Day 1 was a clear illustration of how important one big bass – one “fatty” – was in keeping an angler in contention. Edwin Evers had the biggest fatty of the day, a 9-13, to go with four “rats,” the biggest being maybe 3 pounds, and finished in 12th place.
All 109 anglers who fished all day caught a 5-bass limit. (The exception was, of course, Paul Mueller, who left at 10:30 a.m. for the birth of his first child.) But the range in the weight of those 5-bass limits went from first-place Brandon Lester’s 23-13 to 109th-place J Todd Tucker’s 7-6 – a difference of 16-7.
That’s a long way of getting around to this: Watch out for Justin Lucas and Bradley Roy today. They’ve put down a solid foundation for a heavy bag today. Lucas, caught an 8 1/2-pounder at 8:16 this morning. Roy landed a 7-3 at 8:43.