Travis McGuire and Layne Bynum of Texas Tech University brought 28 pounds, 10 ounces to the scales on Friday and jumped into the lead of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Central Regional presented by Bass Pro Shops on Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
The Texas Tech anglers cashed in with a major bounce-back effort after struggling on Thursday. The teammates only managed 12-14 on Day 1 of this event, but they stuck with their gut and probed a deep-water spot for the biggest bag of the event so far.
McGuire and Bynum utilized a 10-2 big fish to anchor their catch, which also featured another big fish in the 8-pound range. Those two giants dwarfed the other three-pounders they weighed in, but big bites like those are crucial on a fishery like Sam Rayburn.
“We didn’t do a single thing different than on Thursday,” McGuire said. “I think the cold front that came through gave our big fish lockjaw, but they bit today and that’s what matters.”
They couldn’t fire up the big fish on Thursday, but they could still see activity on their electronics and that gave them the faith to come back on Friday. The spot they are fishing isn’t on any standard mapping system, but rather an area that McGuire found years ago fishing another tournament. This week they checked the area and after getting an 8-pound bite in practice, they knew big fish still lived there.
The Red Raider teammates caught plenty of fish throughout the day, but there were evident spurts where the catching turned on.
“We caught the [10-pounder] this morning and then we caught a 4-pounder,” Bynum said. “Then we went about 2 to 3 hours without a fish. We filled our limit with average keepers and then caught the 8-pounder near the end of the day.”
The University of Louisiana-Lafayette also vaulted up the leaderboard with 26 pounds, 13 ounces on Friday and jumped from 40th place into 2nd. With only 4 fish on Day 1 it seemed that all was lost for Lawrence Kuznik and Dakota Moore, but they scrapped their game plan and fished deeper to make the major comeback.
“We were fishing shallow in practice and the temperature dropped 5 degrees from the end of practice to the first day of competition on Thursday,” said Moore. “I feel like it pushed my fish out deeper somewhere. We went to a new area at the end of Thursday and caught enough fish to have confidence today.”
The Ragin’ Cajun anglers caught fish throughout the day, and adjusting to the present weather conditions helped Kuznik and Moore stay on top of the quality bites.
Day 1 leaders Tyler Craig and Spencer Lambert of Louisiana-Monroe dropped to 3rd place after posting 15-13 on Friday and only trail the leaders by 1-3. Murray State’s Hunter Mills and Jordan Hartman caught 18 pounds and moved into 4th place with 39-14. Rounding out the Top 5 was TJ Tucker and Bennett Pierce of Arkansas Tech with a two-day total of 37-13.
The 115-team field is now cut to just the Top 20 teams for the final day on Saturday. Those teams will battle it out for eight more hours on Sam Rayburn Reservoir in hopes of qualifying for the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship later this summer. The Top 17 teams will advance while the remaining three will have the opportunity to fish the Wildcard event later in the season for one last opportunity to qualify.
Saturday’s takeoff will start at 7 a.m. at Cassell Boykin Park, and the final weigh-in is expected at 4:15 p.m. on the campus of host school Stephen F. Austin University.