I just looked at the 2019 Day 1 leaderboard to find out how it compared with today, keeping in mind that two hours remain.
Most obvious are weights. BASSTrakk current leader Jay Yelas has 20 pounds, 7 ounces, which would put him in 13th place last year. Leader Seth Feider had 26-12, and there were 14 anglers surpassing the 20-pound mark. As of now, only four anglers are listed with 20-pound limits.
So why is that? There could be lots of reasons, and of course, we can blame COVID-19 for some of them. Canadian waters are off limits due to the border closure. That accounts for roughly 60 percent of Lake St. Clair. Squeeze the fishing area down to 40 percent and the likelihood of fishing pressure being a cause is real.
More people are fishing and the statistics prove it. License sales in Michigan are up 18 percent over this time last year. On the industry side, Mercury Marine is seeing a 40 percent increase in sales of new outboards (which could mean boats too, since those are sold in packages these days). Finally, the sheer popularity of Lake St. Clair’s perennial listing in the Bassmaster Top 100 Lakes has the spotlight on the lake for tournaments. There are just about weekly tournaments here during the bass season.
And then this thought. Matt Arey, a former FLW Tour pro with years of experience, came up with this theory.
“Last year we came here the last week of September,” he said. “It makes me wonder if individual smallmouth were heavier from bulking up for the winter dormant period.”
Could be. But there are still three more days remaining for the guys to dial into one of the country’s best smallmouth fisheries.