Since Day 1 at Beaver Lake was kind of a snoozer, no huge bags and not many stars at the top, I thought we could look at the Busch Shootout Contenders.  Jeffrey Thomas leads at Beaver with 16.5lbs., after reading his story, I do not like his chances to hold on.  In Beaver Lake’s defense, its hard to compare to Amistad, Santee Cooper, Lake Murray and the rest of the hawg fests we have had in the last few months.  It is going to take more than a few meanmouth bass to raise eyebrows this year

Place Name                      Body Of Water               Day lbs-Ozs
————————————————————————

     1 Preston Clark             Santee Cooper Reservoir,      1   39-06         
     2 Ishama Monroe             Lake Amistad, Texas           3   34-01         
     3 Aaron Martens             Santee Cooper Reservoir,      4   32-10         
     4 Mike Wurm                 Santee Cooper Reservoir,      3   32-04         
     5 Kevin Wirth               Santee Cooper Reservoir,      2   31-15         
     6 Jimmy Mize                Lake Amistad, Texas           2   31-14         
     7 Ken Cook                  Lake Amistad, Texas           1   31-10         
     8 Fred Roumbanis            Lake Amistad, Texas           4   28-01         
     9 Greg Hackney              Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas       1   22-02         
    10 Mark Tyler                Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas       3   21-13         
    11 Greg Hackney              Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas       4   20-08         
    12 Takahiro Omori            Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas       2   20-06        

I think the guys in 8th place and up are pretty safe bet to plan their fall around the shootout dates, where they will fish for a $100,000.  Its also important to note the Preston Clark has already secured a spot with his first day limit at the Classic at Toho.  I am not sure how that is handled, but I am guessing that will leave another spot for the guy that finished in 13th.  I am guessing 9-12th places will be displaced by the Guntersville & Clark Hills Elite Series stops.

Should be fun to follow throughout the rest of the year,
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com