Indiana's Ryan Chandler missed the Top-10 cut at the recent Detroit River FLW Tour Open by 5 ounces. He caught 19-pound sacks on each of the first 2 days, but was limited to 18 1/2 on day 3, and that half-pound prevented him from fishing the final day.
"On day 3, the biggest thing was I lost a lot of fish," he said. "They weren't biting the tube real well – they were just swimming with it. They were aggressive, but not real aggressive."
He also wishes he'd stayed with his fish on Lake St. Clair for another 15 minutes or so on that day. He didn't feel as if he could afford to at the time due to the long run back to the launch down the Detroit River (which is always clogged with recreational traffic on Saturdays during the summer), but he ended up getting there about 20 minutes ahead of his check-in time.
"I was working four little areas within a 500-yard stretch, and when you found the sweet spot you could just jack on them. I'd just caught a 4-pounder and there were another 10 of that size with it."
He was fishing within half a mile of winner Larry Nixon, runner-up Bill McDonald and 5th-place finisher Shinichi Fukae.
"I would've liked to have seen what would've happened on Sunday (had he made the Top 10). I couldn't have won, but I think I could've busted 20 pounds and moved up."
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.
