We’re 97% of the way through the Elite Series season, and three-quarters done with this final derby, and while the knowledge gap is shrinking, there’s still plenty left to be determined.
We don’t yet know the AOY, nor the ROY, and certainly not the tournament champ. One misstep from the top or a 30-pound bag from the bottom can upset the whole apple cart.
But I do know that I’m running out of hyperbole and superlatives. I’ll probably have to reach into the strategic reserves tomorrow. With that in mind, I’m in conservation mode and will be starting off with a bunch of the humblebragging faux negativity that seems prevalent in the bass tournament world.
First World Problems, Uno – Easton Fothergill (6th, 77-11) weighed in a 7-5 smallmouth today, his personal best which would have been Phoenix Boats Big Bass in all but one other Elite Series St. Lawrence tournament. “When I first hooked it, it skyrocketed to the surface. It looked different than any other fish I’d caught,” he said excitedly (at least as excitedly as Fothergill ever gets). Alas, he was deprived of the glory and the money that comes with it just a few moments later when Cole Sands (3rd, 78-14) weighed in a 7-6. “It didn’t fight at all, thank God,” he said.
First World Problems, Dos – Chris Johnston (17th, 73-14) on the AOY race: “I’ve got a lot of gray hairs from it over the last few years.”
First World Problems, Tres – Seth Feider (35th, 70-7): “I wish the season wasn’t over. I wish we had a few more tournaments.”
First World Problems, Quatro – Brandon Cobb (7th, 77-6): “I haven’t actually caught a 6-pounder. I caught a 5.95.”
Tackle Du Jour – Fuzzy Nut
First World Problems, Cinco – Pake South (13th, 75-8): “I definitely was around them and they did not bite.” For the record, he weighed in 23-15, the limit of a lifetime for most of us.
The Biggest First World Problem of All — Wally World is officially CLOSED: Three anglers on pace to hit 100 pounds did not qualify to fish on Sunday: Stetson Blaylock, Matt Robertson and Pake South. Blaylock had the same weight as 10th-place finisher Bryant Smith but lost the tiebreaker.
Top Ten Absences – Tomorrow’s field includes zero anglers from Japan, none from Texas, none from New York, no past AOY winners and no one named Kyle – and somehow managed to shoehorn in two Smiths.
All-Time Bigs – As noted above, two of the top three smallmouths in Bassmaster history were caught today by Cole Sands and Easton Fothergill. Paul Mueller’s 7-13 from 2020 remains top dog and Kenta Kumura’s 7-0 from 2023 had been the only other 7 we’ve seen.
This week also produced three 6-15 smallmouths and a 6-13, which means we’ve seen six of the top eight cross the scales.
Century Belts – All of our top ten are on pace to earn a smallmouth Century Belt. If McKinney gets one, he’ll join Patrick Walters, Kyoya Fujita and Chris Johnston among the team that’s earned them on both largemouths and smallmouths. Brandon Cobb and Tucker Smith could also become double-dippers, as they too earned Century Belts at Lake Fork.
Top Finishes – Evan Kung (2nd, 81-3) only has one prior Elite Series Top 10, a 6th-place finish last year at Lake St. Clair. He can fall up to three spots and still achieve a new PB.
The Cut – Cut weight for three days was 76-3, just a hair over 25-6 per day. Just for giggles, 10th place after Day 3 at the famous 2008 Falcon tournament was 89-1, although they cut to 12.
South Carolina Slipups – Whoever fails to win AOY between Trey McKinney and Cory Johnston will likely look back at the South Carolina swing and shake his head. It’s where they both had their worst finishes of the year: 90th at Santee Cooper for Trey and 70th at Lake Murray for Cory.
Best of the Fam – Best four limits from the Johnston brothers in Elite Series competition at the St. Lawrence: 29-5, 28-8, 28-5, 28-3. That’s a total of 114-5. Trey will need 31 pounds tomorrow to hit that in one tournament. The crazy thing is that we all know it’s possible.
The Csonka Effect — Do you think that somewhere in Connecticut Paul Mueller pops a bottle of champagne each year that his smallmouth record is not beaten, like the 1972 Miami Dolphins?
Bests and Worsts – Today Cole Sands and Easton Fothergill were the only members of the top 10 who had their best day of the tournament so far. Trey McKinney, Fisher Anaya, Cory Johnston and Bryant Smith all had their worst.
Ups and Downs – Sands and Fothergill likewise have seen their weights go up every day. Anaya and Bryant Smith have seen their weights go down every day.
Would-Be Winners After Three – The lowest winning four-day St. Lawrence weight in Elite Series history was the 77-10 that Edwin Evers weighed in 2015. The top five anglers in this tournament have already exceeded that weight. The next lowest winning weights here are Micah Frazier’s 87-4 in 2019 and Brandon Palaniuk’s 88-12 in 2013. No one has yet passed those numbers, but all ten remaining anglers should do so tomorrow.
Classic Hopeful – If Kung wins, he will qualify for his first Bassmaster Classic. The only other way for him to make it at this point would through the EQs, should he elect to fish them.
Repeats – Jason Christie won two Elite Series tournaments this year. Fisher Anaya (8th, 77-0), who won at Lake Martin, is the only angler who has the chance to match that tomorrow. Cory Johnston is the only member of the top 10 who has previously won an Elite event here.
Young Guns – The top six on the leaderboard are all in their twenties, although Cole Sands will turn 30 in about a week. Cory Johnston, born in 1985, is the only member of the top 10 in his forties, and just barely so. The average age for all of them is 28.1. Take out Johnston and the average age is 24.1. Fisher Anaya is the only one not yet legal to drink.
Limitology – Every angler in the top 50 had limits each of the first two days. Five of them missed making it three for three. The smallest limit amongst the top 50 over the first two days was 21-5. Today 12 of them had less than that.
Points Jockeying – The difference between 4th place and 9th place is 15 ounces. From 4th to 9th is 1-01. The delta between 1st and 10th is a seemingly gargantuan 7-2, but 3rd to 10th is only 2-11.
Zona on Trey McKinney – “He’s like Ivan Drago, man. He was built in a fishing lab.”
Enjoy tomorrow.
It seems like a long time since we started at Guntersville, but somehow the offseason will seem longer.
My number one goal is to find someone to take me fishing here on Monday. I’ll even settle for one of those embarrassing 20-pound bags.
