Sabine tough, but toughest ever?

Written by

Ken Duke

Day One of the 2013 Bassmaster Elite Series event on the Sabine River out of Orange, Texas, was tough, but was it the toughest day in Elite history?

Let's take a look.

There were 100 anglers on the water at the Sabine and they weighed in 238 keepers that measured 14 inches or better. The fish weighed 491 pounds, 2 ounces. That works out to an average of 2.06 pounds per bass (basically 2-1). Big fish for the day was a 5-15 caught by Dean Rojas.

All of those numbers are low for a typical Elite event, but are the lowest ever?

Not quite. There was one tougher Elite event, but only one. It happened in the first year of the Elite Series (2006) on Missouri's Table Rock Lake, a deep, clear impoundment known for being stingy with its bass, especially when it's warm. That Table Rock tournament was in mid-September.

Here's a chart for a comparison:

So, as you can see, Table Rock in 2006 was tougher than the Sabine in every statistical category. The Sabine is tough this week — and no doubt made tougher by the 14-inch size limit — but not as hard as "The Rock" a few years back.