Chris Lane knocked one way out of the ballpark on Day 2 when the Elite Series was on the St. Johns River two years ago. His 5-bass limit weighing 37-9 propelled him to a 4-day first-place total of 90-13. So does Lane think another 30-pounds-plus bag will be weighed in this year?
“I don’t think so,” Lane said at takeoff this morning. “But here it’s so hard to gauge. You could have two 10-pounders, but only three 3-pounders to go with it. You just never know. And you could pull up to the right spot at the right time and bust 30 pounds in 15 minutes.”
Lane isn’t fond of sight-fishing. He’s got nothing against it. He simply prefers to make a cast to where spawning fish might be, rather than pull up and look at them. He went “old style” in his lure selection two years ago, relying on a Luck E Strike black-and-blue ring worm and a “jig-and-pig,” he said.
Lane has been on the Elite Series since it started, so it’s his 11th season. With the addition of this year’s rookie class, Lane said this will be “the toughest field” in Elite Series history.
By the way, the field is 110 anglers, not the originally planned 111. Nate Wellman is taking a medical hardship due to knee surgery.