Pickwick Central EverStart
Pack Wins By Big 9 Pounds

Photo: FLWOutdoors.com Mark Pack's spawning smallmouth pattern was on again today.

His 10 fish weighed 32-13, and his closest competitor, Dan Morehead, had 10 for 23-09. After that it dropped another 7 pounds, to Indiana's Larry Sisk who took 3rd with 7 fish for 16-03. In 4th was Missouri's Joe Bennett with 6 for 14-12, and 5th was Indiana's Dewey Allen, with 4 for 11-13.

Anglers in this event had to deal with not only the finicky nature of the beast they were after, but the restrictive 15-inch minimum length recently imposed by the State of Tennessee on their 7-8 mile stretch of the lower end of Pickwick Lake. Though the tournament launch was in Alabama, the tournament waters were anywhere you could drive your boat to (Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler, Tombigbee Waterway, etc.), so the bass had to be 15 inches to be legal.

Pack Whacked Them

"It really feels great to finally win," Pack said about his first FLW Outdoors win. "I've been relaxed all week."

He found his fish on the last day of a 3-day practice, he said. "In Wilson Lake it was easier to key in on the right areas," he said. "The water was so low on Pickwick that there wasn't much in the creeks."

His 18 keepers over the 4-day tournament all came from the same mainlake ridges. All had rocks and mussel-shell beds on them, and he found subtle dips that held most of the fish, which were spawning. "When (smallmouths) are feeding, they'll hit a bait and run off with it," he noted. "But this time I could barely feel the bites. That's why I think they were spawning and just trying to clean out their areas. All the females were just dripping eggs."

He fished a Lake Fork Tackle Baby Fork Creature on a Carolina rig for his win (the details of his winning pattern will be up soon).

Shaffer Zeroed Today

Ohio's Dick Shaffer fished Shoal Creek in Wilson Lake most of the tournament. He was in 6th yesterday, but today he zeroed, leaving him with yesterday's 4 fish at 8-12 and 7th place.

"I pretty much fished the same stuff every day," he said. "I'd practiced on 3 different lakes, and narrowed it down to Wilson. I kind of had the pattern figured out a few days before the tournament started, and the last day I realized the fish were suspended in 6-8 feet off the secondary points and pockets."

He caught them on red crankbaits. "The first two days I used a Tennessee Killer that ran about 5 1/2 feet deep. Yesterday and today I threw a Bandit 200 series that ran about 7 feet deep.

"The first day I had 20-25 short fish and 3 keepers, and they all ate it well," he noted. "The second day they were barely hooked and I caught less. I had four keepers yesterday and 20 short fish. I saw a lot of shad yesterday on the graph too.

"Today the shad were gone, and I only caught 12-15 fish, all short. I had maybe half a dozen pull off too. They were just slapping at it. I tried switching colors, but it didn't help."

Powell Disqualified

Mississippi's Allen Powell made a costly mistake today when, with 5 minutes to go, he decided to make a few casts to the bridge pilings near the McFarland Park launch. Turns out he was in off-limits water, and his (and his co-angler's) catch was disqualified for the day. He finished in 8th place on the strength of yesterday's 3 for 8-12.

"I'm pretty disgusted with that," he said. "It was my fault. I just didn't realize the off-limits went that far out into the river. I had 3 fish that would have put me in 4th place. It cost me $3,000."

He had a tough practice, but on the last afternoon he found that fish were on the points of little coves in Shoal Creek. If there were docks there, he found better fish relating to them in the mornings. He also fished McKernan Creek on the opposite side of Wilson. The two creeks had the kind of stained water he needed to keep the fish shallow yet not too spooky.

"I caught them on Bandit 200 and 100 series crankbaits in Spring Craw color, which is chartreuse with a brown back," he said. "I started off catching them in 6-8 feet, but as it warmed up I was catching them in less than 2 feet of water. I had 3 keepers each day, and probably 15-20 short fish, all largemouths."

Although he made a good check and earned some decent points, he's still chaffed about his error. "I'll just have to swallow it some kind of way," he said. "It's going to be a long ride home."

Notable

> Half the 10-man field zeroed today. Two caught 1 fish, one had 2 fish, and the two FLW Tour pros caught limits.

> Morehead now leads the Central EverStart points, followed by Pack in 2nd and Alabama's Robert Robinson – who finished 10th in this event – in 3rd.

Final (Day 4) Standings

1. Mark Pack – Mineola, Tx – 5, 16-14 – 5, 15-15 – 10, 32-13 – $10,000 + Ranger Boat
2. Dan Morehead – Paducah, Ky – 5, 12-15 – 5, 10-10 – 10, 23-09 – $10,000
3. Larry Sisk – Evansville, In – 5, 10-13 – 2, 5-06 – 7, 16-03 – $9,000
4. Joe Bennett – Independence, Mo – 5, 12-01 – 1, 2-11 – 6, 14-12 – $8,000
5. Dewey Allen – Connersville, In – 3, 7-06 – 1, 4-07 – 4, 11-13 – $7,500
6. Mark Richards – Houston, Tx – 2, 9-03 – 0, 0-00 – 2, 9-03 – $6,500
7. Dick Shaffer – Rockford, Oh – 4, 8-12 – 0, 0-00 – 4, 8-12 – $5,500
8. Allen Powell – Clarksdale, Ms – 3, 8-12 – 0, 0-00 – 3, 8-12 – $5,000
9. Rusty Smith – Somerset, Ky – 3, 8-12 – 0, 0-00 – 3, 8-12 – $4,500
10. Robert Robinson – Mobile, Al – 3, 7-10 – 0, 0-00 – 3, 7-10 – $4,000