By 8:45 a.m., Jamie Hartman was one of six anglers who already had a five-bass limit. Hartman, the tournament leader the first two days, posted 15 1/2 pounds on the BASSTrakk leaderboard to keep him in first place, unofficially. It’s a repeat of what he did yesterday, when he sacked 20 pounds for the second day in a row.
“I got on ’em quick,” Hartman said of his Friday performance. “I got on ’em in the first hour, hour-and-a-half. I had 18 pounds pretty quick. That took a lot of pressure off.”
Hartman has relied on a Carolina rig all week. But Friday two key fish, including a 5-pound smallmouth, came on a half-ounce Riot Baits jig.