The smallmouth bass fishing at Lake St. Clair might not be as good now as it was at
the Elite Series Angler of the Year Championship last fall. But you couldn’t tell that
from the Day 1 results of the YETI Bassmaster Elite. There were 14 five-bass limits
weighing 20 pounds or more at the AOY Championship last Sept. 29; there were 18
Thursday.
“I didn’t expect them to bite this good,” said David Mullins, who had one of the two
24-pound bags weighed Thursday. “I figured 16, 17 pounds a day would get you in
the top 40. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now.”
No, it certainly doesn’t. Steve Kennedy’s limit weighing 17-15 was good for 43 rd
place on Day 1. Atop the leaderboard, with 10 more ounces than Mullins, is John Cox,
who weighed 24-12.
“When I caught about 20 pounds today, I went practicing (for tomorrow),” Cox said.
“I ended up catching two five-pounders. That’s the biggest bag of smallmouth I’ve
ever caught.”
So, yeah, at least for one day, Lake St. Clair is fishing every bit as good as it did last
fall. Even a little bit better, in fact.