Who says you can’t learn anything outside of school?
Today on Live we got a lesson on literature from the erudite Tommy Sanders and the slightly less well-read Zona, Sooch and Ronnie. We learned that Pickwick Lake is named after Samuel Pickwick, the title character in the Charles Dickens novel The Pickwick Papers. But there’s so much more to the name. Indeed, there’s an indie rock band from Seattle called Pickwick (their songs include “Sea Monster, which is assumedly what our field of 90-plus anglers hoped to catch today. There’s also a Pickwick Records, which for a time distributed the works of Kool & the Gang. And you cannot forget the late Welsh footballer (that’s soccer) Don Pickwick, a member of the Norwich City Hall of Fame.
Now that we’ve gotten the unrelated minutiae out of the way, let’s turn to what we saw today.
Great Expectations – As long as we’re fishing a Dickens-themed lake, let’s keep up the references to old Chuckie D with this title. Rookie Cody Huff has been touted by no less an authority than Rick Clunn as an electronics guru and a star-in-waiting, but until now his Elite performances have been lackluster – 34, 55, 57, 60 and 69. Today, however, he added 22-043 to his Day One catch of 18-05 and jumped from 11th place into 2nd, just 1-05 behind leader Brandon Lester. Every great pro career has an a-ha moment for the fans when we realize we are watching greatness and that may have occurred from 1:40 to 1:56 pm today when Huff added four fish over 4 pounds to his livewell.
A Tale of Two Tournaments – While Huff kept his foot on the gas, Matt Robertson struggled. Big time. He failed to fill out a limit and a very surprised Mark Zona said, “I’m sort of stunned at how tough it’s been today.”
No More Hard Times? – Darold Gleason is a well-respected angler who many expected to do better at the Elite level than he has. He finished 77th in the AOY race last year, and missed the cut to Day Three in the first four Elite Series tournaments of 2022. Then he finished a respectable 39th at Fork, and with 18-06 today moved up from 41st to 19th. Not only will the check look nice in his bank account, but these valuable points may keep his promising tour-level career alive. He won an Open at Toledo Bend in 2019, but up until now his best Elite finish was 26th at the St. Lawrence last year. That’s a good omen for him, since the tour will take him there in about a month. “I had about as much fun this morning as you can have with your clothes on,” he said on stage.
Say What? – We’ve heard lots of great accents over the course of Elite Series history, from Japanese to Australian to Canadian, to the half-baritone, half gravel sound stylings of James Overstreet. Most of them, however, have someone else that sounds fairly similar. As far as I know, however, Bryan Schmitt, stands (or talks) alone. He has what some might refer to as an “Eastern Shore” accent, although that’s not really accurate since he lives on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Instead, you might call it a “Chesapeake” accent or “DelMarVese.” It’s got a bit of Old English, a touch of southern molasses, a sprinkling of Ball’mer, and a secret ingredient no one knows (possibly Old Bay seasoning).
Dirty Dozen – Bill Lowen often says that he’s the type of angler who “will 12 pound you to death.” In other words, he’ll catch a limit of cookie cutters every day without fail and collect the checks. That’s become harder to do in recent years, and Lowen broke that mold to win at Pickwick last year, but Brandon Palaniuk, an angler who had his first “dirty thirty” at Lake Fork, may have taken up the Turtle’s claim to fame. He struggled to find big fish today, but kept culling by ounces to eventually reach a 14-11 limit. Not enough to keep him near the lead, but close enough that he has a shot – if he doesn’t have to leave for Idaho sooner. Either way, he got or will get a lot of critical points.
The Cut Weight – Yesterday’s 47th place angler, David Mullins, had 13-12. Using the standard (2X+1) formula, we’d expect the cut weight after today to be 28-08. [Note: Even the anglers themselves follow this rule: As Stetson Blaylock explained why he expected to fish tomorrow with 2 he said, “I was right on the cut line and I caught a little over a pound more.”]. Today the cut was just an ounce away from 2X – Bryan New snuck in with 27-09.
Rolling on Twenties – Yesterday there were six bags of 20 pounds or more. Today there were only three. Tournament leader Brandon Lester is the only angler who caught 20-plus both days. Cody Huff also averaged that amount.
Two is Company — “Palaniuk pulled up and they started biting. They just do that any time his boat gets near a bass.” Seth Feider, last year’s AOY, who shared a spot with this year’s AOY leader.
The Worst of Times — “I hate sucking and I’ve been sucking a lot.” Brock Mosley.
Two things we learned from Taku Ito today — “Smallmouth love Taku” and “Smallmouth love Japanese scent.” Since Taku is indeed Japanese this seems redundant. Any time he makes a top ten it’s a happy day for fans of the sport across the globe.
Cliché of the day – “It looks good on paper,” usually accompanied by “It was a grind.”
Personal Note – I’ve written “Palaniuk” so much this year it shows up all over the place on autocorrect.