The top five things from Day 1 of the Evan Williams Bourbon Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River.
First cast
On the strength of starting off the Evan Williams Bourbon Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River in 13th, Aaron Martens has taken a lead in the Toyota Angler of the Year race.
Martens, who started the day in third only four points behind Dean Rojas and one point back of Justin Lucas, climbed over both with a total of 508 points. Rojas, who was 49th on Day 1, is now 32 points back with 476. Lucas is third with 438 after only adding the 84th-place points.
Edwin Evers, fifth after Day 1, jumped up five spots to fourth in the season-long points race with 428 points, tied with Elite rookie Brent Ehrler. Cliff Pirch is sixth and St. Lawrence leader Shaw Grigsby stands seventh.
After Jacob Powroznik in eighth is Kevin VanDam in ninth. He dropped two spots with his Day 1 26th position in the tournament, but he’s got room to climb.
With the Chesapeake Bay and Lake St. Clair after this one, Martens is looking strong to pick up his third AOY title.
Two in the well
If the B.A.S.S. prognosticators filled your heads with smallie guys for your Fantasy Fishing team, and you didn’t listen, good for you.
Three guys from Florida top the leaderboard after Day 1. Shaw Grigsby, Bobby Lane and Bernie Schultz all caught bags more than 21 pounds, but keep going down the list — Alton Jones, Edwin Evers, Stephen Browning.
It’s not until you get to Mike Iaconelli’s seventh-place tie with Russ Lane that a northern/smallie angler shows, and less than half of Ike’s wins are from brown bass waters.
Three’s company
Matt Lee stunk on Day 1. Literally.
His fishing wasn’t so bad – he’s in the middle of the pack at 47th — it’s that he hit a skunk on his drive to the launch. Alan McGuckin sniffed out this stinky story.
“I guess it was kind of gross — it splattered on the boat,” Lee said at the weigh-in. “Thank goodness it rained pretty hard and kind of washed it off.”
Comments on the bottom of the story included Patrick Grady, who reported the area is loaded with woodland creatures trying to get to the other side. Last year heading to an event on the St. Lawrence, Grady said he hit a porcupine. Folks got a kick that its quills were sticking out of all four of his tires on the right side of his rig. It might have been a good omen, though, as Grady won the tournament.
Four on the floor
Walking onto stage, Kevin Short lifted his jersey to pull up his shorts. He forgot his belt this morning and said, “When I set the hook on fish this morning my Carhartt shorts fell down to my knees.”
See what other words from the anglers’ James Overstreet found interesting in the Day 1 quotes.
That’s a limit
Speaking of Overstreet, he ought to be sleeping with one eye open tonight. The dotcom crew has rented a house within sight of the launch, and the guys are up to their regular shenanigans of embarrassing one another.
Overstreet captured this shot of Shaye Baker cuddled up as he worked today and posted it on Facebook.
“One of my roommates for the week here on the St. Lawrence River. Yelp … that’s my boy Mr. Brandon S Baker (aka Shaye Baker), knocking out that steady work. You gotta admit the Dora comforter is pretty awesome, man. And yeah … I know what they say about payback … expected.”
And no, Baker didn’t bring it from home. Hello Kitty stays there.
Culling
Photo of the Day. James Overstreet’s shot of Jacob Powroznik getting out in front of a huge wake.