The anglers have been and are being confronted by an ever-changing set of circumstances on Lay Lake this week. The water rose a few inches the night before the tournament began, giving leader Brandon Palaniuk access to the honey hole where he caught most of his Day 1 weight. Despite storms moving through the area last night, the water actually dropped 4- to 6- inches. This prevented Palaniuk from being able to start where he caught his fish yesterday.
Bernie Schultz had a great start to this event, with 16-4 to sit in 5th. He’s caught a nice 3- pound, 4- ounce spotted bass this morning on a buzzbait. We’ve seen Schultz mix a swim jig and popper in also this morning, and he notified another Elite angler that he caught all of his fish yesterday in the 50 yard stretch that separated them at the time.
Kenta Kimura has had an exciting morning with a 5-pounder and three fish for 10-0 to jump into second. Bob Downey with a quick limit for 8 pound jumped into first, for a moment. While writing this, Schultz just boated a 5-2 to take the lead. And Cole Sands caught a 5-pounder as well to jump into the Top 10. Wow. Things are happening fast out there right now.
