FLW anglers brave round of lightning

Johnny McCombs of Morris, Ala., caught five bass weighing 18 pounds, 15 ounces Saturday and jumped from 11th place to first in the FLW Tour event on Beaver Lake.
Johnny McCombs of Morris, Ala., caught five bass weighing 18 pounds, 15 ounces Saturday and jumped from 11th place to first in the FLW Tour event on Beaver Lake.

ROGERS -- The FLW tournament was a battle of survival Saturday amid thunderstorms during the third round at Beaver Lake.

Forboding signs appeared Friday when the FLW announced Saturday's weigh-in at the FLW Outdoor Expo would move from Wal-Mart to Prairie Creek Park because of weather-related safety concerns.

The storms arrived early Saturday, with ground-strike lightning, large hail and heavy winds downing trees and causing flash flooding throughout northwest Arkansas. A park ranger at Prairie Creek Recreation Area said Saturday that park employees were having a contest to see who could find the biggest downed tree in the park.

Flooding in the low areas and downed trees made the roads leading to Prairie Creek impassable. The weigh-in was held an hour earlier than scheduled and proceeded without any of the usual stage banter among the emcees and anglers.

It was business as usual for the anglers, though. Johnny McCombs of Morris, Ala., vaulted from 11th place to first. He did it by catching five bass weighing 18 pounds, 15 ounces. It was the heaviest limit of the tournament, boosting his three-day total weight to 41-13.

The closest anglers to McCombs were Jason Reyes of Huffman, Texas (5/11-3; 39-9); Cody Meyer of Auburn, Calif. (5/6-13; 35-6); John Cox of DeBary, Fla. (5/12-1; 35-3); and Brandon McMillan of Clewiston, Fla. (5/9-8: 34-5).

The field will be cut to the top 10 for today's final round. The winner will earn up to $125,000, depending on sponsor bonuses.

McCombs did not say how he caught his fish, but he said he had his weight by 8:30 a.m. He checked in several hours early to get out of the weather.

"I think the weather affected the fishermen more than the fish," McCombs said. "The water is flooded into the bushes, and I'm just fishing down the bank line. I'm on a pattern, and I know what to look for. If I pull into a place and it doesn't look right, I'm out of there and on to the next one."

Reyes also caught his weight early. He got a limit within 20 minutes and spent the rest of the day hiding from lightning and fishing during breaks.

"I'm not saying you couldn't pick up a fishing rod, but if you did you felt like you were taking a chance," Reyes said. "It's not worth dying for to get zapped holding a fishing rod in a lightning storm."

Reyes said he sought shelter from lightning in boat slips and under bridges when he could.

"Mostly I just got low in the boat," Reyes said.

The rain complicated the fishing by flooding all the cover he'd planned to fish, Reyes said.

"The problem I'm having is that a lot of cover I was looking to target, I can't see it anymore, so I'm blind casting to bushes and things like that," Reyes said. "It's not as productive as it was."

Except for McCombs and Chris Brasher (10th place), everybody in the top 10 caught less weight Saturday than they did Friday, but Brasher improved by only 1 pound, 5 ounces. Reyes said McCombs has figured out how to fish Beaver Lake at its worst, and he will need to perform much better today to catch McCombs.

"I have to assume he left some behind," Reyes said. "I need 12 pounds or more [Sunday] to have a chance of winning."

In a Facebook post, Bill Taylor, FLW's longtime tournament director, said this is the most challenging tournament of his career. Reyes said it was appropriate for Taylor to allow the third round to continue in such dangerous weather.

"Once they let us go, they can't really call us all back," Reyes said. "You've got guys going 20 miles this way and 25 miles that way. We're all out there, and we'd just have to drive back in the same weather. There's no point in calling it off."

Today's weigh-in is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Prairie Creek Marina.

Sports on 04/30/2017

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