"I made a big gamble. I went for the win and it didn’t pay off. Maybe I can squeak out a check and go home and buy a lawnmower or something."
–Ryan Cooper, who added 15-13 to his Day One catch of 22-06 and missed the opportunity to fish on Saturday by one spot
"My hands are raw. The other day in practice I caught 61 smallmouths in one day."
–Tracy Adams (87th)
"Something major changed today and I could never get on the big fish."
–Ben Parker, who caught 5 pounds less today than he did yesterday, but still managed to squeak into the cut in 11th place.
"I’ve caught more smallmouth in the last seven days than I have in the rest of my life put together."
–Ben Parker
"Today I caught as many as yesterday, but yesterday I had a dozen 4-pounders and today I had a dozen 3-pounders. It’s bad when you’re catching threes and you’re mad about it."
–David Walker (10th)
"I couldn’t stay on my fish. I just used my trolling motor. I didn’t have a drift sock and my trolling motor was out of the water more than it was in the water."
–Al Farace (7th)
"If there’s an expert around here, come up and tell me what happened out there, because it was bad."
–Mike Elkins (91st)
"It’s a good pain."
–Elite Series pro Kevin Short (28th), describing his damaged hands, before recommending that St. Clair anglers invest in Neosporin and Band-Aids.
"The weather was fine. The wind was horrible."
–John Leader (18th)
"You could hold a tournament with 500 boats here."
–Mark Hicks (72nd), describing the spacious Lake St. Clair Metropark