QUITMAN, Texas – Here’s how excited Drew Cook is after three days of practice at Lake Fork: “I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight,” he said. There are so many big bass on spawning beds now that Cook thinks the all-time B.A.S.S. five-bass limit of 45 pounds, 2 ounces, could be broken Thursday. “I’ve got one close to 12 (pounds) that I’m going to start on. Another that’s 8 or so, a pair of 7s. If we can get the ball rolling, who knows? I’ve never been in this situation before where 25 pounds a day is not going to cut it at all.”
The four-day Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork begins with a 6:45 a.m. takeoff Thursday. The first flight check-in time is 3 p.m.
In the last two years, there have been two Elite Series tournaments on this 27,000-acre blue ribbon big bass factory located 65 miles east of Dallas. On May 2-6, 2019, Brandon Cobb won with a total of 114-0. On November 5-8, 2020, Patrick Walters won with a total of 104-12. It’s acknowledged that it’s going to take over 100 pounds to win this week, but how much more?
“If we didn’t have the storms coming in Friday, it might take 35 pounds a day to win,” said Cook. “But it will still take at least 115 pounds to win.”
Not every Elite Series angler is quite as excited as Cook. But almost everyone acknowledges that there’s an incredible number of bass on spawning beds now. In fact, there’s a shad spawn going on, which has picked up during each day or practice, and the bass aren’t keying on them.
“Lucky shad,” said Keith Combs. “They get to spawn and nothing is bothering them. The bass just don’t have eating on their minds right now.”
Combs’ predicted winning weight is 108 pounds, saying, “It’s going to be a really good tournament. Most of the fish are spawning. (Thursday) there should be a lot of fish caught. But we’re not going to have the best weather for (spawning bed fishing) on Friday. It’s not going to take something like 30 pounds a day to win. And there’s not many one-flippers out there. You’re going to have to set up on them for a while.”
Combs said he caught a 9-pounder Wednesday morning and an 8-pounder on the first day of practice, Monday. That was when he was exploring, looking for other pre- or post-spawn patterns. But those two big bass were seemingly random, Combs said, offering nothing to build a pattern on. Apparently, it’s all about the spawn now on Lake Fork.
“About 90 percent of the weight I caught (in 2019) was on post-spawn, shad-spawn fish,” said Brandon Cobb. “I think they were easier to catch then. It seems like it’s mostly bedding fish now. Still, it would surprise me if it doesn’t take over 100 pounds to win.”
Patrick Walters said he doesn’t have an “ace up his sleeve” like he did last fall when he exploited a jerkbait bite in flooded timber and ran away with that tournament, winning by 29 pounds, 10 ounces. However, Walters does have an interesting theory on how this event might play out. While there will be plenty of big bags weighed Thursday, Walters thinks it’s really going to happen on the weekend.
“The weekend is truly going to be something special,” he said. “I think fish will be schooling by the weekend. There’s a full moon coming Monday, and I think another big wave of fish could pull up. It’s going to change. If that fresh wave pulls up, it could scare that (one-day B.A.S.S. record).”
For the record, the one-day, five-bass mark of 45-2 was set by Dean Rojas on Florida’s Lake Toho on Jan. 17, 2001.