Brett Hite finished just 5 ounces short of advancing to the final day at the Lake Guntersville Bassmaster Elite Series. His downfall in that regard stemmed back to day 1, when he had just three run-of-the-mill keepers in his livewell when the afternoon rolled around.
"It was kind of weird," he said. "I had a really good last day of practice – I could've had a mid-20s stringer – and that gave me confidence in an area. I started there on day 1 and fished until about 12:30 or 1 o'clock, but all I caught were three little ones.
"I switched to another area and ended up catching two big ones and filling out my limit. I finally got over 17 pounds late in the day."
He busted a 26 1/2-pound bag on day 2 to move way up in the standings. He settled for a 13th-place finish after weighing 16-10 on day 3.
"I never sight-fished," he said. "The whole time during practice I tried to find places that pre-spawn fish were moving into or ones that had already spawned were stopping on before they went out to the ledges."
He employed a 3/4-ounce bladed jig with a swimbait trailer.
"I fished points and humps and they had to have grass on them," he said. "The grass is very immature this year and that's why I was using the 3/4-ounce bait – just to get it down to them. They were maybe 2 feet off the bottom in 6 to 9 feet of water and it's hard to get a 1/2-ounce down there because it wants to come to the surface a lot.
"I'd slow-roll it until I hit a piece of grass, and then jerk it or change the cadence."
He also caught two big fish on a Senko that he presumes were actively bedding.
The Big Bite Lookback, which focuses on the angler who's first out of the final cut at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great folks at Big Bite Baits.
