Jeff Kriet finished 13th at the Pickwick Bassmaster Elite Series – he missed the Top-12 cut by a mere 3 ounces. He opened with 15 pounds, whacked 20 pounds on day 2, but his 16 1/2-pound limit on day 3 just wasn't enough.
When asked to look back and identify what he might have done differently to make the cut, he said: "I would have done a little bit more running and spent a little less time fishing that last day."
In essence, Kriet's shallow bite changed quite a bit, just like it did for the rest of the pros fishing shallow. He obviously nailed the change on day 2 and it produced 20 pounds, but he figured things out too late on day 3.
"I was flipping a Big Bite Yomama all tournament," Kriet noted. "I didn't catch them in the tournament the way I caught them in practice. I just switched it up and dialed in a pretty decent day the first day. I ran with it the second day, but then the water dropped maybe a foot or so the third day so I had to switch it up again. I figured them out pretty early and caught a 5-pounder that dialed me in, and I tried to duplicate that deal, but the problem was I didn't know where to duplicate it.
"So I compromised a little bit and started fishing stuff that wasn't really right in my gut, but was almost right. I burned about 3 hours not really hitting the right stuff, then we started heading back in. I watched to see if anything looked right. I saw something, pulled in and culled one. Then I started running again and saw it again. I pulled in and caught two or three decent ones and then a 4-pounder. It was so obvious at that point that I could have run down the lake and called my bush, but it was too late.
"I think if I'd been more picky and kept looking for what was truly right earlier in the day I could have caught another 18 to 20 pounds."
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