It’s less than 300 miles from Paul Mueller’s home in Naugatuck, Conn., to Cayuga Lake, about a 4 ½-hour drive. But Mueller hadn’t been here until the 2016 Elite Series was announced. Familiarity has nothing to do with Mueller’s success so far at Cayuga Lake.
He was in fifth place with 20-9 yesterday, and BASSTrakk has him in third place with an additional 16-13 today.
“I kept an open mind going into this tournament because I really wasn’t sure what the fish would be doing,” Mueller said Thursday. “And even though I had a good day, I feel consistency is going to be a tough thing. I know where there are some big ones. I don’t know how I’m going to catch them.”
Muller had three smallmouth bass, caught off spawning beds, and two post-spawn largemouths in his bag yesterday. He doesn’t expect to catch anything but largemouths, if he’s still fishing the last two days.
“I might be able to catch one or two (Friday), if I’m lucky,” Mueller said. “But from there on out, if I’m going to catch weight like I had today, it’s going to have to be green fish for sure.”
Mueller, if you remember, was the only angler who failed to catch a five-bass limit on Day 1 at the St. Johns River. He had a good excuse. With two bass in the livewell at 10:30 a.m., Mueller got a call from his wife, Kimber, that she was going into labor, so he got busy getting back to Connecticutt. Their first child, Waylon Paul Mueller, was born later that day, which also happened to be St. Patrick’s Day.
Mueller’s best finish this season came two tournaments back, when he finished fifth at Toledo Bend. He was 68th in AOY points entering this event.