DAYTON, Tenn. - Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tenn., didn't take long to set himself up for a splendid chance at his first victory in a Walmart FLW Tour bass tournament.
Wooley, whose only previous win in FLW competition was on Pickwick Lake in the Bass Fishing League two years ago, was second after the first day of the tournament presented by Igloo Coolers out of Dayton Boat Dock on Lake Chickamauga and took the lead in the second round Friday. He added to that with a five-bass bag totaling 23 pounds, 7 ounces on Saturday, giving him 72-14 for the tournament and a cushion of 6-2 over Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark., who rose from fifth to second with the day's top haul of 25-12.
And Wooley got his quickly. He said he had his first keeper within 10 minutes, five totaling about 17 pounds by 8 a.m. and the five he kept by 8:30. By 10:30 he was scouting other areas besides the one that's been so good to him.
Weigh-in wasn't until 4 p.m.
"It's been an unbelievable week for me," Wooley told the crowd waiting at Wal-Mart and those watching on "FLW Live." "I hope I can have one more good day in that area."
His biggest fish Saturday weighed 7-3.
Although Dayton's Michael Neal fell from fourth place to eighth with four sizable bass - one short of the daily limit - he made the important top-10 cut for today's final round, as did Richard Peek from Centre, Ala., in ninth place.
Veteran pro Larry Nixon from Arkansas has been sharing Wooley's main area and is sixth at 59-14 after a 22-11 day.
Blaylock didn't make the biggest climb Saturday. That was Bryan Thrift of Shelby, N.C., who came into the tournament second in season points after winning the tour's stop last month at Lake Eufala in Alabama. He set a high bar early in the weigh-in with a 25-1 total that shot him up from 19th place to third at 62-6. The two-day totals were tightly bunched.
David Dudley of Lynchburg, Fla. - the tour's all-time leading money winner - is fourth at 62-2, and first-day leader Billy McDonald of Greenwood, Ind., is fifth at 59-15.
"If we were anywhere but Chickamauga, I might be saying I'm fishing for second place tomorrow," Dudley told the crowd. "But here I still can win. That's the great thing about this place."
Darrell Davis of Dover, Fla., 10th in the standings after Eufaula, is the only top-10 points holder besides Thrift in the final 10 on Chickamauga. He's seventh at 59-5, with Neal at 58-4, Peek at 57-5 and Terry Bolton of Paducah, Ky., 10th at 56-4.
"I'm fishing new water every day, and it's working," Davis said.
Each of the semifinalists finishing 11th through 20th earned $11,634. The winner today will get $125,000.
Asked while standing in line for the weigh-in how his day went, Neal said, "Not good. I might squeak in at 10th." On the stage, he noted that he didn't live up to his "5 by 3" jersey theme - "It means 'Five fish by 3 o'clock,' but unfortunately I didn't get my five today" - but admitted that he had "four pretty good ones."
They totaled 16-9.
"I would've had over 20 (pounds), but I lost a 4-pounder," Neal said. "I had him on the hook, but he jumped through my bait. But other guys lost fish, too."
He also made the top 10 when the tour last visited Chickamauga two years ago, and he said to make the final cut in his hometown again was "awesome."
Blaylock had two fish weighing 8-6 and 7-2 in his huge haul and "lost another really, really big one," he said, despite having "to run around all day, getting a bite here and there. I was cranking crank bait as fast as I can."
Peek, who lives about a mile from Weiss Lake in northeastern Alabama and about 45 minutes from Lake Guntersville, helped start the Auburn bass fishing club after graduating from Cherokee County High School. Now 28, he's in his second year as a Walmart FLW Tour pro after three years as a Tour co-angler. This is his first top-10 finish on the big series, but he had a few on the EverStart/Rayovac series.
He already was set for this year's Forrest Wood Cup championship tournament in August as a result of a top-10 finish in the Rayovac Championship.
"I feel real good about what's happened this week," Peek said, noting that Chickamauga has "a ton of fish" but is relatively small for a crowd of nearly 150 boats the first two days of a tournament.
"I had about 20 places I knew could be good, but everybody else has the same 20 places. There's not a lot of off-the-wall places to find fish in this lake, so crowdedness is a problem," he said after his 19-11 haul. "Today was better. I was able to hit a couple of spots today that I couldn't go to the first two days."
The 10 will take off this morning at 6:30 from the Dayton Boat Dock. The tour expo again will be at Wal-Mart in Dayton starting at noon, leading up to the weigh-in at 4.
The tour's final regular-season tournament is in two weeks in Maryland on the Potomac River.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.