Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Dudley goes deep for FLW win in Tenn.
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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With career winnings topping $2 million, professional bass angler David Dudley is firmly established as one of the sport's most dominant anglers.
Yet he got there despite what he felt was a glaring weakness: deep-water fishing. Dudley dreaded events on lakes where the best fishing would likely come on deep patterns.
"Before, if it was a deep-water tournament, I was like, 'Oh man,' " Dudley said Monday.
After a couple of years of focusing on that kind of fishing, Dudley no longer worries about such events. And his confidence just got a huge boost when he used deep water tactics to win the recent Wal-Mart FLW Tour event at the Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes near Knoxville, Tenn.
"I used to hate deep cranking," he said. "But now I'm good to go."
A deep-running crankbait -- Dudley declined to offer details about the particular lure -- was a key early in the tournament as Dudley worked a deep ledge where he'd found some good fish. He led the tournament after the first two days with a catch of 35 pounds, 14 ounces.
Just a few minutes into the second day Dudley had another limit, one he knew would be enough for him to make the cut -- after which weights are zeroed.
Dudley didn't want to further pressure the spot, but also was not willing to risk another angler coming in, so he just camped on the spot the rest of the day, casting a crappie jig to catch white bass.
The spot cooled down by the third day. Dudley had to scramble to catch a five-bass limit and trailed Michigan's Art Ferguson by 3 pounds.
On the final day, Dudley stuck with deep-water techniques, using a 10-inch Berkley Power Worm and a football jig to work the ledges where he knew fish hung.
Dudley's catch during the final two days was 29 pounds, 11 ounces, a little over a pound more than Scott Martin of Florida.
Although Dudley has two huge FLW wins -- at the 2002 Range M1 Millennium and at the 2003 Forrest L. Wood Championship -- the win in Tennessee was his first at a regular FLW Tour stop.
"It was nice to finally get that done," said Dudley, a 32-year-old Lynchburg native whose tournament start came in local events at Smith Mountain Lake.
The win was worth $125,000 and also boosted Dudley to fifth place in the circuit's Angler of the Year points race.
With just one regular tournament left on the schedule, Dudley said his chances of catching points leader Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., were slim.
"He's really good and I don't think he's going to falter," Dudley said. "But I never count myself out."
Dudley has been in the top 10 in the points race five of the 12 years he has been on the tour, with two other years just outside the top 10.
Dudley has already earned a place in the tour's championship at Lake Murray in Columbia, S.C., gaining the spot last year through the FLW Series.
Dudley will participate in a live Internet chat at flwoutdoors.com Wednesday at 3 p.m. Bass fishing fans can submit questions in advance to get the first chance to getting their questions answered, or can wait until the live chat begins.
While Dudley is surging on the FLW Tour, pro angler John Crews of Salem has been struggling on the other major bass circuit, the Bassmaster Elite Series.
Nine events into the 11-tournament tour, Crews sits at 74th in the tour's Angler of the Year points race, his best finish a 30th at the season-opening event at Florida's Harris Chain of Lakes in March.
Barring a miracle in the final two events, his hope of qualifying for a fifth consecutive Classic is at risk.
"It's hard to put your finger on any one thing that's gone wrong," said Crews on Monday. "It's really frustrating."
Crews has weighed five-fish limits almost every day of action, but hasn't been able to connect with big bass.
"It's got me re-evaluating my approach to everything," he said. "And that can be a good thing."
He's also trying to take at least a little solace in the reality of pro bass fishing, and the fact that he has company from some of the tour's bigger names in the lower half of the standings.
"Everybody," he said, "with the exception of, like, three guys, has had bad years."
