Birmingham, Alabama - With their pros dictating nearly everything from fishing location to the amount of time spent on the water, tournament co-anglers will tell you that versatility is not only key, but unequivocally the single most important factor behind any successful title run. Case in point: Chad Parks.

In a textbook display of angling versatility, Parks reached into his bag of tricks, zigged when his pro zagged, caught fish on five different baits and walked off the weigh-in stage at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center with the largest sack recorded in the entire Co-angler Division - a five-fish stringer weighing 11 pounds, 4 ounces.

"It was a pretty awesome day I have to say," said Parks. "A lot of co-anglers don't practice a whole lot. But I really put my time in before this tournament. And if it weren't for my practice, I never would have decided on the right baits to use."

So what were Parks' baits of choice?

"Let's see," he said. "I caught two fish on two different jigs. I caught one Carolina rigging. I caught one on a Shaky-Head worm and another on a crankbait."

Parks said he also targeted fish on main-river ledges, fishing in 12 to 24 feet of water.

"When I was pre-fishing, I'd get so hot that I'd jump in the water just to cool off. And what I figured out by doing that was that the water temperature would drop off between 10 and 15 degrees when you got down 6 or 7 feet," he said. "So I figured the fish were probably going pretty deep to avoid the heat - at least that's what the smart ones would do. And usually, the smartest fish are the biggest fish."

But despite the fact that the tournament is still far from over, Parks said that he already feels like a winner.

"I've been fishing tournaments since I was 12 years old. In fact, the very first tournament I fished in, my parents had to sign a waiver because I was too young," he said. "So this is like a dream come true for me. It's definitely the biggest and most prestigious tournament I've ever fished in. When I first walked out from back stage today and saw the crowd, I couldn't even believe I was actually here. It's definitely a great feeling."

Now, with a huge leg up on the competition and a place in the top-24 cut all but guaranteed, Parks is in the enviable position of being able to coast during tomorrow's second day of tournament action.

"I'm going to fish hard tomorrow, but I should make the cut no matter what happens on Thursday," he said. "The pressure is really off for now. I'm going to sleep a lot better tonight than last night, that's for sure."

Phillips notches runner-up position

Bolstered by a five-fish sack weighing 10 pounds, 14 ounces, Mark Phillips of Fayetteville, Ark., grabbed second place overall in the Co-angler Division. However, it wasn't the second-place finish that had Phillips excited, it was the fact that he caught any fish at all.

"Last year I made the championship and I didn't weigh in a fish the entire tournament," he said. "So I've basically been waiting a whole year to redeem myself. But to finish the day in second place, that's just fantastic. It's really a big relief."

However, Phillips said that landing his impressive stringer was by no means an easy feat.

"I caught a fish in the first five minutes, but then I didn't catch another keeper until noon," he said. "I started thinking, "Uh-oh. But then the electric company started the current moving and the fishing really turned on from there."

Phillips said that he targeted humps and back-end arms with a combination of jigs, V&M worms and Carolina rigs to land the majority of his catch.

"I'll tell you what, I'm just tickled to death," Phillips said. "It's just so fun to be out here. I love fishing and these are just a great bunch of guys to be around."

Best of the rest

Bruce Dale of Jamestown, Ohio, finished the day in third place after landing a 10-pound, 4-ounce stringer.

Tyrone Phillips of Little Rock, Ark., took fourth place with a 9-pound, 14-ounce catch, and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., finished in fifth place with a catch of 9 pounds, 10 ounces.

Tournament format

While the pros are battling it out in a unique, bracket-style format, the co-angler competition is relatively straight forward. The top-48 co-anglers in the year-end standings will fish for two days. The 24 co-anglers with the largest two-day combined weights will make the cut after Thursday's weigh-in and advance to Friday's finals. Weights are then zeroed out before the top 24 co-anglers head out onto the water one last time on Friday. Ultimately, the angler with the largest stringer during the final day of competition will be crowned co-angler champion.

2006 Wal-Mart FLW Tournament action continues this morning at 7 a.m. (Central) at Pell City Lakeside Park, located at 2801 Stemley Bridge Road in Pell City, Ala.