Brandon Card might be more surprised than anyone over the fact that he sits atop the leaderboard after one day on Ross Barnett Reservoir. In first pre-practice and then practice periods, Card witnessed the up-and-down nature of this 33,000-acre lake. And he knows it’s possible to go from the penthouse to the outhouse on Day 2 at Ross Barnett. Highly possible.
“I pre-practiced about six weeks ago, and it was just insane, really good,” said Card, after weighing 22-14 Thursday. “I had high hopes it was going to be easy. When we came back (this week) for practice, all the areas I’d found in pre-practice were choked out. It was all muddy. None of that stuff could I even get a bite in.
“I was really frustrated, thinking, ‘Why did I even come out here and pre-practice? I wound up fishing areas I literally didn’t even take my boat into in pre-practice. That’s where I caught them today.”
Card, like probably everyone else in the 109-angler field, has no idea what will happen today – good, bad or ugly.
“I have no clue,” said the 30-year-old Knoxville, Tenn., resident. “There’s obviously quality fish around. I think it’s just getting in the right rotation. You don’t want to fish a stretch right after somebody, whether they catch ‘em or not. The boat disturbs the area. You need to be getting on ‘the juice’ at the right time. I think that’s what worked out for me, just timing.”
Card saw both positive and negative in his Day 1 experience on Ross Barnett, saying, “It was kind of an all-day deal. I caught some in the morning, caught some mid-day, then caught a couple in the afternoon. That was a surprise because during practice it was a morning deal. I feel optimistic about that.
“The only thing I’m not optimistic about is there are so many boats everywhere. I don’t have a little hidey hole where I’m getting away from everybody.”
And neither does anyone else.