Most of the time with only a couple hours left in an Elite, the tournament has been all but decided. At most, there’s one angler within range to land a last-minute haymaker. We’re less than two hours from the last cast of this event, and five anglers still have a great shot.
Chris Johnston is in control, having caught four heavy 4-pounders and a 5 to amass an estimated 23-15 on the day. Patrick Walters however sits only an ounce back unofficially and has plenty of room to cull, with two under 4 pounds. Taku Ito is 2 pounds off the lead, but has the biggest bag of the day; 24-12. He’ll need a legit 6 for a shot. Kyoya Fujita is 3 pounds back with three 4-pounders; two or three big bites away.
Kyle Welcher is the real threat in 5th thought. He only has 17 pounds. But considering he lost 5 hours of fishing to mechanical issues, it’s amazing that he’s only 5 pounds off the lead. Three 5-pound bites seems like a stretch in an hour of fishing. But Welcher is finally fishing where he’s caught 15 fish bigger than that (on average) over the last three days. He only fished in this location two hours on Day 1… and caught 25-10.
