Day One on Smith Mountain Lake

The clouds parted early as dawn broke on the opening day of the Carhartt College Bass East Super Regional at Smith Mountain Lake.

Anglers salute the flag during the Star-Spangled Banner.

Cole Blythe and Andrew Jackson of Virginia Tech get last-minute instructions from tournament director Hank Weldon prior to Fridayâs take-off.

Virginia Tech Hokies Evan Shearer and Michael Sadowski hit Smith Mountain Lake in their camouflage aluminum boat.

Mack Walters and Josh Cameron traveled all the way from Starkville, Miss., to represent Mississippi State University in the East Super Regional.

These collegiate anglers started fishing on a small island in the middle section of the lake.

Jimmy Thorne and Sarah Faison of Christopher Newton University prepare to take off for a new fishing spot on Friday morning.

The morning started cool but gradually warmed throughout the day.

Many anglers fished around main lake points, especially early in the day before the sun enabled them to fish for spawning bass on beds.

Evan Shearer and Michael Sadowski worked a main lake pointâs clay bank early on Day One.

Shearer and Sadowskiâs worked spinnerbaits along wood on the point.

Shearer hooks up and Sadowski readies the net.

Sadowski successfully nets the largemouth for the teamâs second keeper of the morning.

Shearer was fishing his second bass tournament. He fished from a kayak in his first tournament.

Shearer was all smiles during his BassCam interview with Rob Russow.

You donât have to have a deluxe fiberglass rig to catch bass, but without a fixed livewell, you will have keep your fish alive in a modified cooler.

Nick Depkiewicz and Michael Freas started on a point next to deep water while fishing from their wrapped Virginia Tech Hokies boat.

Mark Condron uses his trolling motor bracket to rise a few more inches above the water to look for bedding bass on Friday morning.

David Bryant looks for spawners from the back of the boat.

They were here during practice, so they have to be around here somewhere.

Virginia Techâs Patrick Snellings flings a giant swimbait toward a point while teammate Jody White works his swimbait back to the boat.

Long, heavy rods come in handy when throwing huge swimbaits.

On a college studentâs budget, you do everything you can to retrieve an expensive swimbait when it lands in a lakeside tree.

Jody Whiteâs line shoots off the reel as his big swimbait goes flying.

s Cox and Justin Witten, the Day One leaders from Radford University, work over a point.

Cox and Witten take off to try to catch a bedding smallmouth they found during practice.

After trying multiple lures, Justin Witten threads a chartreuse Zoom Fluke on his hook to throw it toward a chunky smallmouth on a spawning bed.

After more than 30 minutes of effort, Witten finally hooks into the bronzeback.

Cox drops his rod and goes for the net while Witten draws the big brownie closer to the boat.

Itâs getting closer.

And now it runs back to the other side of the boat.

Finally, Cox eases the net under the smallmouth.

Thatâs the kind of fish that will help the cause.

Witten unhooks the bubblegum Fluke from the smallmouthâs lip.

This fish helped Witten and Cox seize the Day One lead.

Radfordâs Brett Meyn adjusts his lure while teammate Cole Campbell works a spinnerbait along the shoreline.

Brett Meyn puts another keeper in the boat, but will it help?

Meyn waits for his partner to find the culling beam.

Meyn studies hard to determine the bigger fish.

In the end, this fish didnât help their cause.

Zach Meadows and Josh Wilson of Radford head for the next fishing spot.

Edward Rude and Corey Straight from West Virginia University work through the back of a small pocket.

Rude points out a cruising bass to Straight.