If you were watching “Bassmaster LIVE” shortly after 1 p.m., you saw Roy Hawk hook up with what he thought was “a toad.” But as Hawk got the “big bass” near the boat, he realized he had a pair of 2-pounders on his topwater lure. Hawk landed only one of them. He thought the second one simply came unhooked, but a closer examination showed the-one-that-got-away left with one of the treble hooks on his topwater lure.
“The split ring broke,” Hawk said. That can happen when two good-size spotted bass are pulling in opposite directions on a lure.
Earlier today, when James Overstreet, Gettys Brannon and I were following James Elam, we saw him land a nice keeper, then throw something back in the water that looked like a fish. It was puzzling. We didn’t get a good look at it, but whatever he threw back wasn’t nearly as big as the bass we saw him swing in the boat.
When Overstreet was working up his photo galleries from today, he was able to solve the mystery. As you can see from the enlarged image above, Elam, like Hawk, hooked a double on a topwater lure. The result for both anglers was the same – one decent keeper in the boat.