CLEARLAKE — Tom White of Costa Mesa grabbed the first-round lead in the pro division standings Thursday during round one of the FLW Toyota Series Western Division pro-am tournament based out of Redbud Park in Clearlake.
White, one of 72 pros and 144 fishermen in the field, weighed in a five-fish limit of 24 pounds, 12 ounces to open up a small lead over FLW veteran Jared Lintner of Arroyo Grande (21-0), Upper Lake’s John Pearl (20-13), North Hollywood’s Sergio Arguello (20-10) and Simi Valley’s Justin Kerr (19-11).
Second-round action took place Friday and final-round action is Saturday with a 3 p.m. weigh-in that will be livestreamed on the FLWfishing.com website. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the weigh-ins at Redbud Park are closed to the public.
White also caught the big fish on Thursday (8 pounds, 7 ounces).
Pearl was among a handful of Lake County pros represented in the field. After Pearl, the next-best finish by a county fisherman was Jimmy Reese (16-5) of Witter Springs in 20th place followed by Paul Bailey (15-12) of Kelseyville in 22nd place, Nicholas Hough of Hidden Valley Lake (15-1) in 24th place, and Jackson Juarez (13-6) of Kelseyville in 38th place.
Joining White, Lintner, Pearl, Arguello and Kerr in the top 10 of the pro standings Thursday were Bryant Smith of Roseville, sixth with 19-10; Scott Mackenzie of Hercules, seventh with 18-15; Stephen Tosh Jr. of Modesto, eighth with 18-9; Aaron Britt of Yuba City, ninth with 18-2; and Jan Skovaisa of Grangeville, Idaha, 10th with 17-12.
Co-anglers
In the co-angler or amateur standings after day one, Rachel Uribe of Long Beach, who was fishing with pro leader White, was sitting in first place after bringing a five-fish limit of 18-2 to the scales. Close behind were Bob Santora of Stockton with 17-9 and Bruce Harris of Oakdale with 17-1. Also in the top five were Ilya Guryanov of West Sacramento with 16-7 and Whitney Uyeda of Buellton with 15-13.
Guryanov caught the big fish on Thursday (size not reported).
Among Lake County co-anglers, Jeff Stewart of Lakepor twas sitting in 12th place (13-4) after day one while Codey McBeth of Hidden Valley Lake was 34th with 8-15 and Omar Juarez Gomora 39th with 7-13.
Series
The 2020 Toyota Series consists of eight divisions — Central, Eastern, Northern, Plains, Southeastern, Southern, Southwestern and Western — each holding three regular-season events, Anglers who fish all three qualifiers in any of the eight divisions and place in the top 25 qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship on Dec. 3-5 on Lake Cumberland in Burnside, Kentucky, for a shot at winning $235,000 cash, including a $35,000 FLW Phoenix bonus for qualified anglers. The winning co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard.
