There was no doubt in Austin Felix’s mind when he was asked about the key point in his Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Oahe victory.
“Day 2, that’s when everything clicked,” said Felix of the 23-pound, 3-ounce limit he caught Friday, which would be the big bag of the four-day tournament. “I started out with a 5 ½-pounder on my second cast and a 3 ½-pounder on my first drop.
“Me and Lee Livesay sat right next to each other. He actually keyed me in on the Carolina rig. I had one tied on in the box, ready to go, but I hadn’t really thrown it that much. We had worn them out on that drop shot, and they weren’t committing to it anymore.”
Livesay switched to the Carolina rig, noting he’d caught a couple of good ones on it on Day 1, and immediately caught a bass.
“It doesn’t take me long to figure this out,” Felix recalled, with a smile. “I pulled it out and caught one. We sat there for the next three hours and caught one every 15 minutes or so.”
Livesay weighed 19-1 on Day 2, which moved him into 18th place after being in 56th place on Day 1 with 10-10. Felix’s 23-3 on Day 2 moved him from 34th place to second place.
There was one more key moment for Felix on Friday.
“I had 22 ½ pounds with a 3 1/2 -pounder in the boat,” he said. “I’m like, alright, I’m going to go in early. This is a sack. I was running up the lake, saw this random point with nobody on it, and it was out of the wind. I pulled up to it, threw a Ned rig and caught one almost 4 ¾ to cull out that 3 1/2.
“That’s when you know it’s your day.”
