When collisions are a good thing

Stephen Browning, in describing his fishing style on Okeechobee, often uses the expression “colliding with them,” as in keeping his trolling motor on a low speed and probing the grass until he runs into one.

“Don’t get discouraged,” Browning said about his game plan for today. “You know you’re fishing in Florida. You know you’re going to have to fish around crowds. Just slow down and be methodical. Hopefully, I’ll collide with them.”

A couple of other anglers enjoyed some memorable late-day collisions yesterday. Ott DeFoe was on the verge of weighing-in 13 pounds instead of 17, heading to check-in, when he made one last stop.

“I just stopped on the way in, thought, ‘This looks good. Let’s throw a Chatterbait down through here a few times before I come in,’ and a 6 1/2-pounder eats it,” DeFoe said. “I culled one that weighed less than two pounds.”

Micah Frazier enjoyed an even bigger collision. He had about a 14-pound limit, figured he’d made the Top 51 cut, and decided to do a little scouting for Day 3.

“I knew I’d made a check, and I was happy with it,” Frazier said. “Then I saw that fish. It took like five or 10 minutes to catch it.”

“It” was the big bass of the day, weighing 9-3. He culled a 1 1/2-pounder. That 7-pound, 11-ounce last-minute improvement gave Frazier 22-4 and put him in 12th place.