Sight Fishing key to Season Opener
By Bryan Brasher
BASS PRESS RELEASE
During the final round of practice for the Bassmaster Elite
at St. Johns River presented by Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels, Tennessee angler
Brandon Lester found a giant largemouth on a spawning bed.
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| Brandon is all smiles with a 9 pounder and the lead. (Photo: BASS) |
He was so excited about the fish that he texted some of
his family members and told them to pay attention to Bassmaster.com when the
tournament began, because he thought he could make something special happen
early.
Hopefully they took it to heart.
Lester went straight to the big fish Thursday morning —
and caught it on his fourth cast — to set the tone for a fantastic day of sight
fishing. The bass, which weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces, anchored a five-fish limit
that tipped the scales at 23-13 and gave Lester the opening-round lead.
When anglers find fish on spawning beds one day, it’s
usually a safe bet they’ll still be there the next. So Lester went prepared to
fish for the giant bass Thursday morning with a heavy rod, strong braided line
and a big lure.
After seeing that the big female fish wasn’t interested in
heavy tackle, he switched to a lighter spinning rig in hopes of catching the
smaller male bass that was guarding the bed.
But things didn’t work out like he planned.
“I picked my spinning rod up with a little wacky rig,”
Lester said. “The male grabbed it, and I missed him twice. I pitched back in
there, and the bait started swimming off again. When I set the hook, it was the
big fish.”
That left Lester to battle a gigantic bass on a lighter
rod with 12-pound-test line — in a tournament where landing nets aren’t
allowed.
“It was chaos for a minute,” he said. “But it worked out
O.K.”
With much of the field sight fishing for bedding bass, it
could be difficult for anglers to duplicate their Day 1 results when Friday’s
second round begins. Many of the fish that were located during practice were
caught Thursday, and it’s hard to say for sure if more will move up during the
tournament.
Still, Lester said he feels good about his prospects — and
he doesn’t believe the approaching cold front will have much of an effect on
the spawning cycle.
“We’re coming up on the full moon, so hopefully that’ll
overtake the cold front,” he said. “The water is 76 degrees, so it should be
warm enough that the cold front won’t drop it down — at least not enough to run
the fish off the beds.”
Elite Series newcomer Drew Benton of Panama City, Fla., is
second with 22-15, and Cliff Crochet of Pierre Part, La., is third with 22-14.
Crochet suffered a 4-ounce penalty for weighing in a dead fish.
If the weather does turn nasty with wind and rain, Benton
said it could actually work in his favor.
“A lot of the guys who can catch them when it’s slick and
sunny are kind of struggling a little bit,” Benton said. “But when it’s cloudy
and windy, that’s kind of when I excel. I’ve got young eyes, and I can see them
a little bit better.”
Benton conceded, however, that the bedding fish could grow
scarce after Friday’s second round.
“I spent the last half of the day marking some fish, and I
plan to go out Friday and catch as much weight as I can,” he said. “Then I’ll
just kind of scramble around the last two days.
“That’s the thing about sight fishing tournaments — you’ve
kind of got to burn them and look for new fish as the week goes on.”
Despite the dead-fish penalty, Crochet had one of the
better days he’s had in recent memory. After earning only one check on the
Elite Series in 2015, he’s within striking distance of his first career win
with B.A.S.S.
“About half-way through last year, I could tell things
just weren’t going right,” Crochet said. “I’ve been waiting for a day like this
pretty much since the end of the 2014 season.
“It’s been a long time coming.”
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