The veteran pro from Salem, VA pieced-together his bag one spot at a time. “One good one here, One good one there, and at the end of the day, it was looking really nice,” said Crews. His biggest bass weighed 5-3.

Crews holds a 12-ounce lead over Greg Hackney.

Crews has a lot of water to himself, a factor that allowed him to go “just bouncing around” in a dozen key areas. “I don’t think fishing pressure is going to be too terribly bad.”

About an hour into the competition the light bulb went ‘on’ for Crews. “I’d been fishing one way for most of the morning. Then I changed baits and caught a four-and-a-half or 5 and saw what (type of cover) it was on so that clued me in a little bit into what I should be doing.”

The type of cover the fish was on likely includes grass, as Crews says this has helped the fishing on Dardanelle since he last fished the lake in 2009. “There’s more shoreline grass. Any time you get that, it’s going to be good for the fishery.”

In contrast to Crews, Hackney didn’t have a limit until 11:30. “I really thought this morning that I must be rotating behind somebody because (in practice) the fish had been biting really good. Those first couple of hours, I was a little tense.”

In similar fashion to Crews, Hackney keyed on a small hint from the fish en route to his heavy total weight. “They were relating just a hair differently to the cover than they had been. I fished slow and steady and it came together. It got better as the day progressed, but not wide open as far as numbers as it was in practice.”

Your Day 1 Top 10:

1.  John Crews             Salem, VA                5  22-09  100
Day 1: 5   22-09
2.  Greg Hackney           Gonzales, LA             5  21-13   99
Day 1: 5   21-13
3.  Grant Goldbeck         Boerne, TX               5  20-01   98
Day 1: 5   20-01
4.  Keith Combs            Huntington, TX           5  19-14   97
Day 1: 5   19-14
4.  Jason Williamson       Aiken, SC                5  19-14   97
Day 1: 5   19-14
6.  Keith Poche            Pike Road, AL            5  19-09   95
Day 1: 5   19-09
7.  Andy Montgomery        Blacksburg, SC           5  19-07   94
Day 1: 5   19-07
8.  James Niggemeyer       Van, TX                  5  19-00   93
Day 1: 5   19-00
9.  Gerald Swindle         Warrior, AL              5  18-12   92
Day 1: 5   18-12
10. Boo Woods              Oneida, KY               5  18-08   91
Day 1: 5   18-08