Canadians: Cory Johnston 32nd, Gustafson 39th & Chris Johnston 73rd.
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Two weeks after winning the St. Croix Bassmaster Southern Open on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, about an hour south of Leesburg, Lester holds the top spot in a tight Top 10 with only 2-7 separating first and 10th places. Lester will enter Day 2 with a 1 ounce lead over second-place Pat Schlapper of Eleva, Wis.
“People call it momentum, but I think you get into a good rhythm and a good pace,” Lester said. “In tournament fishing, sometimes it’s like you’re out there and the day just flies by; but right now, I’m out there (during a tournament day) and it’s like I have all the time in the world.
“It’s like I don’t have a care in the world. Part of that is the fact that I’ve already qualified for the (2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk, to be held in Knoxville, Tenn., March 24-26). That takes a load off. Good things are happening out there and I’m having fun.”
Dividing his day between three different lakes, Lester focused on shallow flipping with a 7 3/4-inch Bitter’s Mega Wand in the junebug color. He spent most of his time blind bed fishing — targeting unseen fish in likely spawning areas.
“I caught one of them that I was actually looking at on the bed,” Lester said. “I was actually just fishing at that time and I looked down and it was like, ‘Oh my.’ I only caught that one off a bed and the other four came while I was just fishing.”
When he was blind casting the bedding areas, Lester fished his worm unweighted and Texas-rigged. For sight fishing, he added a Humdinger Power Spinner — a screw-in willowleaf blade for added appeal.
“You have to fish this bait slow,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing in Florida — if you go down a bank just cast, cast, cast, cast — you’ll fish right over top of them. You have to pitch it in there and just shake it in place. Most of the time, after you start shaking it, they’ll grab it.”
