PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Like most anglers who take leads into "moving day," Timmy Horton took up sentinel backstage of the weigh-in watching the television monitor, wondering if and/or how his lead would hold up as the remaining field weighed their Day Two catch.
Horton likely had a little more on his mind as he stared deeply into the monitor, his competitors' weights never coming close to eclipsing his 45-14 two-day catch. Horton admitted earlier on stage that he had caught many hefty fish among his 24-pound, 12-ounce limit. He hoped out loud that he hadn't "burned" too many of them.
"I hope I make it to Sunday, so I can really see what's on these spots," said Horton, referring to Sunday's final day when competitors don't have to worry about conserving fish for the next day. "I went to my first spot and probably caught about 20 pounds. At my second spot, I ended up culling every one of them. It's kind of frustrating to burn those fish."
Later, after much contemplation — Horton was one of the first to weigh in on Day Two — the Alabama pro said he felt better about the situation.
"If you're on a lake where there's not a lot of these fish, that's when you worry about something like what happened today," he said. "But on a lake like this, you have to fish your best stuff because everybody else is going to fish their best stuff.
"My first spot was where I had hoped to get one or two big fish and I just happened to get a bunch of them. You just have to hope it works out in the end."
Securing a big bag early in the day also gave Horton a chance to put his pattern to the test, spending a good part of Day Two in practice mode in preparation for Saturday and Sunday.
"I even came back up here and fished for smallmouth for two and a half hours," he said. "It'll be interesting to see how it goes."
Editor's note: Check in daily during the tournament for live video of the weigh-ins and a realtime leaderboard at 3 p.m. ET Thursday through Saturday. ESPNOutdoors.com will air Hooked Up, the live Internet shows, on Sunday at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon ET on Sunday. The 45-minute Hooked Up show begins at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, leading into the final live weigh-in and a realtime leaderboard at 3:45 p.m. ET.
Please feel free to post comments to this story via the ESPN Conversation feature at the bottom of this and every news page on this site.