“The world is getting sleepier and sleepier,” Dave Mercer opined today, and indeed stocks for Ambien and eye masks are looking remarkably bullish right now. Minnesotan Austin Felix, coming off consecutive 11th place Elite Series finishes, made the most of a coveted Sunday appearance and won at Oahe today. He’d contended for a trophy before, but it was the first time he managed to seal the deal.
The so-called “Sleepy Assassin” beat second place finisher Chris Johnston by over 3 pounds, and topped the winning weight from 2018 by an even 2 pounds.
Sunday’s prairie exploits showed off the new school Elites at their best, on a body of water where most of them had never previously competed. Indeed, 7th place finisher Seth Feider, Felix’s fellow Minnesotan, was the only member of this year’s Top 10 who fished the Oahe event in 2018.
Here’s what I saw and thought during a memorable display of personalities and smallmouth catches:
Not Just Another 3-Pounder – Per BassTrakk, at 12:11pm Felix caught a 3-4 smallmouth. At 12:46 he landed its twin. At 1:33, a 2-12 found itself looking at the inside of his livewell. At 38 years old, the Minnesotan has likely caught thousands of 3-pound class smallmouth in his life. As a general rule, I’m sure nothing under twice that big really catches his attention. Yet the most important fish of an angler’s career are not necessarily the biggest, but rather the most timely. One of those otherwise-forgettable fish put him over the top and became – for the time being – the most important fish of his career. Indeed, on stage he told Dave Mercer that he “thought I was one fish away the whole time.”
Family Matters – Unlike fellow Top 10 finishers Chris Johnston and Marc Frazier, Austin Felix does not have a brother in the Elite Series field, but his family made the haul over from Minnesota to see his first Elite win in person. “Can you believe this dad?” Felix asked from the stage. He went on to thank his father for putting him in the driver’s seat of their boat early. Perhaps the most telling line was when he said that his father “let me make mistakes.”
Early Bird Gets the Worm – Felix started off Day 4 like a South Dakota jackrabbit. According to BassTrakk, he had a limit in the boat by 7:36 a.m. although they didn’t weigh a combined 10 pounds. The usually stone-faced pro seems unlikely to get rattled in any circumstance, but having that full livewell had to provide some comfort that he just needed a few of the right bites to get over the hump and could afford to take his time.
Frazier’s Best – Fourth place finisher Marc Frazier marked his best Elite Series finish today in just under two full seasons on tour. His prior best was a 5th place finish at Lake Fork just a few months ago. After no Sunday appearances in his first 13 Elite Series tournaments, he has two top fives in his past four events.
No Twenties – After the full field produced six bags over 20 pounds on the first two days of competition, including eventual champ Austin Felix’s monster 23-3 limit on Friday, there were none on the final two days. The best weight on Saturday was Jay Przekurat’s 19-10 and the biggest limit today was Taku Ito’s 18-6. There were three other limits over 16 pounds today.
The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television – If Matt Robertson and Seth Feider keep making Sunday cuts – whether separately or together – the B.A.S.S. staff is going to have to come up with some sort of self-censoring mechanisms – whether that’s a 7-second delay, a “bleep” button or something else. They’re entertaining, and unfiltered, and getting bolder by the minute.
Baitfish of the Week – Goldeye. Per Wikipedia, it is also called Winnipeg goldeye, western goldeye, yellow herring, toothed herring, shad mooneye, la Queche, weepicheesis, or laquaiche aux yeux d’or in French.
No One Feels Sorry for You – Taku Ito noted that his hands were torn up because a “smallmouth’s teeth are very strong.” He also said onstage that he’s not a good rough water driver and not strong enough to lift a blue trophy. Two things he is really good at are making it to Sundays up north and making crowds fall in love with him.
Even Less Sympathy – “He beat me on my own pond and won a hundred grand.” Chris Johnston on why he didn’t feel bad about knocking Ito out of the hot seat.
Need a Tiebreaker – Through eight Elite Series tournaments this year, we have four first-time Elite winners (Brandon Lester, Drew Cook, Jay Prezekurat, and now Austin Felix) and four who have won multiple times (Jason Christie, Lee Livesay, John Crews and Buddy Gross). Could we see a fifth first-time winner next week?
Miscellaneous – The state fossil of South Dakota is Triceratops. The state soil is Houdek. The state dessert is Kuchen.
Crowded at the Top – While any Elite Series pro is capable of qualifying to compete on any given Sunday (or Championship Monday, as the case may be), these smallmouth derbies are becoming a rather exclusive club. You have to figure you’ll see Taku Ito there on the regular, as well as one or more Johnstons. Add into that mix frequent fliers like Seth Feider and Brandon Palaniuk (who was shockingly out of the cut this week), as well as newcomers like Jay Przekurat (13th at Oahe after setting records at the St. Lawrence), and the making bank on brown fish has become a tougher proposition.
Mount Rushmore of Minnesota Home Run Hitters – Harmon Killebrew, Kent Hrbek, Kirby Puckett, Austin Felix
Famous Felixes in History – Felix the Cat, Felix Fermin, Felix Frankfurter, Allyson Felix, Bass Cat Phelix.
Eastbound and Down – 594 miles from Mobridge to La Crosse.
