CLINTON, Illinois— Lance Freeman and Chandler Christian of Murray State University lead Day 1 of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Midwestern Regional on Clinton Lake with 19 pounds, 4 ounces.
They take a two-ounce lead into Friday’s competition day and have high hopes on duplicating what they brought to the scales on Thursday.
“These fish change so much based on sunshine or clouds so we are confident they will position like today,” Freeman said. “When the clouds roll in on Saturday, I’m not so sure what we will do.”
The day started fast for this team as they got their first bite much earlier than expected and they kept the ball rolling and put a limit in the boat before 8:30 in the morning.
“I think we caught 10 keepers today,” Freeman said. “We caught our five fish limit on one place and then left and caught some more in other areas and tried to stay under the radar.”
Staying under the radar may be the biggest key to Freeman and Christian’s success going forward because of the plentiful boat traffic and pressure with 93 teams on Clinton Lake, which is only 4,900 acres. The duo didn’t have any other boats directly sharing their area on Thursday, which gives them confidence for Friday’s fish management plan.
Like most tournament days there are high’s and low’s on the water and for most of the day this team was on the high side of the spectrum, but they certainly experienced a few low’s on Thursday that, if they avoided, would’ve helped them.
“It could’ve been better than what it was,” Chistian said. “I lost a 4+ pounder at the net that would’ve given us 21 or 22 pounds for the day.”
The St. Cloud State team of Joachim Speldrich and Marcus Welk only brought four fish to the scales on Thursday, but they were the right ones as they weighed 19-2 and trail by a slim deficit.
There was no flurry for these Minnesota natives as they plugged away all day and slowly put keeper after keeper in the boat. There was a buzz around this team soon after takeoff because one of their first bites of the day resulted in the big bass of the day.
“We didn’t really know what to expect coming into Day 1 because our pre-fish was a little shaky,” Welk said. “We are just happy to be where we are right now; it’s very exciting.”
Happy is an understatement as this is Welk’s first week fishing solely for bass. The walleye angler saw that St. Cloud State had a bass fishing team so he decided to join and give it a try. Today, Welk caught a 7-pound, 7-ounce largemouth that shot them up the leaderboard and set the bar for the Carhartt Big Bass.
Speldrich, the more experienced bass angler, was impressed with his partner’s ability to make an impact this early into the learning process.
The duo hit their primary spot multiple times throughout the day and each visit yielded a keeper bass, so Friday’s plan is to milk the spot for as long as they can so they can hopefully bring five fish to the scales.
“We had number five hooked up at the side of the boat,” Speldrich said. “It made one more run to deep water and it came off, but that’s fishing.”
The 93-team full-field will fish on Friday at Clinton Lake as they battle to make the Top 20 cut, which will fish on Saturday.
The field will takeoff from Clinton Lake Marina at 5:30 a.m. CT and will weigh-in there as well at approximately 1:45 p.m. CT.