The bass fishing on Day 1 was slightly above average by Elite Series Sabine River standards. Seventy-one of the 98 anglers weighed a five-bass limit. Marc Frazier took big bass honors with a 6-pound, 6-ounce largemouth. Tournament leader Brock Mosley had a 5-pound, 6-ounce largemouth in his 15-10 bag.
The fish tales about other species were above average too. Tidal-influenced water tends to produce some good fish stories. Hank Cherry had the best one. He set the hook on a bass and confusion set in. “I thought, what is wrong with this thing?” said Cherry. “I saw two tails.”
Somehow a 15 1/2-inch bass had a 13-inch mullet two-thirds of the way down it’s throat, and then bit Cherry’s topwater lure. “I actually weighed it,” Cherry said. “It was almost a three-quarter-pound mullet.” However, the mullet had to be discarded after the bass couldn’t swallow it.
Steve Kennedy had a mullet story as well. One flew out of the water, hit him in the back of the leg and fell into the floor of his boat. Kennedy has caught a few redfish this week and had what he estimated to be a 30- or 40-pound alligator gar on his line for, oh, about 30 seconds. That’s not a big one by alligator gar standards, but the encounter frothed the water near his boat and left Kennedy laughingly repeating, “Not a bass, not a bass, not a bass.”
Minnesota native Seth Feider found out why the pursuit of redfish is so popular in Gulf waters, saying, “It was amazing. I can see why guys are into that. I was catching ‘em on a frog and a flipping stick. I bet the largest one I had (Thursday) was 12 or 13 pounds. I betcha I caught a dozen. I caught more redfish than bass.”
Stay tuned. Undoubtedly there will be more fish tales today.