Five anglers had at least one fish in the livewell in the first 20 minutes this morning. But there was a bit of an unusual lull for the next hour. A few fish were caught here and there, but for the first time in 4 days, the coverage crew was actually having to come up with a little color commentary due to the lack of drag pulling.
The action has picked back up however in the last 30 minutes. Cooper Gallant and Luke Palmer have both put quality fish in the boat in the last 2 minutes as these words are flowing through my fingertips, Palmer’s weighing 3-11 and Gallant’s a 4-12.
Eight of our Top 10 anglers have added at least one bass to their livewells in the last half hour. Gallant has the lead at present with an estimated 19-4 already, and 3 of those fish weighing more than 4 pounds– the kind of bites he’ll need to make up the 1-10 deficit he started the day with. Two more big bites and Gallant has as good of a chance as anyone to win.
A few of the other notable catches of late: Joey Cifuentes III takes the Phoenix Boats Big Bass lead with a 5-1 at 8:36, Bryan Schmitt added a 4-0 at 8:38 and Jacob Foutz a 3-7 at 8:40. The bite is certainly picking up, and Cooper Gallant is rapidly approaching the highest winning weight ever for the Elites on Lake St. Clair (Jason Christie with 88-8 in 2017), all with 3/4s of the day remaining.
