ROGERS -- Scott Canterbury surged past Darrel Robertson in the third round of the Wal-Mart FLW bass tournament at Beaver Lake on Saturday, but six of the final 10 anglers have an equal shot at winning the $125,000 tournament today.
Canterbury, of Springville, Ala., started the third round in second place behind Robertson, but he took the lead by catching five bass that weighed 14 pounds, 6 ounces for a three-day total weight of 45-7. That was nearly 4 pounds lighter than his second-round weight, but Robertson had the same experience. He caught five bass weighing 13-1 Saturday, which was 3-3 lighter than Friday's weight for a three-day total of 44-3.
The next four anglers are riding rising trends. In third place is Jeff Sprague of Point, Texas (5/15-8; 44-0), followed by Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn. (5/16-13; 43-15), Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla. (5/15-12; 43-5) and Chris Whitson of Louisville, Tenn. (5/15-10; 43-0).
Canterbury said he's relying on years of experience at Beaver Lake to amass good weights with a variety of tactics. The key, he said, is to be flexible and open-minded.
"I'm running a lot of new water every day," Canterbury said. "I've been here so many times, and I just know little stretches that I like to fish. Today I went almost to the dam and up the White River. I've been all over this place."
Bass are spawning on Beaver Lake, so a lot of fish are near the bank, but Canterbury said he's only caught a few off spawning beds. He said he's also caught several off wood cover that he could see underwater.
Robertson said he thought he blew his chance to make it to the final round, but two good fish in the last 45 minutes saved his day.
"With about 45 minutes to go, I had about an 8-pound stringer," Robertson said. "I got one that got me to 9 pounds. With 15 minutes to go, I was practicing my exit speech, but in that last 15 minutes I caught the two biggest fish I had."
Sprague said fish are biting so well that he's just enjoying the excellent fishing. He is also aware Morgan, a perennial favorite, is only 1 ounce behind him. While Sprague weighed his fish, Morgan stood in the crowd holding up one finger to remind him.
"That is not the guy you want behind you anywhere you go," Sprague said. "I was in a pocket this morning, and he was in front of me. I just pulled up my trolling motor and got ready to go. I was like, 'There's not a bass left in here. I'm getting out of here.' "
Even so, Sprague said he's got enough going to hold Morgan at bay.
"I've got one thing that's going away and another thing that's coming," Sprague said. "These guys behind me all caught them, too. I'm just ready to go out tomorrow and give it another swing."
Morgan said the key for him today is eliminating the downtime that is always inevitable at Beaver Lake.
"You have to get yourself in a little better position every day and do without that three-hour lull where you're not catching anything," Morgan said. "It's going to happen, so you've got to try to winnow that down so that you're in productive water, and that is not easy to do at Beaver."
Fishing pressure causes those lulls, Morgan said, so it's important to find places that aren't hit so hard.
"There's just not a lot of fish here," Morgan said. "It's a small lake, and it gets beat down easily. If you get in those pressured areas, they don't bite very good. If you get in some fresh water where there's a few fish, you can consistently get bit if you have clouds, wind, rain, etc."
Morgan said he experienced a long dry spell Saturday, but he overcame it by fishing closer to the bank.
"I fished shallower today," Morgan said. "There's a lot of fish spawning."
The weigh-in will be today at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart on Walnut Street in Rogers.
Sports on 04/17/2016