BassTrakk can be a little misleading early. There’s a shuffle each day at the top of the leaderboard, as some of the previous day’s leaders get off to a slow start and their pursuers put together quick limits. Take Chris Zaldain and Bryant Smith for example. Zaldain made a massive run this morning and in a matter of 34 minutes he put 20 pounds in the boat. That bolstered his position to 3rd on BassTrakk. Day 1 leader Bryant Smith sits in 9th at the moment. But a quick glance at BassTrakk really doesn’t tell the whole story.
Now, if you click on an angler’s name, you can see how much each bass in the angler’s livewell weighs. When you do this, you can get a clearer picture. Looking at Zaldain’s limit, all but one will need to be culled for the Texan to truly rally up the leaderboard. Having a 4-12 in his bag is big, but the other four right at or below the 4-pound mark will have to go. Bryant Smith on the other hand, sits in a better position really, with only one big bass for 5-10 in the boat.
Looking around the rest of the leaderboard in this way, the story is starting to shape up. Chris Johnston sits in the lead with a limit, but just put his “first real keeper” in the boat, the current Phoenix Boats Big Bass of 6-0. Matty Wong has a limit in 2nd, with one over 5. Will Davis Jr is in 4th with 20 pounds, but it’s a bag like Zaldain’s, void of any real big ones. This means Davis’s limit will still need to be improved upon a lot to stay high in the standings as well.
Kyoya Fujita in 6th is really the scariest story of the morning. He has only 14 pounds in the boat, but that’s with just three fish. Two 5s and a 4 early has last week’s Elite Champ in a great position to make a run at back-to-back wins.
