Stephen Browning had the big bass of the day for awhile during Thursday's weigh-in. It was a 5-pound, 7-ounce largemouth bass, anchoring his 6th-place bag of 21-2. It was later topped by by a 6-pounder.
Browning not only had that big largemouth, but a 5-fish limit of them, until late in the day, when he culled with a 4-pound smallmouth. His day was an obvious outlier on the St. Lawrence River where brown bass are the norm. Browning believes he can continue to mix it up while fishing "in the dirt," i.e. shallow – real, real shallow.
"On my second to last cast I caught that 4-pound smallmouth," Browning said. "I'm fishing a little area I found last year between tournaments. I thought I was smallmouth fishing and some largemouth showed up. I caught them last year in the rain, so when it started raining (Thursday), I thought I'd give it a whirl. I was kind of surprised, but I like it."
That 4-pound smallmouth late yesterday convinced Browning he might be able to keep catching fish shallow, even with the clear skies forecast for today.
"I think sunshine makes the smallmouth bite, and clouds make the largemouth bite," he said. "They co-exist out on these little deals I'm fishing, so I'm going to go play with them again tomorrow. I feel more comfortable up in the dirt, so I'm going to be up in the dirt. They can have all that tall water they want."
Browning had caught another good largemouth today – a 4 1/2-pounder.