For every pro smiling at the end of a tournament day, there's one -- at least one -- who isn't. Yesterday at the Lake Wheeler FLW, two of those who weren't wearing smiles were Randy Howell and Peter Thliveros.

Howell: Blown Motor

Howell, one of the favorites in this tournament, started the day fine -- even better than that since he was running his new Rev Up (sports drink)-decaled Triton. But on the way back in, his Mercury blew. He ended up checking in 3 minutes late, which meant he was penalized weight.

"I couldn't get in in time," he said. "I lost 3 pounds, and I only had 6-06 to start with."

Last night Mercury was putting a new powerhead on the motor. But since the work wasn't supposed to be finished until 9:00 p.m., Howell decided to fish out of his old boat today, which he had luckily dropped off at a friend's house near Wheeler. Still, that meant he had to rush around the whole night.

Cochran Competition

That wasn't the only thing that contributed to a tough day for Howell.

"I had an area I thought I could catch a pretty good limit out of," he said. "I got there in the morning and started fishing. I caught 1-2 little ones and some white bass, then moved about 50 yards off the point to let it rest.

"I was about 75 yards from where I started when David Cochran (George Cochran's son) drove up, shut down right on the spot and started fishing. He sat there and the fish started biting. He caught a limit and culled three times while I was sitting there watching.

"I talked to him -- I said I didn't want to be ugly to him, but I was fishing off the point to let (the point) recuperate," Howell said. "He said, 'I saw you on it all morning and had to get on it.' He said he was sorry, but he wouldn't leave. He sat on it for 4 hours."

Eventually Cochran hadn't caught one in a while and left the point to Howell. In the final 1 1/2 hours of the day Howell caught four keepers and his amateur partner caught a 5-pounder. "I'm used to catching a 10-pound limit there," Howell said. "It might be a better place than I thought."

As far as today goes, he hasn't given up. "In a low-weight tournament, if you have a good day you can make the cut -- like my friend Keith Green did the second day at Okeechobee."

Peter T.: Victim of Success

Yesterday Thliveros didn't weigh-in a bass and "didn't get a bite," he said. That's surprising considering that he finished 2nd and 5th in the last two Wheeler tournaments. But he said, "My past success is kind of what killed me."

That kind of success at a lake gets a lot of attention, including attention from other competitors. "Everybody knows where the fish get caught so you can't ever go back to the same place," Thliveros said, "especially in the FLWs. It's bad enough in B.A.S.S., but it's worse in the FLWs.

"They know exactly where you caught them and won't even let you practice there. It just boils down to the fact that they don't have any original thoughts. It's how everyone did in the past rather than how well they can do for themselves. Rather than trying to learn, they try to copy exactly what you did on the exact same place."

Perhaps because Thliveros was kept off his spots, he said that yesterday he "never even threw a Carolina rig. I fished a jig on channel ledges, and tried to fish a crankbait on shallow, rocky banks. None of it worked."

Thliveros noted that he's worn out from practicing and fishing Seminole (also in rough weather) last week and then going straight to Wheeler. "Two weeks in a row kind of wears on you," he said.