Today’s Friday Finale historical news photo, Wurm Pockets $100K, takes us back to 1999, and the early days of the $100,000 payoffs. Mike Wurm had just won the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Wheaties Tournament on Lake Murray. He weighed the heaviest one-day catch of the tourney on the final day to seal the victory. The news report said he did most of his damage in the tournament throwing a Carolina-rigged plastic worm, but he had to change things up that final day.
According to the report, “Wurm began building his winning limit by running a shad-colored Shad Rap by the posts of boat docks early.”
“‘I caught the first fish by 7:30 a.m., a 3-pounder,’ he said. Then he flipped those docks with a Strike King Bitsy Bug and caught his two biggest fish on the little jig, including a 6-pound, 12-ounce Lake Murray lunker.”
It wasn’t all good news though, as he believes he lost the same good fish twice that final day from a little pocket and fearing that the mistake might cost him the victory. As it turned out, it made no difference in the end, as most of the final anglers struggled to catch bass. Mark Davis ended up in second with a small 7-07 limit, followed by Larry Nixon, Don Stevens and Dan Morehead.
