It’s almost felt taboo this week to even talk about an angler breaking the 100- pound mark with all smallmouth. It’s certainly a realistic possibility though. A few anglers have been close here before, Chris Johnston with 97-8 in 2020 made the most recent run at it.
After Day 2, more than a dozen anglers still have a good chance. Drew Benton is sitting in 15th place, just one ounce shy of 47- pounds for two days. It’s conceivable that he could still catch a 27- and 26- pound bag these next two days to make a run at 100. We’ve seen 7 bags that size this week already.
Day 2 leader Jay Przekurat “only” needs to average 24-pounds a day to get to 100. “Only” just sounds weird there, but he’s been on a 26-pound pace over the first two days. Austin Felix and Cory Johnston are also averaging fish over 5-pounds, meaning if they can maintain the same pace, they’ll get there.
The weather is the biggest variable in the equation of 100-pounds of brown moving from theory to reality. But like the previous two days, Day 3 is beautiful and Sunday is predicted to be the same. We have the best conditions we’ve ever had for this to happen. Here’s to hoping it does.
