Vinson holds lead on Saginaw Bay, lots of action on "moving day"
Greg Vinson maintained his lead throughout the Qualifying Round. Photo by Cobi Pellerito.
By Tyler Brinks
BASS PRO TOUR
BAY CITY, Mich. – Thursday was the true definition of “moving day“ at Minn Kota Stage Seven Presented by Suzuki on Saginaw Bay, with six anglers jumping into the Top 10 and six others falling out. But while more half of the Top 10 reshuffled, the top of the standings remained the same, with Alabama’s Greg Vinson placing 14 pounds, 14 ounces of bass on SCORETRACKER® to bring his two-day total to 37-4.
Vinson will lead the 20 anglers from Group A into the Knockout Round, with Kevin VanDam finishing second in the group with 33-7 over two days of fishing.
Vinson sticks to plan and then explores
After sacking up 22-6 of smallmouth to kick off the event, Vinson tried to replicate his success with bronzebacks on Thursday. He went back to the same area to start the day, and while he still caught plenty of fish, the size was much different.
“Today was a lot slower than I expected,” Vinson said. “There are still fish in my area, but I didn’t see as many. It also seemed like they were in a bad mood and didn’t want to bite.”
After settling in, Vinson was able to secure a limit of close to 14 pounds and knew that he would advance to the Knockout Round. His next move allowed him to cull up another pound.
“After I felt safe, I shifted gears and went fishing for largemouth,” he said. “I feel good about what I found and know that I can jump on the largemouth deal if the smallmouth aren’t biting. I may not catch 18 or 20 pounds, but know I can get a good bag of them. Either that or I’ll have to mix and match and have some of both.”
While game planning around which species to target, Vinson must decide how long to chase the brown ones.
