California pro Mike Reynolds made a big 22-pound splash on day 1 of the Hartwell FLW Tour Major. He was tossing a swimbait and sat in 2nd place when day 2 dawned. But day 2 delivered bluebird conditions, the fish just weren't eating the swimbait, so he stepped down to a shakey-head. A 10-pound day-2 limit dropped him to 7th.
There was promise, though: Day 3 delivered hard, cold rains and Reynolds figured the swimbait bite would be rockin'.
No-go. He reverted back to finesse, weighed 10 pounds again and missed the Top 10 cut by a mere 3 ounces.
When asked if there was anything he'd have done differently to make the cut, Reynolds said: "Yeah, there was. On day 3 I had a really good bank where I caught a ton of fish. My co-angler weighed 11 and I weighed 10 off it. But I was culling ounces and got greedy – with some time left I went to try to find bigger fish.
"If I'd just hung out for 45 more minutes I think I could have easily gained 4 or 5 more ounces and made the cut. I was thinking I needed 13 pounds to make the cut. I should have stayed there longer."
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