Consistency has been the hallmark of Stetson Blaylock’s Elite Series career. He made the Day 2/Top 50 cut in all nine 2023 Elite Series events and extended the streak to 11 last year before it ended at Florida’s Harris Chain in April.
Florida wasn’t kind to Blaylock in this season’s opener at the St. Johns River, where he posted the worst finish in his Elite Series career – 100th place. He was back in familiar territory Thursday with a fifth-place bag of 20 pounds, 12 ounces on Day 1 of the Champions Power Equipment Bassmaster Elite at Lake Okeechobee.
“For me, it was a typical Okeechobee deal,” said the 37-year-old Benton, Ark., pro. “I had one almost seven pounds and another five-pounder and then a couple small fish. Those big ones add up quick. I really don’t know if I can catch that again. I mean, I know I can catch some fish, but catching more than seven or eight pounds is not easy.”
That’s apparent in the Day 1 standings, where Logan Latuso’s total of 12-1 is in 50th place and almost two dozen anglers didn’t hit the nine-pound mark.
“Where I got my two biggest bites, I literally only had like three bites all day,” Blaylock said. “It’s exciting to know you can do it, but at the same time it’s like, man, you could very easily catch eight pounds.”
That’s why after three days of practice at Lake Okeechobee, Brandon Palaniuk predicted there would be lots of flip-flopping in the standings when this tournament began. You’ll undoubtedly see that after Day 2 concludes Friday. The margin for success or failure rests on two big bites.
Another one of the flippers rather than floppers was Paul Mueller of Naugatuck, Conn. Like Blaylock, he desperately needed a course correction after opening the season with a 97th-place finish at the St. Johns River. Mueller was in a 7th-place tie with Cooper Gallant at 19-15 after Day 1.
“It’s tough,” he said. “The difference is two good bites. A 7-7 was my big one and the other one was probably like 5 1/2 so that anchored my 19-15. But both of those were kind of just outside where the males are. So, are they gonna pair up with the males, or did they spawn already, and they’re just outside? I don’t know.
“Finding some good quality water is the whole thing right now. The lake is dirty, and it seems like there’s less cover than there was two years ago when Tyler Rivet won.
“What we do have is warming weather, so in the next couple of days, somebody is going to catch a really good bag. There should be some fish starting to lock on (spawning beds).”
Blaylock isn’t sure about that spawning trend or the need for clean water.
“The bass spawn in Florida starts in November and December, and they’ll spawn all the way to March or April,” he said. “But I really do feel like a lot of the giant bass have already spawned here. It’s really weird because those two bigger bites I got today came in dirty water.”
Finally, there’s one more important factor to consider. Since the first of the year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been steadily dropping the water level of Lake Okeechobee. That can have a negative effect on bass moving shallow – well, everything is shallow in Okeechobee – so, shallower to spawn. A glance at the Corps website shows that trend changed on Tuesday, holding steady at 13.81 or 13.80 the past three days, after dropping to 13.72 on Monday.
Will that turn on one of the best big bass fisheries in the country today?
