Day 1 of the 2023 Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake was marked by tough fishing, often being compared unfairly to previous Elite events from this season that boasted bigger bass. But those aren’t apples to apples comparisons, more like apples to tennis balls. The expectations are simply different on a grimy river system like what we’re seeing on Lay Lake, than they are on the likes of Okeechobee, Seminole, Murray and Santee. As they will be again on the Sabine River in a few weeks, where they’ll most likely be tougher still than they are even here this week.
That was just a little disclaimer to set the scene for the conversation ahead, as we look at the data that came in through BassTrakk on Day 1. There were 712 bass logged into our system. Interestingly enough, there were only 718 bass logged into BassTrakk on Day 1 at Santee Cooper, so the numbers are pretty consistent, though the size was significantly better there. Here’s the breakdown by time of day to see if we can determine some better bite windows on Lay.
| Day 1 | |
| 6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m. | 17 |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 98 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 123 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 115 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 99 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 69 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 75 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 46 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 41 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 23 |
| 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | 6 |
The morning bite was definitely the best, which was no real surprise with many anglers hoping on hope that they could catch a few early related to the shad spawn. Of all the fish logged into BassTrakk on Day 1, 61% came in only 40% of the time allotted for anglers to fish, between 7 and 11 a.m.
Three pounds is a fair spot to start when classifying a good one here this week. There were 65 bass over 3 pounds logged on Day 1. Here’s the breakdown by size.
| | Day 1 |
| 3-pounders | 55 |
| 4-pounders | 6 |
| 5-pounders | 4 |
And here’s the breakdown of those 3-pound-plus fish by hour, to reveal the best big bite windows.
| Day 1 | |
| 6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m. | 3 |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 7 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 12 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 5 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 4 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 8 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 13 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 6 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 5 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 2 |
| 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | 0 |
There were two hours that were clearly better than any others throughout the day, the 8 a.m. hour and the 12 p.m. hour. These two hours equated for just 20% of the time allotted for at least some of the anglers to be on the water, but 38% of the big bites came in these two 60-minute windows. We’re wrapping up that first window now on Day 2, and just saw Bryan New boat a 5-10 to cap it. We’ve seen multiple big bass caught already today too and this strong morning bite should carry similar big bass numbers today. Based on what we saw yesterday, there should be another strong flurry of big ones around noon.
