Mark Hugus and Cody Hahner of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point brought in 19-10 of Lake of the Ozarks bass to take the Day 1 lead of the Carhartt College Series Midwestern Regional Championship.
After a long cold day, the scales settled for Hugus and Hahner just shy of the 20-pound mark. Most anglers at launch predicted that to be the bar to reach. With water temps in the lower 40’s, the common consensus was a slow bite but a big bite.
The slow bite showed up with the most productive baits being a jerkbait and a jig. Anglers had to slow down due to the cold water and fish their jerkbaits with 5-to-10-second pauses in their cadence.
The big bite showed up for most of the field as well but the numbers weren’t there. Most anglers only caught one or two fish while trying to fill their limit but those fish averaged 4-to-5 pounds.
Hugus and Hahner were the only team that came close to putting together a limit of those 4-to-5-pounders.
“We had one little one around 2 and a half but other than that we had all solid fish,” said Hahner.
Like most of the anglers on Day 1, Hugus and Hahner caught their fish primarily on a jerkbait with the majority of their bites coming after 1 o’clock.
“At about 1 o’clock we had 3 fish in the boat,” said Hahner. “We knew we had to make something happen.”
After a gut instinct led to an adjustment, Hugus and Haher caught a 5-pounder and a 6-pounder propelling them to the Day 1 lead.
The team of Cody Lincoln and Jason Hawksford and the team of Matt Feiten and Brian Kirt, both also of Wisconsin Stevens Point, round out the top three after Day 1.
Ryan Gilbert and Jacob Cllisch of the University of Wisconsin, Plattville caught the Day 1 Carhartt Big Bass weighing 7- 1.
Mark Hugus’s and Cody Hahner’s 19-10 took the Nitro Bass Pro Big Bag honors for Day 1.
The top 14 after Day 2 will advance to the Carhartt College Series National Championship to be held later this year.
Anglers will head back out at 7:30 A.M. for Day 2 of competition. Follow the action at bassmaster.com via the Live Blog and BassCam and tune in to watch the live weigh-in at 3:30 P.M. CT.