The "hole-down" went down today at the Ft. Loudoun–Tellico FLW Tour in Knoxville, Tenn. Art Ferguson III's hole spit out 19-02, while David Dudley's sputtered and dripped out 14-09.
Thus Ferguson, who made the cut in 2nd, will enter the final day in 1st with a 4-09 lead over Dudley, who led the cut. Both are working main-river ledges – the go-to summer pattern on the Tennessee River – but Ferguson's throwing a jig, while Dudley's cranking.
It's tough to say why Dudley's weight dipped so heavily today. He caught 20-02 on day 1, then laid up on day 2 with 15-12. By all accounts, his hole should have kicked out another 20 pounds since he let it rest most of yesterday.
Ferguson, on the other hand, started slow with 13-10 on day 1, then caught the best bag of day 2 (18-11). It took him all day to get his weight today, and he made his last cull in the closing minutes from a different spot altogether.
So overall, the fishing was tougher today, for those two as well as everyone else. Scott Martin, the day-1 leader, couldn't get his ledge-largemouths to fire and dragged in just 13-10 (the same weight Ferguson caught on day 1).
Craig Powers, who'd fished a mix of deep and shallow the first 2 days, stayed shallow all day. He lost some key fish and settled into 4th with 11-05.
And Tour sophomore Brandon Coulter, who lives in Knoxville, continued his run-and-gun strategy but amassed just four fish for 8-09, which put him 5th.
Here's a look at the Top 10 layout. Total weight is followed by distance from leader in red.
1. Art Ferguson III: 5, 19-02
2. David Dudley: 5, 14-09 (4-09)
3. Scott Martin: 5, 13-10 (5-08)
4. Craig Powers: 5, 11-05 (7-13)
5. Brandon Coulter: 4, 8-09 (10-09)
6. Jerry Green: 5, 8-07 (10-11)
7. Andy Montgomery: 5, 8-04 (10-14)
8. Hank Cherry: 5, 7-13 (11-05)
9. Andy Morgan: 5, 7-08 (11-10)
10. Ramie Colson, Jr.: 2, 2-08 (6-10)
The forecasted rains never materialized today, and conditions were hot. The lake reportedly dropped about a foot overnight, and current never started until lunchtime – too late to affect most areas of the lake, since the field had to check in at 2:45.
Ferguson's lead is certainly commanding, but not absolute. Given the ups and downs today, and the fact that it took him all day to catch his total, he could stumble significantly tomorrow.
That said, if he catches 13 pounds – less than he's caught every day – Dudley would still need to catch 17 1/2. Powers would need to catch 18 1/2 (something he has yet to do), plus get some help from Dudley.
Ferguson Camped
Most BassFans immediately peg Ferguson as a northern angler – a Michigan/Ohio/New York force. True enough, but he's a heck of a Tennessee River stick too.
Remember that he won the Wheeler Bassmaster Top 150 in 2000, and he finished 3rd last year at the Pickwick Eastern FLW Series.
He caught all his weight yesterday in about 10 minutes from a single spot – a bite his co-angler clued him in to by catching a small bass – and he stayed there nearly all day today.
"I pretty much camped on it for 6 hours," he said. "I caught them pretty good first thing – I had three fish in the first hour, and a couple of good ones – and that gave me enough confidence to stay there."
Toward the end of the 6 hours, he had four "chunks" and a 1 1/2-pounder. With 15 minutes to go, he blew out of there, made a stop, and "popped one about 3."
"I only caught about eight keepers today," he noted. "I was catching them on a 5/8-ounce football-head jig with a green-pumpkin trailer with a little bit of orange, and I was dying the tails chartreuse."
About his penchant for the Tennessee River, he said: "When I look back, now I'm realizing how important this Tennessee River is to my career. I've won at Wheeler, finished 3rd at Pickwick, and now this one here. When I look back at all three, I've always keyed in on some stuff, but there ended up being one main spot that was the key deal for me. You wouldn't expect it to be that, but it ended up coming down to that."
David Dudley said he knew things weren't right within the first 10 casts.
About what a win tomorrow would mean for him at this point in his career, he said: "It would be great. Obviously, financially for my family, it would be perfect timing for that. It would definitely keep me secure in the sport for a couple more years, and you never know with everything the way it is right now.
"But it's just more of a personal-achievement thing – just knowing I can still compete with a lot of these young guys coming in. I've had a mediocre last couple of years, and it's just good to know you can come out here and still compete and potentially win a tournament."
2nd: Dudley Doesn't Know
About his comparatively lighter weight today, Dudley struggled to nail down a cause.
"I knew within my first 10 casts that something wasn't right," he said. "When I got to my hole, there were 25 people waiting for me to get to the hole, and 25 people following me to the hole. So did anything happen beforehand? I don't know. All I know is something wasn't right when I got there. Why that is, I don't know.
"I'm not accusing anybody of fishing my hole or anything," he added. "I just know something wasn't right and I had to scrounge around today and work hard to come up with what I did."
He hit his hole a couple of different times throughout the day, but he didn't camp. "I felt like I could move around, and that's what I did."
Also curious was despite reports of a lower water level this morning, he felt the water was, if anything, a little higher in his area.
About tomorrow, he said: "I'm not counting myself out. Just as Art found a hole that has them on it, I could go and find the same type of hole.
"I'm not worried at all. I feel fine. He does have a 5-pound lead, but you know, there's a lot more fish deep than there is shallow, and if I just bite the right school up, you'd better watch out. I just have to find that school. That's what I'm in search of."
Scott Martin pretty much struck out on largemouths, but hopes they'll fire tomorrow.
3rd: Smallmouths Saved Martin
"My day was a little tough," Martin said. "The largemouths that I'd been catching on ledges were cooperating today at all. I never did find a school of largemouths on four or five different places I had them located. I was never able to make the proper adjustments to catch them.
"I was really blessed to catch those smallmouths," he said of a few brown fish that saved his bag today. "I'm hoping tomorrow will be a really great day. The (largemouths) have to feed again."
He actually had the opportunity for a "giant" bag of smallmouths, but jumped off a 4-pounder, and lost another "really big fish" on a jig.
About tomorrow, he said: "I'm really looking forward to it. I think I can catch some smallmouths again, and if I can find those fish I was on the first day, man, it could really be awesome."
Notable too was his shallow bite totally disappeared today – he caught all his weigh-fish deep. He felt the drop in water hurt that bite.
He also noted that the key to his fish today were ultra-long casts. "I was using a 7 1/2-foot Kistler magnesium crankbait rod – it's actually a flipping stick that has a really light tip to it. Man it launches a crankbait like you wouldn't believe. Spectators kept asking about it – they were freaking out. And the Abu Garcia Revo was performing awesome."
4th: Powers Stayed Shallow
Powers, or "CP" as he's known on tour, caught quite a few fish today, and unlike Martin, he thinks the lower water helped his shallow bite.
"I really like it when the lake's down like that – there's not as many places for them to be. That shallow water dropping actually made them start acting normal and they started biting. I just never did catch a big one.
"I never caught a fish deep the second day, so today I committed to fishing shallow," he added. "But tomorrow I'll probably change up a little bit. I'm going to start shallow, because I feel like if I can catch 10 pounds, then I think I can stay pretty much where I am as far as being in 4th place. Then I'll spend the rest of the day fishing deep, hoping to find a virgin school that hasn't been messed with yet."
Craig Powers faces an 8-pound deficit, so his main goal tomorrow is to at least stay where he is in 4th.
About whether he thinks a win is out of reach, he said: "I'm 8 pounds behind, and Art's catching them really good. He had 2 good days in a row. And I think Dudley had a chance today to have as much as Art did. I think one of those two has the best chance of winning. It's tough to come from 8 pounds behind this time of year."
Additional Notes
Following are some highlights from today's weigh-in.
> 5th: Brandon Coulter (4, 8-09) – "I haven't been on one of these big schools of fish like a lot of these guys are on. I've been hitting a hundred places – in 3 days, I think I fished at least that many. I just never ran into them today. I had my fifth fish on a couple of times. I think 12 boats watched me jump off a 4-pounder. It was just great – a fun, fun day on the water."
> 6th: Jerry Green (5, 8-07) – "I've been really blessed. Me and my son in practice found this little place, and I've been on it all week. It's pretty much one spot – a hundred-yard area out in the middle of the lake on the river channel. I know the quality is there. I just didn't get the right bites today. I'm going right back there. I know they live there. I just need to get them to bite. If I can get the right bites tomorrow, I can make up a lot of ground."
> 8th: Hank Cherry (5, 7-13) – "I had five little ones today. I need some bigger ones than this. It's not what I hoped for at all. I went out this morning (with) a gameplan, and they dropped the water on me a little bit. It took me all day to kind of realize what was going on. I finally caught the last one at about 2:00 or 2:30 and I realized I knew what was going on. I was just kind of hardheaded. All I was throwing was my jig. I still caught them on my jig, but I think I figured out a little something that's going to work tomorrow."
> 9th: Andy Morgan (5, 7-08) – "It's kind of dried up on me. The water fell a little bit. I caught some of my fish shallow the first day, and I had a couple of pretty good cranking holes. But they really hadn't panned out the last couple of mornings. So like I said, it got pretty dry for me. I might have to go out and scout around and look for new areas. I'm going to spend my time pretty equal (tomorrow) – half my day shallow, half my day deep, and see if I can get something going. That's the thing with fishing – once you get something going, you expend on it then. It's the thing of the moment. You have to get it going, then capitalize."
> 10th: Ramie Colson, Jr. (2, 2-08) – "I had a great practice. I got a lot of bites, and had 2 good days the last 2 days. I guess I'm hardheaded. I like to throw a jig. Stetson (Blaylock) caught them behind me good doing something else. I still threw the jig. I think I'm going to rig one more rod up with a different flavor (tomorrow)."
Notable
> Day 3 stats – 10 anglers, 8 limits, 1 four, 1 two.
> Ferguson entered the tournament at 37th in the FLW Tour points – well within the Forrest Wood Cup qualifying window. With a Top 10 here, he noted he should be free to wheel and deal at the Detroit River finale, which takes place on his home water. "A lot of times when we fish the Detroit River, I'm fishing for a Top 20 for points, so I have to fish semi-conservatively. This might help me go out and strategize and fish for a win there."
> Dudley's throwing a crankbait that was custom-painted by Powers. "He's the best painter in the world," Dudley said.
> When 7th-place Andy Montgomery weighed in, Powers was the leader. Montgomery joked: "I might find Koby (Kreiger), and offer Koby $50 if he'll drill a hole in all CP's poppers and fill them with lead."
Weather Forecast
Here's the weather forecast for the final tournament day. For more weather information, including satellite and radar imagery, visit OutdoorsFanWeather.com.
> Sun., June 22 - AM Showers - 87°/65°
- Wind: From the W/NW at 5 mph
Day 3 Standings
1. Art Ferguson III -- St. Clair Shores, Mi -- 5, 19-02
2. David Dudley -- Lynchburg, Va -- 5, 14-09
3. Scott Martin -- Clewiston, Fl -- 5, 13-10
4. Craig Powers -- Rockwood, Tn -- 5, 11-05
5. Brandon Coulter -- Knoxville, Tn -- 4, 8-09
6. Jerry Green -- Del Rio, Tx -- 5, 8-07
7. Andy Montgomery -- Blacksburg, Sc -- 5, 8-04
8. Hank Cherry -- Maiden, Nc -- 5, 7-13
9. Andy Morgan -- Dayton, Tn -- 5, 7-08
10. Ramie Colson, Jr. -- Cadiz, Ky -- 2, 2-08
