Keith Combs' second-day bag at the Tawakoni PAA Tournament Series in Texas was more than 10 pounds lighter than his day-1 haul, but he nonetheless held onto the majority of the advantage he began the day with.
The Texan sacked 13.64 pounds to push his total to 38.04. His lead, which was 6.36 pounds when the day started, is now 4.06 with 1 day to fish.
Todd Auten climbed three places to take over the No. 2 position with a 17.77 bag that gave him a 33.98 total. He'd be a bit closer to Combs if he hadn't lost a 4-pounder.
Takahiro Omori, who lives 30 miles from the lake but has never competed there prior to this event, moved up five spots to 3rd with a 15.31 bag for a 30.17 aggregate. Phoenix boats president Gary Clouse maintained his hold on the 4th slot with 12.52 today for a 29.61 total.
Another Texan, Stephen Johnson, jumped from 15th to 5th after catching 16.20 today, giving him a 29.33 total.
Here's a glance at the current Top 10:
1. Keith Combs: 38.04
2. Todd Auten: 33.98
3. Takahiro Omori: 30.17
4. Gary Clouse: 29.61
5. Stephen Johnson: 29.33
6. Edwin Evers: 28.67
7. Bradley Hallman: 27.13
8. John Crews: 25.87
9. Craig Dowling: 25.37
10. Aaron Martens: 25.21
Tropical Depression Hermine has departed the Garland area, but left a powerful southwest wind in its wake. It blew at a steady 15- to 20-mph clip today and rendered some areas all but unfishable.
Also, some anglers who were working locales up the Sabine River found their water had turned a chocolate color today, which seemed to shut down the fish.
Big upward moves were made by John Crews (62nd to 8th with 20.23 today) and Bradley Hallman (42nd to 7th with 17.95). Hallman's bump was particularly significant because he's battling for a spot in the Top 15 in the Series points, which would guarantee him a berth in next month's Toyota Texas Bass Classic.
Todd Auten boated this 6 1/2-pounder, but he'd be closer to the lead had a 4-pounder not gotten away from him today.
Ott DeFoe, one of several anglers who brought aluminum boats to fish the upriver backwaters, took the biggest tumble (6th to 38th). He weighed more than 16 pounds on day 1, but boated just one keeper today.
Tomorrow's weather forecast calls for isolated thunderstorms, a high temperature of 93 degrees and the same south/southwest wind to 11 mph. The field was cut to the Top 30 after today's weigh-in and the winner will be determined tomorrow by highest 3-day weight.
Combs had to Work
Combs caught a 9 1/4-pounder on day 1, but the best single fish he managed today was about 1/3 that size.
"It was real tough for me – I'm just not getting that many bites," he said. "I had my limit at 11:00 and that gave me the rest of the day to catch a kicker, but I never got another bite.
"Everything I caught was about the same size, and I might've had one 3-pounder.
He fished mostly the same way he had on day 1, but said it seemed like conditions were more crowded. He caught one weigh-in fish flipping a jig and the rest on the prototype Power Tackle Lateral Perch.
"I was running low on (the Lateral Perch), but they overnighted me some and I've got enough for tomorrow, so I'll use it some more and see what happens. On the first day of practice I caught about four 2 1/2-pounders on a Carolina-rig spot and I haven't fished that yet, so if I don't have five at noon, I'll go try to catch a limit doing that.
"If I don't catch 12 (pounds), I don't think I'll win. Todd's catching them good and if he gets two kickers and weighs 20, then I'll need about 17. I'm just going to forget about the 4-pound lead and go out and catch them as good as I can."
2nd: Some New Stuff for Auten
Auten weighed a slightly heavier bag than on day 1, and it was anchored by a 6 1/2-pounder.
"I had about the same kind of day I had yesterday," he said. "I got lucky and caught that 6 1/2 – a fish like that goes a long ways here.
"I fished kind of the same area, but I actually caught them in different places. I just found some key stretches and you need some luck, too. You might go to a place and you don't get to fish it because there's a boat there, then you come back 15 minutes later and the boat's gone and you might catch one."
Takahiro Omori caught all of his keepers in a 2-hour span.
He went through about 10 keepers and lost the one good fish. He had only one in the livewell at 10:00, but had a limit at 11:00
"During that little timeframe it got pretty good. You can go a long time and not catch one, and then you get in one little area and you might catch two or three."
3rd: Omori was on the Move
Omori bounced around to about 15 different locales and compiled his bag via a combination of flipping and shallow cranking. He caught all seven of his keepers between 10:00 and noon, and the best was a 4-pounder.
"I moved around all day and fished here a little and there a little," he said. "Two keepers is the most I can get out of one spot."
He lives just a half-hour away in Emory, but this is his maiden event on Tawakoni.
"Tomorrow I'll move around and be open-minded and try fish the conditions. Whatever happens, I'll take it because everybody thinks this is one of my home lakes, but I've never fished a tournament here before. I live on Fork and it's more my style."
4th: Clouse Hangs On
Clouse ended up in the same situation as Combs – he held his position despite a considerably smaller bag.
"I struggled a little bit – things didn't work out like yesterday," he said. "I had to scramble to catch what I caught, and I changed things up.
"I had been catching them flipping a tube, but today that didn't work. I caught one on the tube, two on a frog and the other two on a worm off of docks."
He had only one fish at 10:30, when he went into scramble mode. He ended up boating six keepers, including a 3 1/2-pounder.
"After yesterday, I thought my primary area had more fish. I'll go back and check it tomorrow, but I won't stay there as long because I think it might be burned up. A couple of other guys have been fishing it, too, and there's probably been 30 pounds caught off a stretch of 100 yards."
7th: Sun Helped Hallman
Hallman's bag, which he amassed with a flipping stick, was just a tad short of 18 pounds and was headed up by a 7-02 that took big-fish honors for the day.
Gary Clouse found the going much tougher today, but he managed to hold onto his 4th-place position.
"I think the sunshine was the biggest difference for me," he said. "I had a limit by noon, and then the big one came at about 12:30."
He said he lost one that was even bigger. It immediately jumped when he hooked it and ended up on part of a dock. His jig came out of its mouth, but it continued to flop around in a somewhat confined area adjacent to the walkway.
"It had to be up there for 30 or 45 seconds. My observer was screaming, 'Oh, my God!' and I didn't know whether to get on the Power-Poles or the trolling motor. I couldn't get to it and it eventually flopped back into the water.
"If I could've gotten to it, I'd have had to call the tournament director to find out if it was a legal fish. I'm staying with (veteran Tommy) Biffle and I was asking him about it and he said he'd never seen anything like it."
He came in at No. 17 in the points and may have wrapped up his coveted TTBC berth.
"Even if I finish 30th tomorrow, I should be real close to making it."
8th: Crews Clubbed 'Em
Crews caught the lone 20-plus-pound bag today, just as Combs had on day 1.
"It was one of those days when everything went right," he said. "I changed things a little bit (from day 1), but not a ton. I went to some different areas and I didn't run around quite as much as I did yesterday."
He boated seven keepers and caught about the same number of short fish (under the 14-inch minimum-length requirement). He revealed that a couple of his weigh-in fish were enticed by his new Spro Fat John shallow-running crankbait.
"As far as strategy for tomorrow, I'll just try to keep myself in the most productive areas all day. I'll pick the places that I think have the most fish and just beat on them as hard as I can."
38th: DeFoe Found Mud
DeFoe said the muddy water from all the rain that Hermine had dumped reached his upriver area today and it became pretty much a dead zone.
"That was a big part of it and the high pressure didn't help very much, either," he said. "The fish just didn't bite."
He fished a Texas-rigged Berkley PowerBait Chigger Craw.
"There was a different section that was a little better today, and I should've spent more time there – that would be the only thing I could've done differently. The fish fed yesterday, and today they just didn't."
The Top 30
1. Keith Combs -- Texas -- 10, 38.04
2. Todd Auten -- South Carolina -- 10, 33.98
3. Takahiro Omori -- Texas -- 9, 30.17
4. Gary Clouse -- Tennessee -- 10, 29.61
5. Stephen Johnson -- Texas -- 10, 29.33
6. Edwin Evers -- Oklahoma -- 9, 28.67
7. Bradley Hallman -- Oklahoma -- 10, 27.13
8. John Crews -- Virginia -- 8, 25.87
9. Craig Dowling -- Alabama -- 10, 25.37
10. Aaron Martens -- Alabama -- 10, 25.21
11. Randall Tharp -- Alabama -- 10, 24.91
12. Lance Vick -- Texas -- 8, 24.80
13. Tommy Biffle -- Oklahoma -- 10, 24.38
14. Mark Menendez -- Kentucky -- 10, 24.16
15. Dave Lefebre -- Pennsylvania -- 8, 24.11
16. Bryan Thrift -- North Carolina -- 9, 23.48
17. Duke Jenkel -- Illinois -- 8, 23.34
18. Gary Klein -- Texas -- 8, 23.14
19. Patrick Pierce -- Florida -- 8, 21.98
20. Jeremy Grandstaff -- Texas -- 10, 21.60
21. Jason Christie -- Oklahoma -- 9, 20.99
22. Joe Gerard -- Kansas -- 10, 20.32
23. Cody Bird -- Texas -- 9, 20.11
24. Harley Brigman -- Texas -- 6, 20.35
25. Rob Burns -- Texas -- 6, 19.97
26. Greg Hackney -- Louisiana -- 6, 19.86
27. Todd Faircloth -- Texas -- 8, 19.84
28. Sean Hoernke -- Texas -- 9, 19.73
29. Brian Travis -- North Carolina -- 8, 19.64
30. Paul Elias -- Mississippi -- 9, 19.56
