PLATTSBURGH -- Pro Pete Gluszek of Mt. Laurel, N.J., caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 4 ounces Thursday to retain the lead in the $1 million Walmart FLW Series® BP Eastern Division tournament on Lake Champlain with a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 39-11.

"I had a lot of good things happen to me today," said Gluszek, who has amassed more than $201,000 in career earnings with FLW Outdoors. "I didn't have as much weight today but none the less I caught quality fish."

Thursday, Glusek caught four largemouths and one smallmouth on a largemouth pattern that he developed.

"The boat pressure got to me today," Gluszek added. "There were two other boats in the area that I fished and it seemed that every time I wanted to get on the sweet spot one of the other boats would be there.

"My timing was bad and I didn't get a lot of opportunities there. So I decided to go to some backup areas and I ended up developing a pattern that I hadn't been on before."

Gluszek explained that this pattern is something that he hasn't been doing and that the weather is going to be conducive to it.

"Today, I caught some big fish and caught numbers on this pattern," Gluszek said. "The smallmouth pattern that I had been fishing didn't work today. This area is less than two miles apart and is more of a largemouth area but I have caught smallmouths as well."

Gluszek now holds a 2-pound, 10-ounce lead over second place Keebler pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa., who managed to haul in a total of 10 bass weighing 37-01 during the first two days of competition.

"The hardest thing to do in tournament fishing is to win wire-to-wire," Gluszek added. "It's a challenge but I feel like I am on the right patterns and I am in an excellent area."

Rounding out the top five pros are Prilosec pro Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla. (10 bass, 36-09); Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas (10 bass, 36-08) and Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va. (10 bass, 36-06).

Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., earned the day's $464 Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 5-pound, 15-ounce bass.

Overall there were 881 bass weighing 2,397 pounds, 5 ounces caught by 183 pros Thursday. The catch included 167 five-bass limits.

Pros are competing this week for a top award of $125,000 plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the BP East-National Guard West Fish-Off and a shot at advancing to the $2 million, 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where the winning pro will earn as much as $1 million -- the sport's biggest award.

Sam Mitchiner of Garner, N.C., leads the Co-angler Division with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 35-00 followed by Wayne Frierson of Manning, S.C., in second place with 10 bass weighing 32-11.

"Everything worked out great today," said Mitchiner, who is looking for his first top-10 in the FLW Series. "I did lose a few fish that would have given me a better weight but that's how it goes sometimes. My goal today was 15 pounds so I think I did really well."