How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
With all of the talk of 100 pound plus weights this week, I expected to tune into BassTrakk early this morning and see the scoreboard lit up with 20 pound bags. In reality, that’s not how it works. Sure, there are days when someone sacks a couple of giants early, or even a big limit as quickly as they can wet a bait, but on these smallmouth waters it’s usually a matter of strategically culling up by ounces at a time until 15 becomes 20 and then – if all goes right – 25 or more.
That’s why I wasn’t ready to push the panic button when I looked at the BassTrakk leaderboard at 9am and saw that Kyoya Fujita was leading with 20 pounds 8 ounces. At first I thought perhaps I’d just forgotten to refresh my screen from Champlain’s Championship Monday, but then it dawned on me that it those monster limits don’t just appear, fully-formed, as the anglers leave the dock. They’re typically earned one bite at a time.
By 10am, as waves mounted, so too did the weights. We now had two bags over 22 pounds.
An hour later, there were six of them.
An hour after that we had a 23 and a 24.
The path to hundred pound bags built slowly and then showed up all at once. Weigh-in started with eight bags of 22-9, including a 28, a 26 and two 24s. Then came a “disappointing” 18-5 followed by two 25s and a 23. Just when it seemed 20 had become the new 10, and we were all being lulled to sleep, rookie Bryant Smith came within 11 ounces of a dirty thirty.
If that didn’t demonstrate that he’s ready for the show, he then channeled his inner Nuke LaLoosh: “I’m just going to take it one fish at a time for the rest of the tournament.”
No one’s just happy to be here, though. An ounce or two at a time, someone’s going to leave with the AOY title. Someone is going to leave with the Rookie of the Year award. And someone is going to win the derby. There’s an outside chance it might just be the same guy.
More Good News for Smith – He “only” needs to average 23-14 a day for the next three days to hit the century mark.
Catch Up Game – To match his winning weight from last year, Jay Przekurat would have to average a bit over 26 pounds over the next three days. He only topped 26 one day last year. Still, 23-15 is nothing to sneeze at. He’s in 15th and could well repeat if he gets a few breaks.
AOY in Absentia – Kyle Welcher and Brandon Cobb came into this tournament one-two in the Angler of the Race year, and both brought their “A” game today. Welcher caught 25-10 and sits in 5th, while Cobb had 24-7 and is 7 places behind him in the tournament. With the final day cut having been reduced from 12 to 10 in recent years, it reduces the margin for error each day.
It reminds me of the possibility that the race could be won or lost from the bank if a top contender fails to make it to Saturday or Sunday’s cut, while his competition pushes through. I think back to the first AOY title that Aaron Martens won, in 2005. The final tournament of the year was at Table Rock, and AMart was duking it out with Marty Stone for the title. On Day 3, Aaron caught an exceptionally rare 9 pounder to propel him forward, not only into the final day, but also into 6th place. Stone held the lead. Martens had to move up at least two places to win AOY – he had to make up a gap of 2-14. He accomplished that, and came in 2nd, while Stone stood helplessly on the sidelines. I have a feeling we could see a similar scenario this week, with an AOY contender resting his fate on someone else’s fishing. [Side Note: A decade later, when Martens won his third and final AOY title, he had an insurmountable 100+ point lead heading into the AOY Championship. Apparently he had learned not to leave such things to chance].
If Welcher Slips – If Welcher and Cobb stub their toes in a crippling way, other members of the AOY top ten (heading into this event) stand ready to pounce. Patrick Walters, Jay Przekurat, Kyoya Fujita, John Cox and Joey Cifuentes are all in the Top 20 after Day 1.
Unsung Heroes of the Week – Both the anglers and the service crews earn their keep during big water events, but until I got dizzied from the spin cycle of today’s coverage I hadn’t fully pondered how hard the in-boat cameramen have it – not only do they work the same hours as the anglers, in the same conditions, but they’re doing so while balancing equipment that costs thousands of dollars in their hands. The judicious move would be to remain ultra-protective of the gear, but getting the money shots requires putting themselves in precarious positions in rough water – a recipe for disaster – while also not getting in the anglers’ way or slowing them down. I wonder what the average lifespan is for the position and how many who’ve tried have washed out (literally or figuratively) after a place like Champlain or the St. Lawrence.
Speaking of Cameras – As AOY candidate Brandon Cobb landed a solid smallmouth this morning, he issued a mea culpa about the likely lack of photographic evidence. “I tried to get him to come to Dalton’s side,” he said, referring to BASS photographer Dalton Tumblin. “He didn’t make it.” To me, that showed that he was fishing freely and comfortably and reminded me of a past AOY – Kevin VanDam. On multiple occasions James Overstreet commented to me that when KVD was at his best, he’d play a fish to get the best camera angle, even in the heat of battle. While others would stress out when they saw the fish flash, or deliberately shy away from the media, part of his greatness was the fact that he was always willing to put on a show – and it rarely if ever hurt his ability to close out a W.
Cut Weight Math – As I’ve written many times before, historically you take the first day’s weight, double it, and add a pound to find the Day 2 cut weight. Last week the weight was almost exactly 2X, possibly affected by the gap between Day 1 and Day 3. We’ll see if it reverts to normal tomorrow. With the 50th place angler bringing in 19-15 today, then “normal” would be 40-14.
Last Year – Last year’s St. Lawrence tournament took place in July, so the numbers aren’t strictly comparable, but on Day 1 Jacob Foutz led with 27-15, 10th place was 24-10, and 50th was 20-11. Today, there were two bags bigger than what Foutz had, but the other numbers were remarkably close – 10th is 24-14 (4 ounces higher) and 50th is 19-15 (12 ounces lower).
Big Fish Term of the Day from Joey Cifuentes – “Grande Chalupa.” Better than Matty Wong’s “Spicy Brown Meatballs.”
Happy Business of the Past Two Weeks – The makers of Dramamine. Between the anglers, the camera boat drivers, the cameramen and those of us who tuned into live, it was a vertigo-inducing day on the water, adding to a string of them.
More Happy Businesses – Anyone who sells nuts, bolts, rivets, duct tape, Super Glue or Marine-Tex near Champlain or the St. Lawrence. And Advil. Definitely Advil.
I May Have Missed it But – I didn’t hear the word “grind” much if at all today.
Brock Mosley on fishing for largemouths – “I just didn’t want to tear up my crap going to the lake today.” Even that plan doesn’t work on what may be the world’s best smallmouth fishery – he caught a brown fish late in the day.
