FORT WORTH, Texas — Everything is bigger in Texas, and it was Texans who went the biggest on Day 1 of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk. Anglers from Texas caught the two biggest bass from Lake Ray Roberts.
About 15 anglers into the weigh-in at Dickies Arena, Chris Zaldain of Fort Worth weighed a 7-pound, 13-ounce lunker to take over Berkley Big Bass honors. The next angler, Frank Talley of Temple topped him by five ounces.
That left Zaldain a little disappointed, but he said at least he led momentarily and had the start to a good showing on his home lake.
“It’s super special to do this in a Classic,” Zaldain said of enticing the big fish from the rock with a big spoon.
Just five years ago, Zaldain pulled a 7-12 from Ray Roberts to win a truck in the Toyota Texas Bass Classic.
Talley said he got excited when he leaned back on the 8-3 bass that bit from bushes in three feet of water.
“Oh my gosh, that’s a biggun,” Talley said when he saw the huge head. “To do it in the Classic is exhilarating. I mean, in the first hour of the first day, it don’t get any better than that.”
Problem was, both anglers were one short of a limit; Talley stands 14th with 15-10 and Zaldain is 21st with 13-11. Both anglers said they did everything they could to get No. 5 but went most all afternoon without a bite.
“I went hog hunting all day long,” Zaldain said. “I’m addicted to it.”
In his mind, Zaldain knew he should go to the bank and try to fill his limit, but he wants to win and he knows that requires big bass. He also realized a fifth fish would put him in better position, so he finally went to fish bushes but was fruitless in the final hour and half.
Zaldain said he certainly takes some solace that he’s “definitely not out of it.”
Right behind Talley on the leaderboard was Cody Bird of Granbury, which is about two hours from Ray Roberts. Bird stood 15th with 15-8.
“It’s a pretty decent way to start,” said Bird, who pre-practiced plenty and was among the local favorites. The Opens winner said he felt some local pressure as he’s been affiliated for 20 years with Fort Worth’s Fun-N-Sun Boats-N-Tackle, which he said is the No. 1 Skeeter dealer in the nation.
Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, who two nights before gave his Angler of the Year speech, started 36th with 11-1 after coming in with high hopes and reports of a good practice.
“I’m disappointed,” he said. “I just didn’t get it done. I had seven keeper bites and lost two. But you can catch up here. There are big ones.”
Brad Whatley of Bivins came into the Classic confident but could only manage two fish weighing 4-10 to stand 49th.
“I’m about as ticked off as you can get,” he said. “I should have had 15, 16 pounds. If it could have gone wrong for me today, it did. I have seen them all week.”
Whatley said he had been catching around 20 pounds each day of practice and had high hopes.
“I’m not the dude who wins practice. I just didn’t get the bites today,” he said.
