The fishing was again phenomenal on Day 2 of the 2023 Marathon Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray. The actual numbers reported from weigh-in were very close to what we saw on Day 1. Of the 103 anglers competing, 100 caught a limit on Day 2, up from 97 limits on Day 1. There were 507 fish weighed on Day 2, up one fish from the 506 we saw yesterday. The total weight of fish that crossed the stage dipped a little, from 1,710 pounds, 5 ounces on Day 1 to 1,679 pounds, 2 ounces on Day 2. Those are the hard numbers. Now let’s look at the data collected through BassTrakk on Day 2 and compare it to Day 1.
There were 691 fish logged into BassTrakk on Day 2, down from 782. This is another indication that the fishing wasn’t up to par on Day 2. But, considering how good the fishing was on Day 1, there’s a reasonable chance several small fish were never even entered into BassTrakk on Day 2, as anglers and marshals realized how inconsequential bass lighter than 3 pounds were. Here’s a breakdown by hour to see when the better bites windows were.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 82 | 66 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 107 | 113 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 125 | 111 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 109 | 103 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 122 | 91 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 87 | 65 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 66 | 66 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 50 | 51 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 34 | 25 |
| Total: | 782 | 691 |
Looking at the above chart, we can see that the better bite window when it comes to overall numbers stayed consistent from Day 1 to Day 2, with the 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. timeframe being the strongest.
There were an astonishing 301 bass caught over 3 pounds on Day 1. This number dropped to 233 on Day 2. Let’s rule out the 3-pounders and look at those over 4 to get a good idea of when the bigger bites came.
Here’s the breakdown of fish over 4 pounds based on size.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 4-pounders | 64 | 55 |
| 5-pounders | 12 | 15 |
| 6-pounders | 4 | 4 |
| Total: | 80 | 74 |
And here’s the time of day that those over 4 pounds were caught.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 6 | 2 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 4 | 8 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 9 | 9 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 12 | 11 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 17 | 7 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 10 | 8 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 7 | 15 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 8 | 11 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 7 | 3 |
There was another strong mid-morning bite on Day 2, with 38% of those over 4 caught coming between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. But the late bite on Day 2 is where things really shifted. Anglers caught nearly twice as many big ones between 1 and 3 p.m. on Day 2 as compared to Day 1.
This makes sense when you realize the wind picked up around this time, and anglers ran to where the better bass were. Patrick Walters mentioned doing this, as he ran straight to where he had seen big bass early in the day and on Day 1. The wind is a huge help in activating these skittish big fish that are chasing the herring shallow.
Moving over to Day 3, we’ve already seen the best morning bite of the week. We’ll no doubt see this reflected in the BassTrakk data when we look at it tomorrow. The difference maker today, an early wind. Time to get back to the action on the water.
