The above headline, a Mark Twain quote, definitely applies to the following statistics from the previous three days of the Evan Williams Bourbon Bassmaster Elite on the St. Lawrence River. They are flexible. You can use them to back up your theory of bass fishing on the river now, whatever that theory may be.
On Day 1: 88% of the anglers (95 of 107) caught a limit; the average weight of the bass weighed-in was 3.20 lbs.; big bass was a 6-0 largemouth by Zell Rowland.
On Day 2: 79% of the anglers (85 of 107) caught a limit; the average weight of the bass weighed-in was 3.00 lbs.; big bass was a 6-3 largemouth by Mark Menendez.
On Day 3: 86% of the anglers (43 of 50) caught a limit; the average weight of the bass weighed-in was 3.09 lbs.; big bass was a 5-11 smallmouth by Mike Iaconelli.
With the magic number all week being a 20-pound bag, you can see why that's such a difficult mark to hit, where a "kicker" is a 5-pounder. It was reached 10 times on Day 1, twice on Day 2 and only once on Day 3. Edwin Evers' Day 2 total of 22-9 remains the big bag of the tournament. Iaconelli almost matched it yesterday with 22-4.
"There's a 23-pound bag sitting out there for anyone," said Josh Bertrand before today's takeoff. That's undoubtedly true. But we haven't seen one yet this week.