Looking behind the curtain at the data we gathered from Basstrakk, we can see a few things pretty quickly. Of the 517 catches that were recorded on Day 1, there weren’t any major feeding windows that stood out. Oftentimes we’ll see feeding windows, one from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. for instance, where a larger number of fish are caught than other times. That wasn’t really the case here on Day 1.
On Day 1, we saw the following:
| Time | Catches |
| Between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. | 8 |
| Between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. | 75 |
| Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. | 82 |
| Between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. | 76 |
| Between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. | 74 |
| Between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. | 60 |
| Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. | 59 |
| Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. | 47 |
| Between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. | 26 |
| Between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. | 10 |
Obviously, there were low numbers reported between 7:30 and 8 a.m. as well as 3 and 5 p.m., but during those times, not all anglers were fishing. Many anglers were still making their way through takeoff and to their first spots during that first 30 minutes of the day and anglers were coming off the water in staggered flights throughout the afternoon. So those lower numbers are to be expected.
But throughout the rest of the day, the fish catches were extremely evenly dispersed. The numbers were a little higher in the morning hours, with catch totals in the 70s and 80s for the field between 8 a.m. and noon. But having worked with Basstrakk for a long time, I know that there is a tendency for marshals and anglers to stop inputting smaller fish into Basstrakk once the angler gets his limit.
So I’m not surprised to see slightly lower numbers in the afternoon, and that slight drop-off really doesn’t indicate to me that the fishing became much tougher during that time frame. The 2- pounder that would have been entered earlier in the day for example is an instant cull later in the day when an angler already has a limit of 2-pound plus fish, so it often doesn’t get entered into the system.
All that being said, I do believe we will see some windows of higher activity throughout the week. I predict there will be a feeding window on Day 3 as the forecasted front moves through, say 10 AM to noon just to throw a time frame out there. And I predict will start to see more catches early, as these anglers continue to dial in on the spawning fish. As the week progresses, will see these guys start on fish that they have found the day or days prior, which will lead to more catches early. And then they’ll go into search mode again as the day goes on and have to find and catch fish at a slower pace.
Big fish
There were 46 bass over 4- pounds caught and logged into Basstrakk on Day 1, 20 of which were over 5- pounds, 13 were over 6, and 2 of those 46 were estimated at the time to be over 7- pounds. That’s an average of about one 4- pound plus There were 83 bass over 4- pounds caught and logged into Basstrakk on Day 1: 46 4- pounders, 20 5- pounders, 13 6- pounders, 2 7- pounders and 2 8- pounders. That’s an average of about one 4- pound plus fish for every Elite Series angler (with 94 total anglers on the water). And as we saw with several anglers like Brandon Palaniuk and Greg Hackney, the 4- pounders they were entering into BassTrakk were really 5- pounders and up. That’s a lot of big fish and I don’t predict we’ll see a drop-off in those numbers. In fact, we’ll likely see an increase on average as we move forward.