We haven’t heard much talk about the century mark since the start of the 2023 Gamakatsu Bassmaster Elite at Lake Seminole. But it was still a reasonable possibility for Day 2 leaders Joey Cifuentes III and Mike Iaconelli at takeoff this morning. Though Ike has run his bandwagon aground after a tough Day 3, Cifuentes still has an off-chance if he catches a big cull in these last few minutes. He’d still need a monster 30-pound day tomorrow to pull it off, but that is possible here.
We’ve kind of grown accustomed to seeing these epic 100-pound derbies the last few years, with 8 anglers earning a coveted Century Club Belt in the 2022 season. But how hard is it for a lake to actually produce those kinds of weights? As good as Seminole is, take this into consideration– the best four limits out of 104 of the best anglers in the world that went out on the water the last two days would have tallied only 96 pounds, 1 ounce. Those bags include Joey Cifuentes’s 26-1, Tyler Rivet’s 24-7, Mike Iaconelli’s 23-9, and Caleb Sumrall’s 22-0.
Interesting side note, these four biggest bags of the event came on Day 2, none of them on Day 1. With the whole Elite field’s best bags combined, they’d still be 4 pounds shy after two days on Lake Seminole… during the spawn. If somehow Cifuentes does reach the 100-pound mark this week, it will only further accentuate the absolutely dominant performance he has put together so far.
