Garrett Howard of Riverside, Calif. caught a 12.13-pound sack from Nevada's Lake Mead on Monday to become the day-1 leader at the 33rd WON Bass U.S. Open.
"I made a long run this morning and really found the quality of fish to be a little bit better than I had in practice," said Howard. "I had seen some really good fish swimming around, but couldn't get any of them to bite. I think that the wind helped some of those better quality fish bite today."
He said his co-angler, Cher Vang, helped settle the nerves in the boat by catching three small keepers early.
"It was nice to have those fish early to relax us, but we were able to cover a lot of water and cull them out before we made the run to weigh-in. I need the skies to be sunny for things to continue as they are, but I feel pretty good about tomorrow."
Arizona's Kevin Caruso caught 11.21 to settle into the No. 2 position. Lake Havasu stalwart Roy Hawk was next with 10.68.
Here's a look at the initial Top 10:
1. Garrett Howard: 12.13
2. Kevin Caruso: 11.21
3. Roy Hawk: 10.68
4. Philip Roesener: 10.17
5. Guy Savidan: 10.15
6. Raymond Archer: 10.30
7. Clayton Meyer: 9.77
8. Chris Studinger: 10.00
9. Shane Spinning: 9.78
10. Thomas Wennerlund: 9.74
