Both Austin Felix and Taku Ito have four fish in their livewells this morning, though realistically they have one and two keepers respectively. Felix’s 3-8 is one he could weigh at the end of the day and still have a great chance of taking home $100,000. Ito has a 3-8 and a 3-10 in his bag, two bass that could make it to the scales and Ito still have a legitimate shot as well.
The other five fish between them (all under 2- and 1/4- pounds) are little more than emotional bandaids capable of calming the nerves of these two anglers for the time being. Both know the chances of winning with these size fish in their bags is little to none.
Still, Oahe is fishing tough this week, so any bass in the box is a good thing for now. We’re not seeing the rampant breakout of bravado that we experienced a few weeks ago on the St Lawrence River, where a fishery on fire had the anglers boasting that they’d not even be opening the livewell for anything under 3-pounds… before they ever left the dock.
There is a chance Felix could weigh a small one or two in and win, considering the near 3-pound lead he had going into today. But as for the other 9 guys, it’s going to take all bigs to have a shot.
