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AdvBassStats: Toledo Bend Open report

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Ben Milliken came into the 2023 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens season with a huge audience and made an immediate impression at the first event on Alabama’s Eufaula with a fifth-place finish. He proved that was no fluke by scoring a giant Day 1 bag of 29 pounds, 8 ounces on Toledo Bend. Day 1 at Toledo was a great day for catching, as 20-pound weights extended out to 17th place, and the field averaged 12.3 pounds on the day, which is exceptional for a 225-boat Opens field.
I had just prepared this chart last month for the outstanding Day 1 at Eufaula, and Toledo Bend obliterated it. The Toledo Bend Day 1 now rates as the best Day 1 average weight over the last two seasons.
Another incredible story from Toledo Bend Day 1 was Kerry Terrebonne’s three-fish, 19-pound, 4-ounce co-angler bag. He had a 9-6 kicker but still needed two more great fish to reach 19 pounds – and all from the back of a boat (apparently not Milliken’s). The Louisiana Angler said at weigh-in that it would have beat his personal best five-fish limit. Despite a much tougher Day 2, Terrebonne held on for the co-angler victory. 
Milliken wound up running away with a wire-to-wire victory, adding 26-15 and 21-7 bags on Days 2 and 3 despite much tougher fishing. His final weight of 77-14 threatened but didn’t quite reach Gerald Swindle’s 80-pounds over three-day Opens winning weight record. His margin to Trey McKinney in second was over 10 pounds, margin to third was over 20 pounds, and margin to 10th was over 36 pounds. That seemed exceptional, and it was…
This is a plot of all the Opens winners since 2020, comparing the final winning weight to the Gap between first and 10th. Milliken’s win creates its own new quadrant for this comparison, coming just ounces below Cory Johnston’s 2021 total weight at Thousand Islands, and beating the previous best first-to-10th gap by nearly 15 pounds.
Milliken leads St. Croix Bassmaster Opens EQ standings after two events, but he has not separated himself from the field. Brett Cannon has the same number of AOY points after his own hot start with a matching pair of third-place finishes. John Garrett is right behind with a pair of fourths. Either of those would be the story of the early season if Milliken hadn’t already won one. Matt Henry, Jacob Bigelow and Wesley Gore have all collected a pair of top 15s themselves. It’s also no surprise to see Elite Series angler Kenta Kimura lurking in 10th – he’s been a constant presence in both Elite and Opens stats over the last year. More charts and analysis for all of these are posted in the AdvBassStats feed on Instagram or Facebook. Come check it out!

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