KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Adam Neu wasn’t sure he’d catch a fish in the St. Croix Bassmaster Southern Open at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. That’s how rough his practice rounds went after a weekend freeze put the local bass bite on ice.
But temperatures in central Florida heated up, and so did Neu.
The angler from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin is in fourth place with 31 pounds, 8 ounces overall. He caught a five-bass limit of 14-7 on Thursday and followed with a 17-1 limit Friday, including a 7-pound kicker that helped him survive the cut to 10 in the first Open event of the 2022 Bassmaster season.
The leader after Saturday’s competition will win $52,500 and a spot in the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk when it’s held next March 24-26 on the Tennessee River in Knoxville.
It’s fair to say Neu wasn’t expecting his luck to change. There even was misfortune on Friday, before his big catch later in the day.
“My Talons lost power for some reason this morning, so I was late to the check-in and launched 10 boats later than I should have,” he said. “When I got to my spot, there were fish busting bait everywhere. I caught a 3 ½ pounder on my first cast and felt really good. But then a boat ran by and the whole school dispersed.”
Dejected, but determined, Neu locked down to Lake Kissimmee and within 30 minutes, he had a limit of about 12 pounds. He moved to Lake Toho but didn’t catch a keeper in 2 ½ hours of offshore fishing.
In a last-ditch effort to add weight, Neu decided to sight fish on a spot he knew had bedding bass.
“The first bed had that 7-pounder on it,” he said. “It took about 10 minutes, but I got her to eat.”
And then the celebration began.
“The adrenaline was a little high at that point,” he said, chuckling. “I about lost my voice screaming. You see them down there and they look a lot bigger than they are. But I saw her and I said ‘That’s the fish I’ve got to have…I flipped at her 50 times, and she finally just sucked it down.”
After two solid rounds on the water, Neu is optimistic he can continue with the hot hand Saturday. That’s a far cry from how he felt two days ago, but it’s a welcome feeling.
“The area I ended in, there are six or seven beds in there,” he said. “There’s only one other big one on a bed, but there’s a bunch of fish swimming around…If I pull in (Saturday) and they’re there, it could be a lot of fun.”
Arkansas’ Joey Cifuentes III maintained his lead in the boater division and has a two-day total of 39-7. Tennessee resident and Elite Series pro Brandon Lester is second with 32-14 and Cole Drummond of South Carolina is third with 32-8.
A ‘tank’ of a bass for Tank Talley
Elite Series angler Frank “The Tank” Talley caught a lunker on Friday that perfectly suited his nickname.
Talley hooked the 9-pound, 7-ounce Florida largemouth on Lake Kissimmee using a 6-inch Strike King Ocho (black with blue flake) on a 4/0 hook and 25-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon line.
“I was flipping a stand of reeds in about 2 feet of water,” the Texas pro said. “There was one tick, and then she came out of the water. I thought she was a 5- or a 6-pounder, but when (co-angler Jimmy Hayes) flipped it, we knew it was bigger.”
That single catch eclipsed Talley’s entire Day 1 weight. He entered Friday in 124th place with 6-13 total and finished just outside the cut to 10 (25-10, 18th overall.)
“I fished offshore grass in (Lake) Toho all day yesterday and I wasn’t going to sit there and kill myself again today,” he said. “I didn’t practice in (Lake) Kissimmee at all, but I ran there today. That’s the kind of thing we have to do in the Elite Series. You have to be able to make a decision to do a 180 and go a different way.”