Ed Loughran made the most of his time by rotating between a punch rig and frog. Shop for lures on Amazon.com
Ed Loughran has become a big-bass specialist, it seems, in his second season on the Elite Series. And it might carry him to a Bassmaster Classic qualification. Loughran caught only two bass on Day 1 at Lake Chickamauga, but one of them was a 6-9, which highlighted his 39th-place finish that day. That sparked a 9th-place finish in the tournament and moved him up from 50th place in the AOY standings to 41st entering Lake Fork.
Loughran, who also had the Phoenix Boats big bass of 6-5 at Lake St. Clair, has caught another one today – a 7-2 that’s a big part of his 18-13 second-place limit this morning.
While on a “Bassmaster LIVE” segment earlier, he detailed how two bad days of practice and one good one made his starting spot this morning obvious.
“I went to the area where I had the one good day,” Loughran said. “I’m just junk fishing, throwing squarebills, Chatterbaits and a worm. I’ve moved out of that area now. I’m going to see if I can expand it.”
Each angler can bring one bass to the weigh-in each day in this otherwise catch-weigh-and-release format. That fish must be 24 inches or longer. Loughran won’t be bringing his 7-2 to show off.
“It was a little over 22 inches,” he said. “A short, stout, very solid fish.”