Alarming start ends with lead
Co-anglers depend on their professional partners for a host of things during a tournament.
Add wake-up calls to the list.
Co-angler Jess Caraballo was tied for the lead after the first day of the FLW Wal-Mart Open on Wednesday at Beaver Lake. He owes a big thanks to partner Craig Taylor of Tallahassee, Fla.
Caraballo, of Danbury, Conn., overslept Wednesday. The culprits were his hotel alarm clock and his travel alarm clock, both of which failed to perform properly.
Caraballo was supposed to meet Taylor at 5: 30 a. m. for the trip to Prairie Creek Marina. When Taylor called to see where Caraballo was, Caraballo was in bed.
Fortunately, Caraballo roused himself and made it to the boat in time, albeit without a life jacket. Fortunately, again, Taylor had an extra jacket in his truck.
“It was a pretty stressful morning,” Caraballo said. “I felt really bad. I’ve never not had an alarm go off. I apologized when he called and when I met him. It was a comedy of errors is what it was.”
For a day that started so poorly, it ended well for Caraballo. He caught five fish that weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces. Big boys missing
Professional Dion Hibdon of Stover, Mo., had a fishing day that perhaps only someone as good as he could complain about.
Hibdon weighed in five fish for 8-15, good enough for 50 th place. Hibdon said he caught about 50 fish Wednesday but none of them were large enough to make for an impressive stringer.
“I haven’t had much luck finding the big largemouth,” Hibdon said. “I chased them Kentuckians all day. I came across a couple of big largemouths, but I couldn’t get them to bite.”
Hibdon’s fishing partner, coangler Ken Keirsey of Owasso, Okla., caught only two fish for 1-14. He either had the best seat or the worst seat in the house.
“It’s hard to catch fishing behind Dion,” Keirsey said at the weigh-in stand.
Hibdon has a lot of experience fishing lakes such as Beaver, but he said the bass are in transition from deep water to spawning beds.
“They don’t even know what they’re doing,” Hibdon said. An inspiring angler
Clay Dyer of Hamilton, Ala., can’t help being an inspiration.
What he really wants is to win FLW Tour tournaments.
“When I’m at my best, I feel I can,” said Dyer, 27, referring to competing with the top professionals on the tour. “I’ve struggled some in big tournaments. Maybe we’re coming out of the slump.”
Dyer was born with no legs and only a partial right arm, but that hasn’t prevented him from becoming a pro fisherman.
Dyer caught a limit of five fish Wednesday that weighed 6-6, which put him in a tie for 116 th place. He caught his fish on crankbaits and Carolina rigs.
The Wal-Mart Open is Dyer’s second FLW Tour event after three years on other tours. Dyer drives his own boat and casts by wedging the rod under his neck and chin with his right arm.
When he sets the hook, Dyer said he just uses the torque of his body to pull the hook. He told the audience at the weigh-in stand he has pulled a 3-pound bass out of the water while setting the hook.
“I really work hard to keep myself in condition,” Dyer said. “We’re always beat up a little at the end of the day.”
