By Bryan Brasher
BASS PRESS RELEASE
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| Chad grabs slim lead over Zaldain. (Photo: BASS) |
When
Chad Pipkens suffered a broken collarbone playing hockey back in early March,
some people automatically assumed he was done fishing the Bassmaster Elite
Series for the year.
But not only has he kept fishing, he’s actually
been better since the freak accident happened.
The veteran pro from Lansing, Mich., caught five
bass Thursday that weighed 31 pounds, 15 ounces and took the opening-round lead
in the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department on Lake Fork.
The catch gave Pipkens a 4-ounce lead over
Brandon Cobb of South Carolina (31-11) and a 1-5 advantage over Texas pro Chris
Zaldain (30-10) on a day when 19 competitors managed at least 20 pounds for
their five-bass limits.
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to break
anything else,” Pipkens said, laughing. “But being injured has definitely
caused me to slow down and fish a little differently than I did before — and I
think it’s showed in the way I’ve finished.”
Before Pipkens’ injury, he had 51st- and
54th-place finishes in the first two Elite Series events on the St. Johns River
and Lake Lanier. After breaking his collarbone in three places and enduring a
surgery that left him with a massive scar, he finished ninth in his next event
at Lake Hartwell — his highest finish on the Elite Series since a fifth-place
showing at the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship at Sturgeon
Bay, Wisc., in 2015.
He actually got off to a slow start Thursday
when he went looking for a couple of large bass he’d found on spawning beds
during practice. When he realized those fish were gone, he tried to exploit a
shad-spawn bite that has been hot all over the lake.
Since that particular bite happens early — and
since he had wasted some time on the bedding fish — that didn’t work either.
