Let’s take a deep dive into the data we collected through BassTrakk from Days 1 and 2 to compare and contrast the fishing. The fishing was a little tougher still on Lay Lake, with only 629 bass logged into BassTrakk. This wasn’t really surprising. At the Day 1 weigh-in, several anglers mentioned either picking a few fish off beds or catching fish that they shook off in practice. As tough as the fishing was on Day 1, no one was shaking them off or leaving any on bed for Day 2 and beyond. So, the anglers had a little less to build on for Day 2 right away.
Here’s the breakdown by time of day.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m. | 17 | 14 |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 98 | 92 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 123 | 101 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 115 | 90 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 99 | 80 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 69 | 84 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 75 | 103 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 46 | 45 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 41 | 16 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 23 | 4 |
| 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | 6 | 0 |
| Total | 712 | 629 |
The production throughout the morning consistently dropped from Day 1 to Day 2. But there was a strong uptick around noon, and then a steep drop for the final few hours. Jason Christie mentioned the sun coming out around noon yesterday, and that the fish began to bite better.
So, this could be the reason we saw the rise in catches around that time frame. The dense fog this morning could do one of two things. It could help the shad spawn linger, which would be a good thing. Or, the lowlight could last longer today and delay the strong bite window we saw yesterday when the sun did pop out, if that is in fact why the bass bit good around noon on Day 2.
Let’s take a look at the bigger bass caught on Days 1 and 2 to see if we can tell when the bigger bite windows were. The total number of bass over 3 pounds dropped from 65 to 59 on Day 2.
| | Day 1 | Day 2 |
| 3-pounders | 55 | 40 |
| 4-pounders | 6 | 13 |
| 5-pounders | 4 | 5 |
Though the numbers dropped, there were more bass over 4 pounds caught on Day 2. Here’s the breakdown by time of day of those bass caught over 3 pounds.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m. | 3 | 2 |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 7 | 11 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 12 | 8 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 5 | 8 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 4 | 4 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 8 | 6 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 13 | 3 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 6 | 5 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 5 | 8 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 2 | 3 |
| 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 65 | 59 |
Interestingly enough, though the total number of catches improved on Day 2 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., the bigger bites dropped significantly in this same window on Day 2. This is really puzzling but could be explained by anglers scrambling midday to catch small keepers to finish out their limits. This is pure conjecture, but a reasonable guess.
All of these shakeups could have to do with current as well, which is hard to dial in with generation schedules differing from dam to dam and not knowing which end of the lake the anglers were on when catching or not catching fish in these windows.
Who knows what to expect today with the fog delay and anglers due in about the time the current starts picking up. We’ll have to wait and see how the Top 50 do today, and then analyze that data more tomorrow.
