Caleb Sumrall is turning a handicap in his favor, and today it earned him the lead at the Bassmaster Opens Championship on Table Rock Lake in Missouri
Fishing from a borrowed boat, Sumrall has no fish-finding electronics to function as his "underwater eyes" in his search for bass. Instead, he's relying on his own vision to formulate what could be emerging as a winning pattern.
Sumrall, of New Iberia, La., caught 12-03 to push his two-day total to 27-04. Jared Lintner of Arroyo Grande, Calif., is 2nd with 26-01, while Justin Atkins of Florence, Ala., moved into 3rd place with 24-06. Brandon Lester is 4th with 23-03 and Tyler Rivet holds down 5th place with 22-13.
Sumrall, a Bassmaster Elite Series rookie this year, is targeting bass in transition between summer and fall fishing patterns. The bass are moving from deeper areas in the main lake into shallower creeks to feed on baitfish. Sumrall is wisely choosing to stay shallow to let the bass come to him.
He said the heavier largemouth he had been catching were being replaced by more aggressive, but smaller, spotted bass. “I made a key adjustment so I could get dialed back into the largemouth,” he said.
The payoff was adding a much-needed 4-pound largemouth to his livewell.
“Fishing without the electronics makes me think how many times we overthink, overanalyze the simple basics of finding fish,” he noted. “Honestly, with fish-finders I would probably be more distracted, not so dedicated to finding these key areas that are visible above water.”
For Sumrall that's the right combination of trees, rock and depth that are rest stops and ambush cover for the migrating bass.
“It’s likely I wouldn’t have found that combination if not forced to visually search while I fished,” Sumrall explained. “I’m literally going in and out of creeks, reading the water as I go, fishing with my eyes.”
Catching so many smallmouth in textbook areas normally favored by largemouth pleasantly baffles Lintner. On Thursday, smallmouth filled his weigh-in bag; today only one largemouth occupied the space.
“I don’t get it at all because I’m flipping jigs into cedar trees in shallow water — classic largemouth areas,” he said.
Vital to the success of his pattern is wind, which adds a prismatic effect to break up the water clarity. Lures are less easy to identify, and the bass can be more easily fooled into biting.
“Cloudy wind, sunny wind, it doesn’t really matter,” he added. “I caught eight keepers off one windblown stretch where yesterday there were none.”
Sunny, mild weather on Thursday gave way to rainy, chilly conditions on Friday. Daytime temperatures struggled to reach the mid-40s and rain chilled the water even more.
Fishing in such miserable weather seems absurd unless you are fishing for the most coveted prizes in the sport. Those are seven coveted berths in the 2019 Bassmaster Classic.
The overall winner earns a Classic berth, $10,000 cash and a Triton 19 TrX with Mercury 200 Pro XS and accessories worth $45,000. The top 3 pro anglers in points from each division following the championship are also invited to the Classic, set for next March in Knoxville, Tenn.
Here's a look at the top 12 with one day remaining:
1.Caleb Sumrall: 27-04
2. Jared Lintner: 26-01
3. Justin Atkins: 24-06
4. Brandon Lester: 23-03
5. Tyler Rivet: 22-13
6. Stephen Browning: 22-11
7. Derek Hudnall: 22-08
8. Scott Suggs: 22-04
9. Bobby Lane: 21-12
10. Mark Rose: 21-10
11. Carl Jocumsen: 21-01
12. Luke Palmer: 20-11
