LAKE PLACID, N.Y.— The bass anglers who figured it out last year still know the secret to catching winning limits on the Saranac Chain of Lakes at the ESPN Great Outdoor Games presented by Dodge.

Two-time Great Outdoor Games gold medallist Peter Thliveros brought in an 11-pound, 7-ounce limit for the second-heaviest weight in the qualifying round Friday. Thliveros, who is a favorite for a three-peat, confessed that he was most anxious about the qualifying round, which cuts the initial field of 10 anglers to six whose first-day scores are zeroed as they compete for medals on day two.

"My stomach was in knots this morning," Thliveros said. "I couldn't eat anything … thinking about this tournament. I'll fish a lot easier tomorrow."

Thliveros said he plans to stick with the Middle Saranac, which has yielded two previous winning weights for him.

"But the fishing's a little bit different that what it was in the past," he said. His bag of five smallmouth bass came mostly from open water, a bit deeper than in previous years. To boat them, Thliveros is using a combination of topwater lures during the early morning and Carolina rigs with jig heads as the day gets brighter and the water clearer.

"If it would cloud up a little bit, the topwater bait would last longer," Thliveros said.

He said the post-spawn feeding frenzy has helped all of the anglers in bagging limits, although the fish are "gaunt."

"The potential is there for a 12- to 14-pound stringer but they'd have to be really good."

Thliveros will join an all-star lineup of anglers for Saturday's competition, including the two anglers who joined him on the medal stand in 2001. Gary Klein, of Weatherford, Texas, brought in a 9-14 limit, and fellow Texan Clark Wendlant, of Cedar Park, skimmed in below the wire with a 9-6 limit that landed him the sixth qualifying spot.

"It was really a fun day," said Klein, 2001 silver medallist and a 20-time CITGO BASSMASTERS Classic qualifier. "There's a lot of fish out there to be caught, but size is key. Right now, we're fishing post-spawn, and a good quality fish is hard to find."

Wendlant, the 2001 bronze medallist, agreed that a heavy weight will be hard to find, both because of the spawn and because smallmouth bass are slightly more prevalent in the Saranac Chain of Lakes than their bulkier largemouth cousins.

"I caught 15 or 18 keepers," Wendlant said. "I caught fish all day long … a lot of small ones (but) I need two, maybe three really big bites and I just don't know if I can get them."

Eight-time B.A.S.S. winner Shaw Grigsby, of Gainesville, Fla., brought in the day's heaviest string, 11-9, mostly using tube baits near rock cover. Grigsby said fishing with topwater lures bagged him an early limit, but it took deeper fishing to catch 10 pounds by late morning.

"It was just a spectacular day," Grigsby said. "The Lord really blessed me today. This is a very exciting moment and I feel very good about fishing the final day."

Rounding out the field were 2001 Classic champion Kevin VanDam and 2002 B.A.S.S. Federation Championship winner Ken Christ, whose 9-14 weight tied with Klein and placed him just above VanDam in the day's standings. Christ, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., is the first amateur to fish in the Great Outdoor Games.

"This is awesome. This group … well, just to be associated with them is knee-buckling," Christ said.

VanDam brought in his 9-9 limit despite missing the Thursday practice day. The Kalamazoo, Mich. angler received the first ESPY Award for Best Outdoors Sports Athlete Wednesday night in Los Angeles and confessed that a long Thursday of travel to the games might have affected his fishing.

"I started slow," he said. "(I) had a bit of jet lag."

The four anglers eliminated from the field were four-time Classic champion Rick Clunn; three-time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year and former Classic champion Mark Davis; former Classic winner and two-time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year Larry Nixon; and the newly crowned B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year and 1999 Classic winner Davy Hite, all of whom caught 5-bass limits.

"I had a pretty good day," Hite said. "It's always a good day when you're able to catch five fish."