Chris Zaldain is having a good day. Not quite as good as BASSTrakk credited him with earlier. But this is one of two 4-pound smallmouth he's got in his livewell. He landed this one about 11 a.m. today and it was his fourth fish in the well.
Zaldain is having a good year. He came to La Crosse ranked 13th in AOY points. But he's not having a particularly good tournament. He qualified for the Top 50 cut by ounces – in 44th place.
So when he caught his fifth fish in Minnesota at 12:30, he had a decision to make. It was a barely keeper-size smallmouth. So it was dump his fifth fish and keep fishing in Minnesota, or leave and – well, you know the options by now, I think.
Zaldain's brain was churning, obviously.
"I haven't been bit in awhile, so I'm not sure," he said. "I'm not trying to make the Top 12 cut, I'm thinking about points. I don't want to come in with four fish."
Zaldain put the fifth fish in the livewell and left Minnesota waters – maybe to return, maybe not.