Tennessee angler jumps out to lead in bass championship

BIRMNGHAM, Ala. — Michael Neal of Dayton, Tenn., unlocked a mysterious fishing puzzle to seize an impressive lead after the first round of the Redcrest Bass Fishing Championship Thursday at Lay Lake.

Neal caught, weighed and released 21 scorable bass weighing at least 2 pounds each to post a firstday weight of 52 pounds, 9 ounces. That gave Neal an 8-pound, 3-ounce cushion over Dalton Head of Moody, Ala., who scored 17 bass that weighed 44-6. Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C., finished the day in third place after scoring 15 bass that weighed 38-13, followed by Dustin Connell of Clanton, Ala., who scored 16 bass that weighed 38 pounds.

All 50 anglers will fish today in the second round. The 20 anglers with the heaviest cumulative weights will qualify for the knockout round on Saturday. They will start the knockout round with zero weight, making the knockout round a new tournament. The 10 anglers with the heaviest weight at the end of the knockout round will advance to the championship round on Sunday, again with zero weight.

The goal is to qualify for the knockout round, and Neal did his best to make sure he gets there. Watching fish with forward facing sonar on a main-lake area, he used a spinning reel to catch seven scorable spotted bass in 30 minutes that weighed 17-10. The bites occurred in flurries, and Neal continued to pad his advantage.

“It really started off quick,” Neal said. “I caught some good fish, and not just scorables, but up in the upper ‘twos,’ and a couple of 3-pounders, so there was good quality average there.”

Neal said that most of the anglers in the top 10 fished the same area.

“I had this place in mind to start, and I really hoped nobody else had found it, so I almost wanted to go to it later and not be seen on it right off the bat,” Neal said. “But there was a couple of other guys there too. There’s a lot of fish there, enough to keep the pressure on it every day.”

There’s nothing conspicuously special about the area, Neal said, except that it has attracted vast concentrations of baitfish.

“There’s more bait in that one area than anywhere else on the lake that I’ve found that’s concentrated, and I think that’s brought a big concentration of fish in there to them,” Neal said. “They’re all just suspended to the bottom from 20 feet to 50 feet, just out there in different balls of bait. You can watch them. They’ll swim through a ball of bait and bust through it and just keep swimming. They’ll go to a different ball and do the same thing. They’re just out there gorging. They’re in an eating mood. Let’s see if they stay that way.”

If not for execution failures, Dalton Head said he would be leading the tournament. He’s fishing the same area as Neal, but he said he had trouble hooking fish.

“My execution was not there at all. I should be leading this thing by 15 pounds, but I just lost fish,” Head said. “Other than that it was a good day, and I’m proud of it. If i make it through tomorrow, it will be all right.”

Spencer Shuffield of Hot Springs finished the day in 23rd place with seven bass that weighed 18-14. Dylan Hays of Hot Springs was in 31st place (5/14-5), and Mark Rose of Wynne was in 38th place (5/11-6).

“Nothing went wrong. I just didn’t catch the quality,” Shuffield said. “I caught 25 bass, but only seven scorable. I’m only a pound and a half out of the cut, so I feel like I need to catch 22 or 24 [pounds] tomorrow.”