by Glenn Hudson
For the Salisbury Post
Kevin Chandler of New London won the FLW Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League Piedmont Division tournament on High Rock Lake Saturday.
He finished with a weight of 18 pounds, 5 ounces to take the winner’s check of $3,671.
In the co-angler division, Jackie Reilly, of China Grove, earned $1,757 thanks to a catching bass weighing 21 pounds, 3 ounces.
Chandler caught all his fish in water less than 4 feet deep in Crane Creek using a Texas-rigged lizard and a shooter jig around laydowns and docks.
“All my better fish came from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” said the 50-year-old merchandiser for Sun-Drop, whose biggest fish was right at 5 pounds. “I had no idea I would catch those bigger fish later in the day like I did. But I was fishing docks where I had caught big before.”
In the co-angler category, anglers have to fish from the back of the boat and fish where and how their partner in the front of the boat wants to fish. Reilly, 41, was paired with David Wright, a High Rock Lake legend who tied for third place behind Tommy Jones.
“I knew I would be successful because I had a great pairing with him,” said Reilly, who also won the Bassmasters Weekend Series event here as a co-angler in May.
The two were fishing main-lake points on the lower end of the lake near the dam using Carolina-rigged soft plastics and shaky-head jigs with worms.
“He fishes offshore (away from the bank) the same way I fish. We were throwing the same thing but different colors. The bigger fish were biting mine and not his. I had my limit at 8:30 a.m., and those were the fish I weighed in,” Reilly said. “We caught fish good up to about 10 a.m., and then our bite shut down. I knew when I caught my 6 pounder that I was sitting real nice.”
The FLW will return to High Rock Lake for the Wal-Mart BFL North Carolina Division tournament on June 25.