The largest obstacle most of these teams have had to overcome is the 16-inch minimum length limit for largemouth.
A big part of the fish that were brought to the scales yesterday were Kentucky spotted bass. Most of the limits would have never been filled without those. They only have to measure 12 inches. Meanwhile the number of 15- to 15 1/2-inch largemouth caught yesterday was legendary.
It would have been a completely different story if this event had been held just three weeks later. The 16-inch minimum length limit didn't work on this lake for the managers who proposed it. So come Jan. 1, 2015, the minimum length limit for this lake will fall to 13 inches.
After talking to a few teams (some who failed to weigh a keeper on day one) it's clear this tournament would have a completely different look and feel if the regulation had gone into affect Dec. 1. Many of those teams caught limits of 15 inchers, and the hurt feelings of those that went 15 15/16-inches would have been saved.
