The sun popped out for the first time here on Day 2 and the big bass went to biting immediately. In the last 30 minutes, Cory Johnston, Tyler Rivet, Brad Whatley, Kyoya Fujita, Derek Hudnall and Joey Cifeuntes have all caught at least one, if not multiple, bass over 3 pounds. Whately has had the most notable bite, a 5- pound, 9- ounce bass to take the Phoenix Boats Big Bass lead. And Cory Johnston with a 5-6 and two 3- pounders has moved into the lead with 15-14.
Cifuentes though, who lags back in 11th, has had the most interesting morning of all. The Arkansas native wearing his cowboy hat and flipflops has a persona that screams power fisherman. But, he’s doing his damage looking at his graph with a dropshot in hand, further demolishing the categorical stereotyping that we’ve been able to use in the past with the likes of Denny Brauer and Tommy Biffle. All these guys can do everything well now.
Make no mistake, though Cifuentes has a spinning rod in hand, he’s finding himself in the midst of a wrestling match. Having put his first and only bass in the boat a few moments ago, he hopes to add more of this 4- pound class fish to his livewell soon. He’s already lost another this size this morning. Some who haven’t used it might think that forward-facing sonar makes fishing too easy. That is not the case. It’s simply opened up a whole new world of extremely difficult fishing.
The bass that Cifuentes is targeting are in and amongst standing timber. And when he gets a bite, it’s an all-out battle to keep them from burying up in a tree and breaking him off. He stated during this last fish catch, that he could see three trees on his forward-facing sonar and actually used his graph to help him steer his fish around the trees. Think about how hard it is to get a dog on a leash not to run around a tree. Now imagine tying him to 10-pound test fluorocarbon and taking on the same challenge. Forward-facing sonar doesn’t make fishing easier, it just makes new things possible. Cifuentes is illustrating that well this morning as he tries to keep these big Seminole bass from bulldog him.
