Several of the 10 finalists have been waiting for the tide change that’s supposed to kick into full gear about now. Caleb Sumrall needed something to change. He’d been stuck with four small keepers for awhile. But he didn’t need what happened just before 1:00, when he got to what he called one of his primary areas. Sumrall got a solid blowup on a white buzzbait, set the hook and, as he was swinging it in the boat, the bass came unhooked in mid-air.
The heartbreak came when the bass bounced off the boat rail and fell back into the water. A few more inches and it would have fallen on his boat deck. It appeared to be a bass in the 2 1/2- to 3-pound range, a good one. Sumrall caught his fifth keeper a few minutes later, but it was another 1-pounder, like the others in his livewell. “It’s not a big limit, but it’s a limit,” he said. Sumrall began the day in 5th place, 5-1 behind leader Jason Christie.