Mike Iaconelli has sat atop the leaderboard for an hour or so now, as local favorite Drew Benton has done the most to chase Ike down. But Ike continues to outpace Beton, catching another 4- pounder moments ago to raise the bar to 21 pounds, 4 ounces. Benton lags a little behind Ike with 19 pounds.
Benton is definitely bed fishing this morning. But Ike is taking a different approach, fishing a vibrating jig in one small area. After a tough practice, Ike only had two areas where he had multiple bites and that’s all he had to go on. Surprising was the best word Ike could come up with to describe the start to his tournament. He didn’t expect this staging area to be loaded, but it is.
Ike plans to burn this spot to the ground today, since he had an early boat number and will be towards the end of the pack tomorrow. With other anglers in the area, he doesn’t believe he’ll be able to get on it first thing in the morning. He says the fish are white, indicating they are fresh pre-spawn fish that are just moving up from deeper water to spawn.
Interestingly, Ike is the first angler to mention the shad spawn this week as well. The shad typically spawn later in the spring, as the bass spawn dwindles down. If someone can get on this bite early in the mornings, it could be a big player this week as well.
