NATCHEZ &045; After the first day of the $15,000 Isle of Capri Casting for Cash Big Bass Tournament the score is Lake Concordia 13, Lake St. John 3.

David Beach of Natchez coaxed a 6.37-pound bass out of Lake Concordia on a day that saw fisherman in that lake nearly sweep the board.

&uot;It was a Lake Concordia kind of day,&uot; tournament director Eddie Roberts said.

&uot;The overcast skies and low barometric pressureŠ Concordia’s a bad weather lake.&uot;

Of the 16 fish that placed in the bi-hourly weigh ins, all but three came from Lake Concordia.

&uot;Safe daylight&uot; found 90 anglers out on their respective lakes &045; they will change lakes today &045;trying to pull in the biggest bass they could.

The top 10 fish overall will win cash prizes. Top prize is $5,000.

First place in each weigh is $300, $200 goes to second, $100 for third and $75 for fourth.

Each angler can only place one fish in each weigh-in, but there is no limit to how many he can put in the overall top 10.

Don Davis of Port Gibson won the 6-8 a.m. weigh with a 5.83-pounder he caught at 6 a.m. He said he caught it on the seventh tree he hit.

&uot;That early in the morning, I though she was a lot bigger than that.&uot;

The rules state that only artificial lures may be used to catch fish, pork rinds being the only exception.

Davis opted for a plastic worm, dropping a pearl of wisdom along to anglers everywhere.

&uot;When the fishing gets tough, the tough go worm-fishing.&uot;

His toaster-sized catch led the day until David Beach pulled in his 6-pounder to take the 12-2 p.m. weigh and the overall lead going into today.

Beach and Davis are both expecting that a bigger fish is yet to be weighed, but if they are going to be the one to do it, it’ll have to come out of the size-stingy Lake St. John.

&uot;St. John produced a lot of fish, but Concordia had the size,&uot; Roberts said.

&uot;But that could all change tomorrow, this could flip-flop.&uot;

Even when someone pulled a big fish out of St. John, he took a backseat to a Concordian. Brandon Kirby weighed a

4.32-pound fish in the final weigh but had to settle for third behind Beach and Nelson Howell’s 4.49-pounder. Kirby is currently in fourth place overall.

His was the only four-pound fish from St. John and one of just five overall.

Brad Fife managed to parlay a 2.93-pounder into a $75 fourth place finish in the first weigh.

William Allen Butler III won the 8-10 a.m. weigh with a 4.20-pound catch. Danny Smith was second at 3.95; Terrell Jones third at 3.71 and John Morris brought in fourth with a 3.68-pound.

Ross Cagle’s 3.99-pound bass was the lightest to win a weigh, the 10-noon period. Don Davis placed second at 3.66 &045; his second top-10 fish of the day &045; while Roger Kirby took third at 3.44 and Alonzo Walker grabbed fourth at 3.16 pounds.

Today’s fishing again begins at &uot;safe light&uot; and wraps at 2 p.m. The same bi-hourly weigh periods apply.