After three days of practice and one tournament day, Gerald Swindle had a new perspective on the Delaware River at Thursday's weigh-in.
"This place has got a lot of fish in it, but your timing has to be perfect to catch 'em," Swindle said.
Added Alton Jones, "I've never seen a fishery where the tide was this crucial."
Jones discovered that the hard way Thursday. He had 4 keepers at 9 a.m. and didn't get another bite the rest of the day.
Mike Iaconelli knew his timing was off Thursday when he caught only 6 fish and weighed a 21st-place total of 9-2. He was boat No. 7 at takeoff, which provided a temptation he couldn't resist.
"I went north. I wanted to hit a community hole that I knew would get beat up pretty quick," he said. "I stayed in there too long. That put me 30 or 40 minutes behind the rest of the day.
"I've got to fix that (Friday). I've got to do a better job of timing."
Obviously, he did that, based on the 13-plus pounds that BASSTrakk shows him with today. And it serves as the ultimate example of how critical timing is on a river that fluctuates 7 feet between high and low tides.
No other angler knows these tide flows better than Iaconelli, who grew up fishing the Delaware River. And he mistimed it Thursday.