QUITMAN, Texas — The Bassmaster Elite Series has traveled to three of the best bass fisheries in the country over the past two months, but the fall transition period has been uniformly tough. The four-day winning weight was only 64 pounds, 3 ounces at Alabama’s Lake Guntersville, 72-2 on South Carolina’s Santee Cooper Lakes and 58-2 at Tennessee’s Chickamauga Lake. All three are capable of producing 100-pound totals in the spring and summer.
So now the Elite Series concludes its season on another legendary bass fishery – Texas’ Lake Fork. Will it be more of the same or will this 27,000-acre lake show off like it did last May, when two anglers topped 100 pounds and Brandon Cobb won with 114-0?
No one is expecting a similar springtime total. But Lake Fork may be on the verge of a fall fishing bonanza in the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefitting Texas Parks and Wildlife. It depends on who you talk to after the Elite Series anglers have spent three days of practice here. The four-day tournament begins Thursday.
“It’s going to be another grinder,” said Chris Zaldain. “It seems as we’ve been moving westward the funk has followed us. We’re in that late summer, early fall transition. It could pop off any time. I really believe that. It seems like (the last three tournaments) I’ve been saying, ‘any day now.’ And it never happened. But this is the last tournament of the year, so I’m going to say it one more time.”
Lee Livesay is a longtime Lake Fork guide. He’s coming off a victory at Chickamauga on Oct. 19th. And Livesay agrees with Zaldain’s thought – it could happen any day now.
“It’s tough, don’t get me wrong,” Livesay said Wednesday evening. “But I think guys are starting to put the pieces together. Before today, I was probably going to hit 70 or 80 spots. Now, I’m probably going to stay in one area until I get a decent bag. This is the week it usually kicks off here. I think everyone is just starting to figure out how to do it.”
On the optimism side, you have Zaldain and Livesay. Zaldain predicts it will take right at 20 pounds a day to win. Livesay’s estimate is slightly higher. He guessed a winning weight of 86 pounds.
If you want the other side of the story, there’s Stetson Blaylock, who used to guide at Lake Fork until his pro career took precedence a few years ago.
“Usually in November you can catch 40 to 50 bass a day,” Blaylock said. “But something is up with them right now. This is as tough as it gets at this place. I’m just glad I’m not on the bubble for having to catch them this week. I would be messed up in the head.
“I don’t think it will take 15 pounds a day to win. Somebody might catch 15 pounds a day.”
Because of all that’s on the line at Lake Fork – the Angler of the Year title, the Rookie of the Year title, multiple Bassmaster Classic qualifying spots and a guaranteed Classic spot to the winner – there may be a bunch of anglers with “messed up heads” on the eve of this event.
But this is Lake Fork, which has produced 30 of the 50 biggest TPWD Share Lunker bass, including No. 1 on the list, an 18.18-pounder in 1992. And it produced all those fireworks – multiple 30-pound bags and two four-day, 100-pound totals in the May 2019 Elite Series tournament.
If it “pops” this week, it will make for quite the grand finale of the crazy, Covid-altered 2020 Elite Series season.