph

> Sat, May 19 – P.M. Showers – 75°/48°
- Wind: From the NW at 13 mph

> Sun, May 20 – Partly Cloudy – 82°/58°
- Wind: From the W at 8 mph

Notable

> Day 2 stats – 51 anglers, 37 limits (one fewer than yesterday), 4 fours, 3 threes, 3 twos, 1 one, 3 zeroes (one more than yesterday).

> The selection of starting holes tomorrow will be based on the AOY standings. Monroe, who's 4th, will have first pick and Roumbanis (7th) will choose second.

> Kevin Wirth pulled out of the tournament early today after his observer reportedly fell overboard during an epileptic seizure. Wirth reportedly pulled the observer, John Clift, from the water, took him to shore and tended to him until emergency medical personnel arrived. No other details could be confirmed Friday evening and Wirth could not be reached for comment. He was in 48th place after day 1 with two fish for 3-00.

Day 2 Standings

1. Brian Snowden -- Reeds Spring, MO -- 10, 40-03
Day 1: 5, 18-10 -- Day 2: 5, 21-09

2. John Murray -- Phoenix, AZ -- 9, 33-09
Day 1: 4, 14-01 -- Day 2: 5, 19-08

3. Edwin Evers -- Talala, OK -- 10, 33-07
Day 1: 5, 19-08 -- Day 2: 5, 13-15

4. Mike McClelland -- Bella Vista, AR -- 10, 30-05
Day 1: 5, 18-07 -- Day 2: 5, 11-14

5. Gerald Swindle -- Warrior, AL -- 10, 29-11
Day 1: 5, 17-02 -- Day 2: 5, 12-09

6. Dean Rojas -- Grand Saline, TX -- 8, 29-10
Day 1: 3, 08-01 -- Day 2: 5, 21-09

7. Ishama Monroe -- Hughson, CA -- 10, 28-15
Day 1: 5, 11-12 -- Day 2: 5, 17-03

8. Lee Bailey -- Boaz, AL -- 10, 28-07
Day 1: 5, 15-03 -- Day 2: 5, 13-04

9. Ray Sedgwick -- Cross, SC -- 10, 28-06
Day 1: 5, 12-11 -- Day 2: 5, 15-11

10. Fred Roumbanis -- Auburn, CA -- 8, 28-04
Day 1: 4, 11-09 -- Day 2: 4, 16-11

11. Russ Lane -- Prattville, AL -- 10, 28-03
Day 1: 5, 14-09 -- Day 2: 5, 13-10

12. Mark Tucker -- Saint Louis, MO -- 10, 28-00
Day 1: 5, 13-14 -- Day 2: 5, 14-02

The following anglers did not make the cut and will not be fishing tomorrow.

13. Matt Reed -- Madisonville, TX -- 10, 27-08 -- $11,700
Day 1: 5, 12-04 -- Day 2: 5, 15-04
14. Kevin VanDam -- Kalamazoo, MI -- 10, 27-01 -- $11,550
Day 1: 5, 14-15 -- Day 2: 5, 12-02
14. Mike Wurm -- Hot Springs, AR -- 9, 27-01 -- $11,550
Day 1: 5, 16-00 -- Day 2: 4, 11-01
16. Michael Iaconelli -- Runnemede, NJ -- 10, 26-14 -- $11,400
Day 1: 5, 11-13 -- Day 2: 5, 15-01
17. Alton Jones -- Waco, TX -- 10, 26-01 -- $11,300
Day 1: 5, 14-02 -- Day 2: 5, 11-15
18. Denny Brauer -- Camdenton, MO -- 10, 25-15 -- $11,200
Day 1: 5, 15-07 -- Day 2: 5, 10-08
19. Todd Faircloth -- Jasper, TX -- 10, 25-13 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 11-04 -- Day 2: 5, 14-09
19. Timmy Horton -- Muscle Shoals, AL -- 10, 25-13 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 11-12 -- Day 2: 5, 14-01
19. Tommy Biffle -- Wagoner, OK -- 10, 25-13 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 13-03 -- Day 2: 5, 12-10
22. John Crews -- Salem, VA -- 10, 25-03 -- $10,800
Day 1: 5, 13-02 -- Day 2: 5, 12-01
23. Peter E Thliveros -- Jacksonville , FL -- 10, 24-15 -- $10,700
Day 1: 5, 14-06 -- Day 2: 5, 10-09
24. Skeet Reese -- Auburn, CA -- 10, 24-10 -- $10,600
Day 1: 5, 15-10 -- Day 2: 5, 09-00
25. Shaw E Grigsby, Jr -- Gainesville, FL -- 8, 24-09 -- $10,500
Day 1: 5, 16-01 -- Day 2: 3, 08-08
26. Jared Lintner -- Arroyo Grande, CA -- 10, 24-08
Day 1: 5, 12-07 -- Day 2: 5, 12-01
27. Jeff Kriet -- Ardmore, OK -- 10, 24-03
Day 1: 5, 13-05 -- Day 2: 5, 10-14
28. Dave Wolak -- Wake Forest, NC -- 8, 24-00
Day 1: 5, 17-10 -- Day 2: 3, 06-06
29. Takahiro Omori -- Emory, TX -- 10, 23-00
Day 1: 5, 11-00 -- Day 2: 5, 12-00
30. Gary Klein -- Weatherford, TX -- 10, 22-10
Day 1: 5, 12-13 -- Day 2: 5, 09-13
31. Jason Quinn -- Lake Wylie, SC -- 10, 22-07
Day 1: 5, 10-13 -- Day 2: 5, 11-10
32. Brent Chapman -- Lake Quivira, KS -- 10, 22-03
Day 1: 5, 11-11 -- Day 2: 5, 10-08
33. Randy Howell -- Springville, AL -- 10, 21-13
Day 1: 5, 11-02 -- Day 2: 5, 10-11
34. Terry Scroggins -- San Mateo, FL -- 10, 21-02
Day 1: 5, 12-06 -- Day 2: 5, 08-12
35. Greg Gutierrez -- Red Bluff, CA -- 8, 20-04
Day 1: 3, 08-09 -- Day 2: 5, 11-11
36. Aaron Martens -- Leeds, AL -- 9, 20-01
Day 1: 5, 09-14 -- Day 2: 4, 10-03
37. Scott Rook -- Little Rock, AR -- 10, 19-14
Day 1: 5, 11-08 -- Day 2: 5, 08-06
38. Stephen Browning -- Hot Springs, AR -- 10, 19-11
Day 1: 5, 10-01 -- Day 2: 5, 09-10
39. Bill Lowen -- North Bend, OH -- 10, 19-01
Day 1: 5, 10-12 -- Day 2: 5, 08-05
40. Chris Lane -- Winter Haven, FL -- 9, 18-07
Day 1: 4, 07-11 -- Day 2: 5, 10-12
41. Greg Hackney -- Gonzales, LA -- 7, 17-10
Day 1: 5, 10-09 -- Day 2: 2, 07-01
42. Paul Elias -- Laurel, MS -- 6, 17-09
Day 1: 1, 01-14 -- Day 2: 5, 15-11
43. Kelly Jordon -- Mineola, TX -- 8, 16-08
Day 1: 5, 10-02 -- Day 2: 3, 06-06
44. Derek Remitz -- Madison, TX -- 7, 16-02
Day 1: 5, 12-05 -- Day 2: 2, 03-13
45. Davy Hite -- Ninety Six, SC -- 8, 15-01
Day 1: 4, 06-06 -- Day 2: 4, 08-11
46. Jeff Reynolds -- Idabel, OK -- 6, 14-13
Day 1: 4, 08-03 -- Day 2: 2, 06-10
47. Steve Kennedy -- Auburn, AL -- 7, 12-04
Day 1: 2, 04-07 -- Day 2: 5, 07-13
48. Mark Menendez -- Paducah, KY -- 4, 06-14
Day 1: 3, 05-01 -- Day 2: 1, 01-13
49. Kevin Wirth -- Crestwood, KY -- 2, 03-00
Day 1: 2, 03-00 -- Day 2: 0, 00-00
50. Boyd Duckett -- Demopolis, AL -- 0, 00-00
Day 1: 0, 00-00 -- Day 2: 0, 00-00
50. Zell Rowland -- Montgomery, TX -- 0, 00-00
Day 1: 0, 00-00 -- Day 2: 0, 00-00

Big Bass

Day 2: Fred Roumbanis -- Auburn, CA -- 6-06 -- $1,000
Day 1: Mike McClelland -- Bella Vista, AR -- 6-09 -- $1,000