It was about so much more than the 8-pound, 8-ounce big bass of Day 2 in the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at the St. Johns River. Wes Logan may be only 26 years old, but the second-year Elite Series angler from Springville, Ala., has caught plenty of big bass. This one turned him into an emotional mess.
“I can’t explain it,” Logan said. “It gives me chills. It makes me want to tear up and start crying.”
Here’s the explanation: It was an emotional doubleheader for Logan. His grandmother, Inez Lucas, celebrated her 82nd birthday Friday. And, more importantly, her husband, Ralph Lucas, also 82, came home after about a six-week-period of hospitalization, then rehab from Covid-19. Logan said his grandfather was on a ventilator for 18 days.
“He was so sick,” said Logan, with tears welling in his eyes. “Me and him are tight. When I caught that fish, I couldn’t breathe. I guess I’m just going to have to call that one Popaw’s fish.”
Logan, who finished just outside Bassmaster Classic qualification during his 2020 rookie season on the Elite Series, is off to a good start in 2021 despite not having any particular spot or pattern to lean on. He finished in 38th place with a 10-pound, 6-ounce limit on the fog-shortened Day 1. The big bass Friday anchored a 21-pound, 2-ounce limit that propelled him into 12th place after Day 2.
“I was flipping lily pads,” Logan said of the big bass catch. “I’m sure it was on a (spawning) bed, but I couldn’t see it. A lot of times those big ones spawn where you can’t see them, in four or five feet of water.”
Logan caught it on a Junebug-colored Zoom Speed Worm with a quarter-ounce tungsten weight and a 3/0 Gamakatsu straight shank flipping hook. Logan is catching them again today. He’s got a 14-pound, 13-ounce limit, which includes two 4-plus-pounders, at 10 a.m.