Consistency is, of course, crucial to success in a four-day bass fishing tournament. But Day 2 at Kentucky Lake re-emphasized the point illustrated last week at Oklahoma’s Grand Lake: Consistency is difficult during the spawn.
Of the top 10 anglers on Day 1 at Kentucky Lake, only three remained there on Day 2 – Skeet Reese, Jason Christie and Bobby Lane. Chris Zaldain was the most obvious example of those falling out. He dropped from first place on Day 1 with 24 pounds, 3 ounces to 40th place on Day 2 with only three fish weighing 7-2. But there were wilder swings in the standings, both up and down, than Zaldain’s 39-place fall.
Boyd Duckett vaulted from 60th place to 8th with the 24-0 big bag of Day 2. Aaron Martens moved from 55th place to 10th with 22-7. Paul Elias dropped from 9th to 55th with 9-4. And there were plenty of other examples, like Timmy Horton rising 50 places from 89th to 39th, and Kyle Monti falling 62 places from 22nd to 88th.
With the field cut to the Top 50 today, everyone seemingly has a chance to make the Top 12 for Monday’s final. There’s a difference of only 7-3 between 12th place (Jordan Lee, 36-14) and 50th (Jake Whitaker, 29-11).
“I finally got on some,” said Timmy Horton, who caught a limit weighing 11-7 on Day 1 and had 20-0 on Day 2. “I caught ’em pretty good in the morning on the shad spawn. Then I lost one about 7 or 8 pounds later in the day right at the boat.”
Horton found bass that were moving in with another wave of spawners later in the day, saying, “They’re coming. I’m pumped.”
So, yeah, anyone in the Top 50 could make the Top 12 at the end of the day.