It’s about time

Being at the right spot at the right time is still bit of guessing game.

CECIL COUNTY, Md. – Bobby Lane said that the fishing in his best area on Day 1 of the Huk Performance Fishing Elite Series tournament on the Chesapeake Bay “was like a revolving door.” As soon as one pro left, another swooped in to take his place.
 
Just like a broken clock, the tidal conditions for success are optimal at least twice a day. The question is whether the pros are able to get on their best spots at the right times. Whether you call it a revolving door, “take a number,” a crapshoot or a glorified aquatic game of spin the bottle, it takes a little bit of luck and a lot of foresight to get things right.
 
At one point during the day, Randy Allen worked a single dock for the better part of 20 minutes before ceding it to Brandon Coulter for the same amount of time. As Coulter finally gave up and left, Lane swooped in and caught three fish in less than five minutes. A short while later he caught No. 4 from an adjacent dock. It appeared that his “revolving door” had opened for him, but just as quickly it rotated another 90 degrees and stayed shut the rest of the day. He never landed another bass. 
 
Randy Howell’s 15-pound limit might look solid on the scorecard, but it was anything but easy
 
“I caught a 4-pounder on my fifth flip and then never caught another one until 2 o’clock,” he said. “Then I caught two within five minutes. Ten minutes later I caught my fourth and I caught a 3 ¼ pound-fish right at weigh-in.”
 
Howell figures he “got the tide right,” but he’s not sure exactly what that means. “I don’t know why I all of a sudden caught fish,” he said. “It seems like it’s more important here than any place I’ve ever been.”
 
Figuring out what constitutes a good time and tide to be somewhere is part science, part black magic.
 
“You can’t pay attention to those (tide) charts,” Randall Tharp said. “You have to be out there and experience it.”
 
Tharp said that he hasn’t figured out the Chesapeake’s moods as well as he has those of the Potomac, but found that his best strategy is to focus on two key areas and move between them when the tide is slack. It’s not really running the tide in the traditional sense, but it’s one way to eliminate the boredom of periods that are typically less productive than others.
 
Different anglers take different approaches to solving the puzzle. Bernie Schultz and Jacob Powroznik started on the same quality piece of water, but thereafter took different paths to compiling their catches. Schultz spent all of the day in one place, most of that time with his PowerPoles locking him in position. He caught two bass early, but then “nothing happened for four hours.”
 
He said that by mid-day he was committed to staying there, noting that his second best area was a long boat ride away. By electing to stay put for the duration, he added two more fish as time ran out, boosting him from far outside the money up into 30th place, well inside the money cut. For a veteran pro fighting to make his first Bassmaster Classic since 2009, those extra points could be a difference maker.
 
While Powroznik never made a super-long run away from his starting spot, he spent the day bouncing from spot to spot, relying on a few quick flurries to amass the 15-pound, 2-ounce bag that has him in sixth place.
 
“It’s a timing deal and a grind,” he said. “You go 30 minutes without a bite, then you get one. This place is full of great big ones and it’s getting right.”
 
He hit one spot three times before catching a 4-pounder from it. Elsewhere, he seined a small pile of rocks and logs for 15 minutes before quickly catching two solid keepers. He’ll need to be consistent if he’s going to use this tournament to make a run at the Angler of the Year title. He entered it in fourth place overall as one of the prohibitive favorites to do well in the tournament – the only problem is that the angler at the head of the class, Aaron Martens, likewise came out of Day 1 ahead of all of his peers in this tournament’s standings.
 
Martens scrapped his way to five bites today, but he’ll have a shorter day tomorrow and doesn’t know when to expect his flurries.
 
“I don’t want to leave the area I’m in,” he said. “Mostly because I don’t have enough areas to run the tide. All I can do is pick the pace up when the tide gets right.” 
 
By Sunday, one angler will know that it’s his time and his time alone.