Combs moves up on Mille Lacs

Day 1 of the Toyota Angler of the Year Championship on Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota started Thursday morning with a beautiful sunrise as the Top 50 anglers idled out of Eddyâs Resort.

The American Flag was already blowing straight out at takeoff, which was a precursor for the wind speeds on Day 1.

Keith Combs started this event in 2nd place in the AOY standings and only trailed Gerald Swindle by 43 points.

That would be a lofty points spread to make up with just 50 anglers competing, but nonetheless the door isnât shut and there is still an opportunity.

With a slow start to the morning, Combs took a moment to grab a new bait from his middle compartment.

Meanwhile Matt Herren got airborne heading to his next spot.

Combs hooked up with his first fish of the day.

With smallmouth and finesse fishing, anglers will let the fish get tired instead of forcing the action with light line.

He takes it to the console to land keeper number one.

Combs reaches for the fish while cameraman Rick Mason records all the action for Bassmaster LIVE.

That was a solid first keeper for Combs on Mille Lacs, but four and five pounders will be needed to finish high this week.

It didnât take long for Combs to hook up again.

He fights it as the waves raise his boat and it crashes back down.

He goes to land the fishâ¦

As it peeks its head out of the waves.

The scoopâ¦

And the score for Combs. Two keepers on almost back-to-back casts.

Brandon Palanaiuk makes his way from one spot to another.

He was in sight and hooked up quickly after getting to his next location.

Palaniuk takes a moment to click the Spot-Lock option on his new Minn Kota Ultrex as he heads to the passenger seat.

The keeper sticks its head above the waves as Palaniuk slowly brings it closer.

BP grabs the football and pulls it aboard his Skeeter.

A big fist pump for the solid fish.

Palaniuk takes a moment to weigh the fish on his Rapala scale, which allows him to log more than five fish on the scale so culling is easier.

As soon as I turned around, Combs was hooked up too.

This fish was an easy catch, but only because it wasn’t very big. Combs put it on the measuring board to make sure it was 12 inches minimum.

He puts this keeper in the livewell.

A couple casts later, the battle was on again.

But this one seemed even smaller by the way he was fighting it.

It was on the small side and it was immediately released after it didn’t measure.

The new Minn Kota Ultrex was doing work for Combs on his spot.

Combs headed out to his next spot and on the way I saw Randall Tharp who sits 3rd in the AOY Standings.

As we idled by him to get to Combs, he hooked up.

After the waves made his Phoenix change direction he swung the fish around the trolling motor and planned to land it in the passenger seat.

Tharp already had a solid limit in the boat, but was certainly looking to upgrade.

He grabs a chunky smallmouth that most anglers would describe as a football.

He grabs a couple cull tags to figure out what fish was next to cull.

That’s a pretty good cull for Tharp. He was eliminated from the Angler of the Year race after the final regular season event, but Tharp is always trying to improve his tournament standing.

Keith Combs was headed out to his next spot so we were in pursuit.

Chris Lane was at the next stop for Combs.

But there was plenty of water for the two of them to share. Mille Lacs offers plenty of real estate to fish.

Off in the distance an incoming rain storm covers the northeast corner of Mille Lacs.

So Combs suits up with his rain gear.

Combs hooked up with what looked like a good one.

The feisty smallmouth jumps at the boat as Combs tries to keep it down.

Then the Texas native brought it to the console as he tried to land it.

Then he scoops up the good one and brings it aboard the boat.

After a slow morning, Combs was looking to turn it around with his biggest of the morning period.

Combs cashed in with a bait caster so he kept it in hand as he kept casting.

Chris Lane gets in the driver seat and heads back up to his spot to make another drift down with the current.

The 2012 Classic champ is bubble boy in this event as he sat in 38th in Toyota Angler of the Year points and will need to catch them this week.

Combs hooked up with a bait caster again.

He swings aboard a keeper that culled him up slightly.

Lane hooked up as well.

This one looked like a decent fish as he hits the front deck to land the smallmouth.

He had a decent bag thus far, but I figured this one could possibly help him some.

But Lane quickly unhooked it and didn’t give it a second look…

Before releasing it back into Mille Lacs. He would end the day in 35th with 17-15, but would fall out of the Classic cutline and is below the bubble line.