LITTLE ROCK — Locals stick out necks, earn checks
Competing in the co-angler division of the Wal-Mart Open marked the first shot at bigtime bass fishing for Danny Faught and Jared Taliaferro of Rogers, who both qualified for the Saturday final and claimed the biggest prizes of their fishing careers.
A middle-aged "seasoned" fisherman, Faught said he had fished small local tournaments on Beaver Lake but had always wondered how he would do against top-level competition.
"So I saved up my money and stuck my neck out to enter," he said Saturday.
Sticking his neck out was worth $8,000 when Faught made the final with a two-day total of 15 pounds, 6 ounces and finished fourth Saturday with five-fish limit weighing 5 pounds, 4 ounces.
As a young angler, Taliaferro had been honing his skills in local bass tournaments and doing well when he was able to make the jump to his first FLW Tour tournament with the help of sponsorship from Arkie Lures of Springdale.
He made the most of the opportunity during the first days of the contest, weighing in a total of 18 pounds, 11 ounces to top all the co-anglers.
Unfortunately, he came up short in the final when he was able to catch only one bass 1 weighing 2/2 pounds.
Despite the reversal, he managed a smile when he collected $3,000 for finishing in ninth place.
Playing by the rules
Joel Richardson of Kernersville, N.C., showed the spirit of true sportsmanship when he reported an inadvertent rules violation that disqualified him from the Wal-Mart Open and a chance tocompete for a $200,000 grand prize.
The veteran pro was disqualified late Friday night for fishing in a off-limits area that was obscured by fog and high water, FLW officials said.
"Due to the fog and high water, I totally misread where the off-limits buoys were," Richardson said in a release through FLW Outdoors. "I stopped on a place shortly after take-off where I thought the off-limit area ended, made a few casts and [pro] Cody Bird idled up to me and pointed out another buoy a couple of hundred yards away that had been moved by high water.
"I immediately made a call to tournament director Bill Taylor and informed him of my actions."
FLW Outdoors chief executive Charlie Evans praised Richardson for being "true professional with the utmost integrity" for reporting the violation.
Good game plan
Practice fishing days before bass tournament are usually devoted to finding bass and figuring out how to catch them, but Burl Smith of Prairie Grove tried a different strategy on the way to making the cut in the co-angler division and finishing in sixth place to win $6,000.
Realizing he would be at the mercy of whoever he was paired with during the Wal-Mart Open, Smith figured he would be more likely to draw pros with preferences for either clear water or muddy water.
"So I spent part of my practice time down close to the dam to see what I could do to catch fish in the clear water and the rest of my time in muddy water to see how to catch fish there," Smith said Saturday. "That's the way it went the first two days of the tournament - one of my pros went to the clearer water and the other one fished the muddy water."
Smith caught limits both days to make the cut with a two-day total of 15 pounds.
Sports, Pages 47 on 05/18/2008