When Ben Milliken came across the weigh-in stage Thursday with a five-bass limit weighing only 10 pounds, 2 ounces, he mentioned figuring out something late in the day that might help him on Day 2. That something – a small glidebait – rocketed Milliken from 90th place on Thursday to 29th place with 16-6 Friday at the Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller.
“Unfortunately, I made the change too late at the end Day 1,” Milliken said. “In practice we had super slick, sunny, super hot conditions, and I just could not get the glidebait going. But that’s something that I’ve done a decent amount over at Bull Shoals and Table Rock, fish that little glidebait the same way in the same type of cover as I’m fishing here.”
Like Bull Shoals and Table Rock, Lake Tenkiller is an Ozark Highlands reservoir. While differing vastly in size – Bull Shoals is 45,000 surface acres at conservation pool level to Tenkiller’s 12,900 – they share similar traits, particularly clear water, rock structure and gizzard shad.
“I got three great big ones to bite (Thursday afternoon) and all three of them pulled off,” said Milliken, who is from Omaha, Neb. “It was super disappointing because I think my biggest fish was like 2 pounds, 5 ounces. (Thursday). My smallest was 2-11 (Friday), so it was a big change, and I had an opportunity at 19 or 20 pounds today, not all with that glidebait.”
On the weigh-in stage Friday, Milliken mentioned there’s a bass swimming around in Lake Tenkiller with one of his glidebaits in its mouth, and he’d like to have it back.
“That was a weird deal, with like 30 minutes of the day left,” he said. “I hooked a largemouth that had a giant frame. It was skinny, but it was like a 6- or 7-pound fish’s frame. I had it all the way to the boat. It wasn’t even fighting that hard. I just went to boat-flip it and my line broke. It fell back in the lake with my bait in its mouth.”
Despite all that – 90th place on Day 1 and losing a big fish on Day 2 – Milliken’s two-day total of 26-8 is only 2-3 behind Gerald Swindle’s 10th-place total of 28-11. Swindle is another example of how one big day at Tenkiller can zoom you up the standings. He weighed 17-11 Friday after being in a three-way tie for 76th with 11-0 on Day 1. Anyone competing among the top 50 anglers on Semifinal Saturday has a chance to finish in the top 10 at the end of the day and qualify for Championship Sunday.
Only nine limits over 16 pounds have been brought to the scales over the first two days of the tournament. Keith Combs’ 19-2 Friday is the big bag so far.
After no success on the glidebait in sunny, slick conditions during practice, Milliken knows he needs more of the rain and overcast skies of the last two days. But that’s a double-edged sword for Milliken in particular. After the weigh-in Thursday, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He wasn’t feeling all that good Friday evening, but good enough.
“Unless I’m in a hospital bed, I’ll be fishing,” Milliken said.
