Kyle Welcher began his Elite Series rookie season with a bang, posting an 8th-place finish at Florida’s St. Johns River on Feb. 6-9. The 27-year-old Opelika, Ala., angler is a little closer to home this week on Lake Guntersville, but he’s not familiar with this lake. So he just ran his “river pattern” in catching the Day 1 first place bag of 19 pounds, 5 ounces.
“I’m running a unique deal that the river does, so everywhere I see it on the map, I’ll just stop,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if there’s a dock there, a tree there or grass there. Whatever cover is there, I just fish it because that’s the way the current is setting them up. It’s not about the bait (he’s throwing) or cover. It’s all about what the current is doing.
Later he added, “It does work almost everywhere you go. I did almost the same thing at the St. Johns River.”
Chris Zaldain took big bass honors Wednesday with an 8-6. Both Welcher and John Cox weighed 6-11s.
As predicted, Lake Guntersville was tough on this early fall day marked by bright sunshine and a southwest wind that started slow and kicked up into double digits as the day went on. Only 46 of the 85 anglers weighed 5-bass limits. The average bass weighed-in was 2.70 pounds.
Several anglers predicted 16 pounds a day would be enough to make the top 10 and fish on Day 4. Garrett Paquette is in 10th place after Day 1 with 15-13.