The target weight

Every angler leaves the dock with a target weight in mind. Many will say they don’t, but deep down, there’s a number in there somewhere. They’ve made it through practice, done what they can do to find as many fish as possible and have run the numbers in their heads dozens of times.

For some anglers, the target weight they’re focused on is what they believe it will take for them to make the Day 3 cut, and thus get paid. For others, it’s the weight they think they’ll need each day to make a run at winning this thing.

Local angler Justin Atkins just revealed his target weight. He said he’d like to have 18- pounds a day, and that he thought that would lead to a solid tournament here this week. But that he doesn’t want to be greedy and would be satisfied with anything over 15- pounds a day.

Last year’s winning weight for Pickwick was 83- pounds, 5- ounces. But that tournament was a good bit earlier in the year in March when the bass were full of eggs and at their heaviest. This time of year, especially considering the amount of pressure the offshore bite has seen, 18- pounds a day sounds like a pretty good prediction for the top 2 or 3 anglers by the end of this one.