Canadians Gallant 39th, Cory Johnston 45th, Chris Johnston 63rd, Kung 67th & Gustafson 90th
Tennessee's Buddy Gross has taken the lead on Day 1 of the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork with a total of 33 pounds, 9 ounces. (Seigo Saito/BASS)
BASS Press Release
YANTIS, Texas — Buddy Gross knew he had enough for at least one day of
competition and his determination to maximize that potential rewarded the
Chattanooga, Tenn., pro with a whopping limit of 33 pounds, 9 ounces
which leads Day 1 of the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork.
On a day that saw the Top 6 anglers reach the “Dirty 30,”
Gross notched a lead of 1-4 over Trey McKinney.
“God is good; he always shows up for me when I need it,”
Gross said. “We weren’t catching quantity, we were catching quality. We’re just
going to have to do it again and try to back it up.
“I did this on the first day of practice and I zeroed the
second day, so we’re going to have to work hard and make sure we get a lot of
fish in the boat.”
Anchoring his day with a 9-11, Gross got the action going
early with a couple of quality fish and ended with a 6-11 at 1:14 p.m. Leaving
nothing to chance, he squeezed all he could out of his areas.
“In practice, I caught some quality and today, I went to
those areas and really soaked them up,” Gross said. “I fished hard in those
areas. I don’t know what to expect the rest of the week, but I knew I needed a
good bag today to stay in contention, so I just bore down and fished those
areas.”
Gross held his cards low, but he described his areas as
postspawn staging spots. He clearly found the right size fish, but he’s aware
that his opportunities are limited.
“I just don’t have a lot of it,” Gross said. “I thought I
could run some history here and still catch them, but I didn’t. I did find a
little offshore stuff but it just wasn’t helping, so I quit that. I hope I have
enough left to do well tomorrow.”
Gross said Fork’s water level — currently full pool — has
the fish widely dispersed. While low water periods gather fish in tighter
areas, a full lake makes it harder to dial in consistency.
“The water being high has them moved around a little bit,”
Gross said. “I think timing is not the problem, I think it’s the high water. I
think it has spread them out. I just got blessed and found one place that’s
kinda loading up.”
Gross said he had to fish a broad spectrum of baits today.
