Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 19, 1991                   TAG: 9104190182
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOORS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BASS PLAYING HARD TO GET

Those were the unnerving sounds of Denny Stacey's fishing line breaking Thursday during the first day of the $75,000 Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championship on Smith Mountain Lake.

Three times! Three bass lost!

Even then, the 32-year-old taxidermist from Marion, S.C., brought 8 pounds, 8 ounces of fish to the Roanoke Civic Center weigh-in, good for fourth place.

The leader is Jerry Wagner, a 55-year-old pediatric dentist from Ft. Smith, Ark., who landed a limit of five bass that weighed 10 pounds, 7 ounces.

An ounce out of first is Ed Cowan, of Pearl River, N.Y.

"I should have had over 15 pounds," said Stacey. "I got nervous today. I got plumb out of breath. I was shaking. I believe I'll settle down tomorrow."

Ray Scott, the founder of B.A.S.S., asked Stacey, "Are you going to change anything at all tomorrow?"

First-day catches in Scoreboard. C4 Stacey said, "I'm going to change my line."

While 13 of the 42 contestants failed to catch a single 14-inch keeper the first day of the three-day tournament, Wagner had his limit by 10 a.m. He then went searching for new fishing spots.

"In the afternoon, I had one 5 and one 4 [pound fish] to come up to the bait and just missed it," he said.

Wagner was using a flashing, vibrating spinnerbait to locate bass, then switching to a slinking plastic worm or grub to hook the fish.

He said, "The fish just aren't aggressive," and that includes one 3-pound bass that rolled at his lure three consecutive mornings in the same sunken tree top.

The big fish of the day was a 4-pounder landed by Cary Backward of Salina, Okla. Only three limits were recorded.

"No one should be ashamed today if they didn't catch fish," said Cowan, whose limit included two smallmouth bass. "It was tough fishing."

While many of the contestants are easing their Ranger boats into the creeks and coves of the upper, Roanoke River arm of Smith Mountain, Cowan is making a 30-minute dash from the Hardy launch ramp to the clear water of the lower lake.

"I'm gambling on going where the others aren't," he said.

The crystal water is a window that allows him to sight-cast to bass moving onto their spawning grounds, he said.

Charles "Les" Milburn, who is third with 9 pounds, 10 ounces, also is probing transparent water, but he is finding that the bass he sees also can see him.

"I saw 4-, 5-, 6-pound bass swimming today that just ignored your lures," said the Hagerstown, Md., fisherman. "If they don't want to bite, they don't. You just have to keep going after the aggressive ones."

The fisherman who catches the most pounds of bass during the tournament becomes the 1991 B.A.S.S. Federation champion during ceremonies beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Roanoke Civic Center.