LINCOLN, Ala. — Josh Butler knew his game plan required patience, but he found his commitment tested en route to retaining the lead on Day 2 of the Bassmaster Open at Logan Martin Lake.
After taking the top spot with a Day-1 limit of 19 pounds, 7 ounces, Butler entered the second round with a lead of 3-9. Adding a Day-2 bag that went 15-5, he tallied 34-12 and heads into the final round with a margin of 3-5 over Alabama’s Tucker Smith.
Looks good on paper, but Butler said he lost as much as he caught.
“Everything that could go wrong today did go wrong,” Butler lamented. “But I figured something out at the end of the day.”
Contrasting Day 1, which saw Butler jump start his efoort with a 7-13 — the tournament’s biggest — within an hour of takeoff, the second day also brought opportunity, but most of it ended in heartbreak.
Starting close to the ramp, Butler caught a 3-pound “bonus” fish right off the bat, but after that, the day took a downward turn.
“I had one good bite on a buzzbait and lost it — the fish didn’t get the bait really good,” Butler said. “After that, I ran uplake and kept fishing. I drug around for some spawning spotted bass and lost more than quite a few. I don’t know if they were getting it funny, or what was going on.
"Between breaking off and losing fish, I probably lost 15-16 pounds before 10 o’clock. I had a 4 1/2 at the boat, it ran around the boat three times and I had hands on her two or three times, but she just came up and pulled the hook.”
Disappointing as it was, Butler kept his head in the game by maintaining a clear perspective and a positive outlook.
“That’s what happens when you’re fishing for spawning fish; sometimes, they just pick up the bait funny,” he said. “It is what it is, but we regrouped and I started to figure out the current bite better the last 45 minutes.”
On Day 1, Butler said that the moving water complicated his bed-fishing efforts, as the current made it difficult to present his baits in a targeted manner.
“The last 45 minutes were pretty special. I caught probably four 3-plus-pounders in the last 30 minutes of the day,” he said. “That gave us what we had.”
Butler said he believes his late-day flurry was mostly postspawn fish. Throughout the day, he caught fish on a mix of spinnerbaits, Neko rigs, Ned rigs, shaky-heads, swimbaits, flukes and scroungers.
Looking ahead to Saturday, Butler sees himself employing many of the same tactics. He’s not expecting a busy day — just a productive one.
“I’m not like these guys down the lake catching 100 fish a day; I’m trying to get 10-15 bites a day,” Butler said. “I’m chasing quality fish.”
Smith, who makes his home in Birmingham, is in second place with 31-7. With remarkable consistency, Smith placed third on Day 1 with 15-12 and gained a spot by adding a second-round limit of 15-11.
“I went to a place where I caught them yesterday first thing this morning and it just wasn’t happening,” Smith said. “I caught a lot of fish off those places yesterday and they were beaten up, so I went and fished some new stuff.”
Smith said his Day-2 spots were different from those he fished on Day 1. Also, he found the fish moving deeper with their postspawn progression.
“I mixed it up a lot,” Smith said of his presentations. “I caught some on a swimbait, some on a jig, some on a crankbait. I did a little bit of everything.
“I fished the middle and lower lake regions and caught fish anywhere from 8 feet to 20. I fished a bunch of different depths.”
Bassmaster Elite Series angler Kyoya Fujita of Lake Forest, Calif. is in third with 29-15. After weighing an 18th-place Day-1 limit of 13-12, Fujita made a big move by sacking up 16-3.
“My main target today was spotted bass,” Fujita said. “Sometimes, I tried largemouth. Today, my biggest fish was a 5-pound largemouth.
“I caught spotted bass in the morning and largemouth in the afternoon. I caught the 5-pounder at 12 o’clock.”
Fujita said a jig produced most of his weight on Day 1, but when that didn’t work in the second round, he turned to a jighead minnow.
Saturday’s takeoff is scheduled for 6 a.m. CT at Lincoln’s Landing. The weigh-in will be held at Lincoln’s Landing at 2 p.m.
Here are the totals for the anglers who advanced to the final day:
1. Josh Butler: 34-12
2. Tucker Smith: 31-07
3. Kyoya Fujita: 29-15
4. Emil Wagner: 29-10
5. Jeremiah Kindy: 29-03
6. Kyle Austin: 28-08
7. Garrett Paquette: 28-04
8. Danny McGarry: 28-00
9. Yui Aoki: 27-13
10. Zeke Gossett: 27-02
