Hakuna matata, bass fishing fans. We’ve got the full circle of life beginning, ending and cautiously coexisting at Lake Murray this week. Cicadas, shad, herring and bass are making things happen everywhere around the big pond, and anglers are playing musical chairs to be in the right place at the right time.
Don’t forget, though, that in the circle of life, what goes around comes around. Just as one species’ prey is another’s predator, everything could change tomorrow when the launch order is reversed.
“Consistency is what worries me in this event,” said 2022 Bassmaster Classic champion Jason Christie (23rd place, 19 pounds 4 ounces). Accordingly, while no one should be shocked if there’s some flip flopping tomorrow, I must admit that I’m somewhat surprised by how well the field did today.
It’s not just the perpetual sandbagging. I’ve become semi-immune to that, or at least suspicious. It’s just that the fish are at their skinniest this time of year, and we’ve been repeatedly told how educated and wary Murray’s largemouths are.
I feel like I’m channeling my inner David Wooderson when I profess the increasingly true sentiment that even when the fishing gets tougher, the weights seem to stay the same. Last year, when this derby took place 3 weeks earlier, it was lights out fishing. Yet this year, when it’s supposedly tougher, the Day One leading weight is exactly the same: 25-08. Tenth place was 20-09, and this time it’s actually 3 ounces higher, but we have three fewer 20-pound bags. The cut weight is almost a pound lower this time around, but it’s hard to say that a 50th place bag of 16-6 is struggling.
The lesson, I suppose, is not to get caught up in dock talk, lamentations from the stage or “what’s supposed to happen,” but rather to let the tournament come to you. With that in mind, here’s what I saw on another amazing Day One at this resurgent fish factory:
Palmetto State anglers – While South Carolina pros Patrick Walters and JT Thompkins are in 1st and 7th place, respectively, the four other in-state pros are all outside of the money cut. Granted, they’re not far out of 50th – anywhere from 7 ounces to 2 pounds – but the weights are so tight that feels remarkably close and extremely far away at the same time.
Waiting for a “Man Bites Dog” Story – At this point, nearly halfway into the season, we should no longer be surprised to see rookies – and in particular, Trey McKinney — near the top of the leaderboard. This group just keeps on keeping on. McKinney is in 4th with 21-9, less than 4 pounds out of the lead, but also less than a pound over the 10th place anglers. John Garrett and JT Thompkins are tied for 7th (21-1), and Ben Milliken is in a tie for 10th (20-12). Three of the remaining six are inside the cut, and Robert Gee is just 5 ounces outside of it.
Heading in the right direction – It may sometimes be obscured by his caricatured exterior, but Matt Robertson is a world class angler. He’s made five Bassmaster Classics, including four in a row, and has finished 38th, 7th and 11th in the AOY race in his three completed Elite Series seasons. This season, though, started off disastrously. He’d finished 61st, 101st, 102nd and 79th in four Elite events and resided in triple digits in the AOY race. Today he sacked 20-8 and sits in 12th. If the fishbowls full of tequila he’s vowed to drink tonight don’t get him, he could be on the right path. Qualifying for the 2025 Classic will be tough, but it’s not impossible.
Give me a break – After Kyoya Fujita won the season-opener, many fans and pundits (ok, primarily me) were putting the down payment on his Bass Fishing Hall of Fame bust and hoarding his rookie cards. Then the bottom fell out for him. Not immediately – he was 17th at Fork – but then went to 65th at the Harris Chain and fell even more at the St. Johns, all the way to 103rd. That dropped him to 34th in the AOY race. He must’ve had this one circled on his calendar as he finished 3rd at Murray last year (he led after Day Three). In that event he never weighed in less than 18-06, and indeed had over 20 on three of the four competition days. Today, though, he once again struggled, and finds himself in 94th with four bass for 12-1. That has to sting, and the only consolation is that despite the low position in the standings he’s really not that far out of the cut. An 18- or 20-pound day tomorrow could be a huge turning point in his season and in his still-young career.
The semi-bearable burden of high expectations – Tournament leader Patrick Walters was a popular preseason pick to be the 2024 Angler of the Year. It was a wholly reasonable prediction, given that he’s finished in the top five each of the past four years. So while it’s hard to call his 24th place position heading into Murray a disappointment or a guarantee that he won’t win the title, it meant that it would be an uphill climb. After missing two checks in Florida, he needed this piece of home cooking to fall right to get things back to “normal” and so far it seems to be working – if just anglers like McKinney would ever stumble.
Cut weight math – With today’s cut weight at 16-6, the traditional formula of doubling that weight and adding a pound would put the cut to Day Three at 33-12. For what it’s worth, last year the cut weight was 7 ounces below a doubling of the Day One mark.
So you’re saying there’s a chance? – Brad Whatley doesn’t seem to get along with Lake Murray. Last year he finished 97th, and after today he finds himself in 102nd with 3-10. “I had a front seat on the suck bus today,” he told Dave Mercer. Don’t forget, however, that at the St. Johns he started off in 95th, moved to 36th, and then to 2nd, where he ultimately finished – the best result of his Elite career.
Boat order matters, sort of – Despite the great deal of lamenting about poor Day One boat draws, which gave rise to the expectation that tomorrow would be better for today’s late launchers, the numbers don’t necessarily bear that out. Sure, the first two anglers to the scales today are second and first, respectively, in the standings, but it’s not like the latter half of the field got crushed. There were plenty of teen bags up until the very end, including 18- and 19-pound limits among the last 10 anglers to weigh in.
Zona Chicago food reference that had the people of South Carolina befuddled – “Giardiniera”
King of the Jungle quote from Patrick Walters – “Let’s go mark some territory.”
Trey McKinney – “You’ve got to act like you’re not looking, act like you’re not ready, then they school.”
David Mullins (31st, 18-0) – “It was a perfect day to fish this lake.”
River Rat Bill Lowen (101st, 5-8) – “Me and blueback herring lakes just don’t get along very well.”
Greg Hackney (99th, 8-8) — “I got a big hole I dug, so I’m gonna need a big shovel tomorrow to dig back out of it.”
Brandon Cobb (72nd, 14-6) – “I was boat 96 today so there was pretty much no place to fish by the time I took off.”
