Seth Feider had his 21-pound, 7-ounce five-bass limit caught by about 10 a.m. yesterday, capped by the 6-pound, 6-ounce largemouth he caught flipping a jig in a marina. He spent the rest of his day looking for new areas to fish today and Sunday. And one time he didn’t set the hook on what felt like a quality bass.
“I did find two good spots,” Feider said Friday. “I shook off a big one. I thought four different times about setting the hook on him. Then I thought I might need that one later, so I shook him off. I don’t know that I’ll ever get him to bite again. It was for sure a nice one. I don’t know if it was a 4-pounder, 5-pounder, or what. It wasn’t a 2-pounder, I know that.”
There will be no shaking off fish today. Feider began the day trailing leader Jamie Hartman by 12 ounces.
“I think I’m really going to have to beat ’em up, because Sunday’s weather looks really junky for largemouth fishing,” Feider said. “So I’ll probably be smallmouth fishing a lot on Sunday.”
A “junky” largemouth fishing day – cloudy, windy – would take away half of Feider’s game plan, which is start on smallmouth bass then try to add a kicker largemouth or two. His 6-6 largemouth yesterday is the big bass of the tournament so far.