KONOCTI HARBOR — Steve Ericksen of San Jose maintained his first-round lead and Jeff Billings of Clearlake climbed six places in the standings to third as the field of professionals was cut to 10 following day two of the FLW-Stren Series Pro-Am bass tournament Friday afternoon on Clear Lake.
Only the top 10 pros and top 10 co-anglers advance to today”s final round. The weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. at Wal-Mart in Clearlake.
Tommie Goldston of Gardenville, Nev., the round-one leader in the amateur division, still holds the top spot after Friday”s action with 37 pounds, 11 ounces. Kyle Baker (36-10) of Lancaster and Jeff Garmieson (35-1) of Rancho Cordova are Goldston”s closest pursuers.
In the pro division, Ericksen has 51 pounds and a healthy lead over Randy McAbee Jr. (44-1) of Bakersfield and Billings (43-10).
Also making the cut in the pro division were Mathew Saavedra (42-10) of Redding; Chad Martin (41-14) of Plumas Lake; Rob Riehl (41-13) or Tracy; Matt Newman (41-10) of Agoura Hills); Roy Hawk (40-7) of Salt Lake City, Utah; Michael Tuck (40-4) of Antelope; and Sean Minderman (39-7) of Spokane, Washington.
Minderman edged out Kent Brown (39-6) of Roseville for the 10th and final spot in the pro field by one ounce.
Pros finishing 11th through 37th received a check for varying amounts. That group included Lake County fishermen Mark Crutcher of Lakeport, 17th with 37-6 ($2,042); Wayne Breazeale of Kelseyville, 18th with 37-4 ($2,042); Jimmy Reese of Witter Springs, 19th with 36-14 ($2,042); Tommy Cardoza of Lakeport, 21st with 36-8 ($1,634); Jared Stone of Lakeport, 26th with 35-10 ($1,225); and Steve Perkins of Lower Lake, 37th with 33-3 ($1,021).
In the amateur division, Goldston, Baker and Garmieson will be joined in today”s final round by Christopher Ricci (34-13) of Bend, Ore; David Keithahn (34-1) of Patterson; JR Wright (33-14) of Truckee; David Bush (33-13) of Sonoma; Mark White (33-10) of Tucson, Ariz; Thomas Wang (33-1) of Saratoga; and Craig Smith (33-0) of Truckee.
Amateurs finishing 11th through 37th received a paycheck. That group included Richard Brown Jr. of Clearlake Oaks, 37th with 26-5 ($424).
Mark Lavine of Lakeport finished 78th with 19-8.
Thursday”s and Friday”s blast-off and weigh-in took place at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa.
