The Front Lands
Hoernke Leads After 3, Stormy Weather A Complication

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell Sean Hoernke's screaming 'Come on shad!'

Think for a moment about a single subway car jam-packed with 400 people. Oops, here comes a late rush and 50 more bodies shove their way in. Folks in there still aren't packed as tightly as the Top 10 at Norman. Take a look.

Sean Hoernke caught 13-05 today and leads Jim Moynagh by 10 ounces. Hoernke's morning bite didn't fire again, and he caught all his fish from beds.

Moynagh's mum about his bait, but he's fishing docks, and a lot of new ones at that. He caught 12-11 today, mostly from new water, and will run around and look again tomorrow.

Rookie Scott Canterbury, who led day 1, tallied an 11-06 limit. He largely stopped looking at fish today, but fished around where his best bed-fish came from the first 2 days.

And it's still close below that. Here's a look at the Top 10. Total weight is followed by distance from leader in red.

1. Sean Hoernke: 5, 13-05
2. Jim Moynagh: 5, 12-11 (0-10)
3. Scott Canterbury: 5, 11-06 (1-15)
4. Art Ferguson III: 5, 10-13 (2-08)
5. Greg Pugh: 5, 10-13 (2-08)
6. Mike Surman: 5, 10-06 (2-15)
7. Glen Browne: 5, 9-13 (3-08)
8. Bud Pruitt: 5, 8-09 (4-12)
9. Brent Ehrler: 5, 8-06 (4-15)
10. Chris Baumgardner: 5, 4-03 (9-02)

The biggest surprise today was Baumgardner's three-fish sack. This is his home lake, and he was noticeably upset while onstage.

Everyone expected the bed-fishing bite to dwindle, and that's exactly what it's doing. There are a few stragglers, but most fish have pulled out and have begun the recuperation phase.

Adding some woe to the formula is the fact that the shad haven't begun their mating ritual in earnest. Largemouth bass rely on that shad spawn to recuperate from their own spawn, so until the shad get romantic, the bite will likely stay slow, at least for quality.

Which is what's it's all about – quality bites. Limits are still commonplace, but kickers got much tougher today.

The major wildcard is the weather. The head wall of a cold front hit late this afternoon, and stormy weather, with heavy downpours, lightning, and perhaps hail, is expected overnight. The thunderstorm activity is predicted to continue tomorrow morning and afternoon, then subside into post-frontal conditions with a resultant 20-degree temperature drop.

The weather should push the rest of the fish off the bank, so there's every likelihood the bed-fish will all be gone tomorrow. Plus, the rains could dump a bunch of color in the water. And sans sun, bed-fishing will be tough to begin with.

Whether the weather will affect the shad is unclear.

There could possibly be a return to the bite anglers practiced on – reaction baits in staging areas. Practice was all clouds, and at least a few in the Top 10 think cloud cover could help their bite tomorrow.

Any way you look at it, is should come down to ounces. The winner could even be decided by a single dead-fish penalty.

Hoernke 'Grooving'

Hoernke, as the leader, has a special appreciation for how tight the standings are.

"I feel like I'm not going to sleep real well tonight," he said. "It's anybody's game. There's nine of us that have a chance – I think that's the truth. It's definitely not going to be a Lake Toho blowout, I can guarantee you that. It's going to be anybody's game until the last 5 minutes.

"It's kind of nice in that regard – it's nice that I'm a couple of ounces ahead of people," he added. "I'm in a good position for tomorrow, and I figure if I can catch what I did today, that'll be enough. Tomorrow's the time to get serious."

Although his morning shad-spawn bite was pretty much a bust again, he described his day as "good overall." That's because he felt like he was "grooving really well" – meaning, he fished all new stuff and got bit.

"I woke up with nothing to go to," he noted. "I caught them sight-fishing – all except one. I'm just finding new ones every day. That's been the deal this whole week. I haven't had a place to fish all week. I've just been running a specific pattern. I know in general what to look for, and if it looks right, I stop. It's kind of a beautiful thing, really."

With the weather, though, he's resigned to the fact that he might have to "scrap it all and just go fishing tomorrow."

"I'm screaming 'Come on shad!' I just keep hoping those shad will fire in the morning, but the bass just aren't quite ready to commit to post-spawn. It'd be nice to catch a quick 10 pounds and have it done. That would be such a beautiful thing. It could happen. We'll see tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the truth."

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell After today, Jim Moynagh feels he's got a better handle on which docks to fish.

Immediately after the weigh-in, Moynagh hadn't seen the weather forecast. He wants it to stay sunny, because he caught them better in the tournament than he did in practice, but he likely won't get what he desires.

He fished docks again today, but noted he did learn a few little things. One was a "slight detail in lure presentation." The other was a better understanding of which docks are holding fish.

"I pulled up on a couple of docks I hadn't even fished and there were a bunch of them under this one dock," he noted. "Who knows if they'll stay around or not. And as far as trying to figure out which docks are the better ones to pull up on – I'm finally starting to realize a little bit about what kind of dock I want to fish."

About what he thinks will make the difference tomorrow, he said: "It's the guys that can figure out how to catch them under tomorrow's conditions, and out of those people, who gets the bigger bite, like always."

And he was able to eliminate an area today which he said had been "killing" him. "It killed me yesterday, and today I lost an hour and a half in there and didn't catch anything. I have to throw that out, add some other stuff, and hopefully I can catch them this good or maybe better."

3rd: Canterbury 'Just Going Fishing

Canterbury's been here before. Three weeks ago, to be exact, when he was 2nd and 2 pounds back on day 3 at Smith Lake.

"I'm not nervous," he said today after weigh-in. "Tomorrow I'm just going fishing. It's just another day to me."

He bed-fished all of day 1 and caught the best sack, changed some yesterday, and changed again today.

"I really didn't sight-fish today," he said. "I ended up catching a few off beds, but I just went back to where I'd been fishing and caught a little better quality than I did the second day.

"The second day I laid off pretty hard – just tried to stay close and catch 10 pounds. We'll have to go from here and see how it ends up."

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell Scott Canterbury says two Top 10s in a row is 'like a dream come true.'

About what a $200,000 win would mean to him in his rookie season, he said: "Oh man, it would be amazing – a dream come true. It would be a life-changing experience. I don't know exactly how it would be, but I've always wanted to be a professional angler. So yes, it would be a dream come true."

Additional Notes

4th: Art Ferguson III

"Kickers are the tough part. I've been real fortunate to get (one) every day in this tournament so far, so we'll see what happens.

"I've had a real unusual tournament. I've been fishing horrible, but I'm sitting up here in the Top 10. And every day I've been leaving fish I find that I can't get to bite. Yesterday I go (back) out and (catch) a 6-05. Today it was a 4 or a 4 1/2 (that I went back to and caught). And today I ended up leaving a fish – a 4-pounder. Hopefully she'll bite tomorrow and it could change here for the end of the tournament.

"I've been getting a little better spot bite. I've been fishing for spots in the morning, and I think it's going to pay off one of these days. The first day I went out and had a 10-pound limit on spots pretty quick.

"I'm trying to keep an open mind and I'm using about five different Gary Yamamoto plastics. And I'm getting bit on everything I'm throwing. I'm having a good time. I'm not fishing well personally, but the Good Lord's blessed me."

5th: Greg Pugh

"I've been sight-fishing the whole time. I love to sight-fish, and that's all I've been doing here. But today I did a little more fishing. I started out doing something a little different. I didn't put them all in the boat like I need to do. I hope I can get started on the same thing in the morning and really execute on them.

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell Art Ferguson III feels says this is an 'unusual' tournament – he's not fishing well, but here he is with a shot to win.

6th: Mike Surman

"This is just a great lake – the fishing's fantastic. You catch a ton of fish and it's just an awesome place. And that's what's really exciting. When you're catching fish, everybody's happy. It may not be the kind of weight I wanted today, but when everybody's catching fish, you're having a good time.

"(Tomorrow) I have to go figure something out to catch a couple better fish. I thought I had something a little bit figured out, but that's how fishing goes. When you think you've got it figured out, you find out you don't."

7th: Glenn Browne

"I'm going to have to fish some new water. I really burned them up yesterday. I had a phenomenal day and culled out another limit that would have weighed maybe 12 pounds. They were just really biting.

"Stuff changed. I think the fish finished up on spawning. I've been sight-fishing all week, and I'll have to go look for some more fish tomorrow."

8th: Bud Pruitt

"I've been running new water each day. I was really fortunate yesterday to pull into an unbelievable pocket, (but) I cleaned it out. I knew the deal was done.

"I had a lot of missed opportunities today, and I didn't fish very clean. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the job done a little better. I was in 100th place after day 1. You can catch a 14- or 15-pound bag out there, which will take you a long way."

9th: Brent Ehrler

"I have plenty of work to do out there. The fishing was a lot tougher. I've been catching a lot of keepers each day, and getting a kicker fish. I didn't get any of the bigger bites today, and I didn't catch nearly as many."

10th: Chris Baumgardner

"I'm trying to figure out (what happened). The good thing about this tournament is I got to stay home. I got to watch my boy play baseball the other night. That boy made an over-the-shoulder catch. That's the best thing about this. He's playing baseball better than I'm fishing.

"I'm going to go fishing (tomorrow). I pretty much ran out of fish in (my) area. I'm going to go to some new places and maybe throw some topwater and do some different things (to) try to catch a big bag."

Notable

> Day 3 stats – 10 anglers, 9 limits, 1 three.

> Hoernke's most recent win was the 2006 Smith FLW Series.

> Three of the Top 10 anglers also made the Top 10 at Smith Lake 3 weeks ago: Canterbury, Pugh and Browne.

Weather Forecast

Here's the weather forecast for the final tournament day. For more weather information, including satellite and radar imagery, visit OutdoorsFanWeather.com.

> Sun., April 27 - T-Showers - 74°/60°
- Wind: From the E/NE at 8 mph

Day 3 Standings

1. Sean Hoernke -- Magnolia, Tx -- 5, 13-05

2. Jim Moynagh -- Carver, Mn -- 5, 12-11

3. Scott Canterbury -- Odenville, Al -- 5, 11-06

4. Art Ferguson Iii -- St. Clair Shores, Mi -- 5, 10-13

5. Greg Pugh -- Cullman, Al -- 5, 10-13

6. Mike Surman -- Boca Raton, Fl -- 5, 10-06

7. Glenn Browne -- Ocala, Fl -- 5, 9-13

8. Bud Pruitt -- Houston, Tx -- 5, 8-09

9. Brent Ehrler -- Redlands, Ca -- 5, 8-06

10. Chris Baumgardner -- Gastonia, Nc -- 3, 4-03