Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9505010035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: SOUTH HILL LENGTH: Medium
``I think you just guaranteed yourself a place in the [B.A.S.S. Masters] Classic,'' Dewey Kendrick, B.A.S.S. tournament director, told the 19-year-old Lynchburg angler. Dudley's two-day total, heading into today's final round, is 27 pounds, 13 ounces.
``I'm going for the win tomorrow,'' a confident Dudley said at Friday's weigh-in. ``I was fishing for the limit today.''
Just ounces ahead of Dudley are Mark Hardin of Canton, Ga., with 28 pounds, 2 ounces, and Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., with 27 pounds, 14 ounces.
All three anglers are casting to bass that are in the shallows to spawn. Some have spawned, and that makes for tough fishing, said VanDam, 27, who has won nearly $300,000 in B.A.S.S. tournaments.
``Right after they come off the bed, for a week or two they sit on the bottom by a stump and don't do much at all,'' VanDam said.
To entice a strike, the fish have to be made mad, Dudley said.
``I am putting the [electric] motor on high and just going down the shoreline,'' Dudley said.
It is called sight fishing, and Dudley said he had to crawl Fat Gitzits and plastic crawfish around some bass for 20 minutes before they would hit.
``They were bedding fish, every one of them,'' he said.
First-day leader Denny Brauer, of Camdenton, Mo., dropped to eighth place with a 25-pound, 10-ounce total. Brauer, who won the Virginia Invitational at Kerr in 1993, complained that the lake level was being drawn down rapidly. That not only spoiled his fishing Friday, but could have a long-term impact on the bass, he said.
``The negative of this,'' Brauer said, ``they are going to lose a lot of fry here because they are going to leave them high and dry.''
Veteran Kerr fishermen, including Woo Daves of Spring Grove and Danny Garrett of Hardy, said the spring fishing was as tough as they'd ever seen it.
``This time of year, I've never seen the water this low,`` Daves said.
Neither Daves nor Garrett were in the top 50. Rick Morris of Virginia Beach was the only Virginian to share the top 50 with Dudley. Morris was 45th.
by CNB