By BassFan Staff
The wind stopped blowing. The rain stopped falling. The clouds parted and the sun finally came out today at Lake Ray Roberts for the start of the 10th Toyota Texas Bass Classic.
The shift in conditions caused some in the 38-man field to make adjustments, but it didn’t stop a parade of big fish from being hauled in.
Chris Zaldain, who’s presently 5th in Elite Series AOY points, set the early pace with a 21-04 stringer that included a 7-12 kicker, which stands as the big fish of the tournament so far. He was the lone angler to crack the 20-pound mark at Ray Roberts, which is hosting the TTBC for the first time.
Matt Herren, who’s riding a wave of four straight Top-25 finishes on the Elite Series, caught 19-08 and occupies 2nd. He’s followed by two former TTBC winners – Bryan Thrift, the 2012 winner, is 3rd with 19-04 while Dave Lefebre, the 2009 champ, has 19-00 in 4th – and the current top-ranked pro in the BassFan World Rankings. Aaron Martens was 5th after racking up 18-08, but lacked the big fish those ahead of him had in their sacks.
Three-time TTBC champion Keith Combs started out with 16-04 and that has him in 12th. Defending champion Brent Ehrler struggled today and is 34th after catching three fish for 7-12.
Here's a look at the Top 10 after day 1 of competition, with deficit margin from Zaldain indicated by red numbers in parentheses:
1. Chris Zaldain: 21-04
2. Matt Herren: 19-08 (1-12)
3. Bryan Thrift: 19-04 (2-00)
4. Dave Lefebre: 19-00 (2-04)
5. Aaron Martens: 18-08 (2-12)
6. Scott Martin: 18-00 (3-04)
7 (tie). Jason Christie: 17-04 (4-00)
7 (tie). Justin Lucas: 17-04 (4-00)
7 (tie). Jordan Lee: 17-04 (4-00)
10. Kelly Jordon: 17-00 (4-04)
The common thread amongst most of the leaders was the presence of a kicker in their bags. Everyone in the Top 10 except for Martens caught an “over,” a fish measuring 21 inches or longer. Now, the chore for day 2 becomes how to fool another one or even two as the field jockeys for position,s knowing only the Top 10 advance to Sunday.
The water level at Ray Roberts continued to fall, leaving high and dry some shallow cover that was productive in practice. There were several anglers who capitalized on an early-morning shad spawn today and that could serve as a means to an early limit tomorrow before the hunt for kickers commences.
Competitors noticed an uptick in local angler traffic on the lake and that only figures to intensify on Saturday with another day of good weather on tap. It could concentrate anglers in certain areas that have already been fished hard.
Kicker was Key For Zaldain
> Day 1: 5, 21-04
The key to Zaldain’s day was catching his 7-12 kicker, which came around 12:45 p.m. It proved to be his final catch of the day, but it capped off a superb start to his third career TTBC.
“When the fish bit, I swung as hard as I could,” Zaldain said in a press release. “It jumped once and I started winding. With all the momentum, I flipped it into the boat.”
In practice, the area he caught the fish from had 3-foot waves on it consistently so it was hard to effectively break it down. He liked how it looked, but never got a bite there. Today, it was much calmer.
“In my opinion, the 7-12 will not last,” he said. “I’m not going to count on it. The thing I’m most excited about is the total weight. It’s going to hold me into day 2 and hopefully make it to day 3, where we can win a Tundra. I really think your big fish is going to come on day 3.”
2nd: Afternoon Surge for Herren
> Day 1: 5, 19-08
While some of his competitors were capitalizing on an early-morning shad-spawn bite and putting a good limit together before 9 a.m., Herren was stuck on one fish for 1-12 until 11 a.m. That’s when he started to turn his day around.
“I wish I could figure out how to catch one before 10 a.m.,” he joked. “I have to be the most pitiful early-morning fisherman in the world.”
He made up for it with an afternoon surge that included a 6-04 kicker that continued his trend of catching at least one quality fish each day he’s been on the water at Ray Roberts.
“You can’t win this derby if you don’t catch them every day,” he said. “This whole lake is tough right now. Everything is changing. I had to adjust. They dropped the water out of what I wanted to do, but I had stumbled on a deeper deal on the last day of practice and expanded on it.”
Despite a general lack of experience on the lake, he feels like he knows what to look for now to trigger bites from quality fish.
“This afternoon, I had it dialed in to what I was looking for,” he said. “With all this timber, it’s hard to find it, though. About 3:10, I looked at my marshal and said, ‘That’s the deal.’ I idled over to it and made one cast and caught a 3 -12.”
That was his last catch of the day and culled the 1-12 from the morning.
“When I see the combination on the graph, I know they’ll be right there, but finding right there is kind of tough,” he added. “If I can find more of what I’m looing for, I could be a dangerous man.”
3rd: Smooth Day for Thrift
> Day 1: 5, 19-04
Thrift said today went “a lot better than expected,” as he tallied 11 keepers, including a 6-12 bruiser that accounted for more than a third of his weight.
Dave Lefebre had to resort to Plan B today to catch what he caught.
“Having a good start, it helps,” he said. “The lakes they go to, the potential is there to produce 30- to 35-pound bags so you’re never really out of it. That’s what makes fishing these lakes so fun. You never know when you’re going to get lucky.
“I just got random, scattered bites here and there. It was one of those days where everything clicked. I didn’t feel rushed or panicked. I was calm and collected and I tend to fish better when I’m like that. Everything was flowing nice and smoothly.”
He said he stuck with the same selection of baits that he used in practice, but plied new water today because he wasn’t enthused about what he’d found on Tuesday and Wednesday. He caught a mix of shallow and medium-depth fish.
“Today, what helped is we didn’t have any wind,” he said. “That allowed a lot of stuff to settle down and clear up and you could fish it a little better.”
He believes the winner will have to mix up shallow and offshore fish, especially if the conditions allow for the deeper, structure-oriented fish to be targeted.
“If somebody finds a wad that just got out, it could be lights out,” he said. “I spent a couple hours looking, but didn’t find it. I definitely think there’s a gold mine out there.”
4th: Lefebre’s Change Pays Off
> Day 1: 5, 19-00
Lefebre had one of the best days amongst all the competitors with 16 recorded fish catches. He said he caught a 2-pounder at the end of the day, but didn’t have time to register it.
“I was just weeding through them,” he said. “I have a technique where I’m able to catch a lot of fish. I didn’t fish for a lot, but still caught a lot.”
He’d planned to target a group of fish he’d located offshore during practice, but when he went to them, he came up empty.
“I might’ve fished them too early,” he said. “I got into something else and didn’t go back later. They’re just not there. I was so anxious to go there. I was counting on that. I spent an entire practice day looking for offshore stuff and when I found it it was like ‘Oh my gosh.’”
His backup plan, which was to fish shallow, wound up paying off, but he had to make adjustments to that after the water receded from where he’d been catching fish.
“It was dry land where I caught them in practice,” he added. “I was getting bites a lot shallower than what others guys were fishing. It was a struggle today.”
Aaron Martens (right) is interviewed prior to blast off on day 1 of the Toyota Texas Bass Classic.
5th: Martens Made the Most Of It
> Day 1: 5, 18-08
Martens has never made the Top 10 in four previous trips to the TTBC and he blames poor day-1 results for that.
“I’ve done my share of not catching them the first day in this event,” he said. “I want to fish in the Top 10 this week because that’s where the fun is at.”
He also thinks it would be fun to finally catch a 5-pounder or bigger. He’s yet to set the hook on a fish of that caliber this week.
“I am in it and I haven’t caught a big one yet,” he added. “It might happen. I just haven’t got lucky yet. Today, it got a little tougher. It was sunny and there was a lot more traffic on the water between our guys and other people fishing.”
Martens had a camera man in his boat along with a marshal and he said the extra passenger made it hard to run and gun like he wanted to.
“I’m just fishing random stuff and hitting everything,” he said. “I’m a little worried about tomorrow. I’m trying to think how to catch them better. It’s getting beat up. The population (of bass) in this lake is not that big. It’s going to get tougher each day. It’s just hard to get those big bites.”
33rd: Avena Plans to Go Big
> Day 1: 5, 8-00
A couple bad decisions led to a bad day for Adrian Avena, who’s competing in his third TTBC.
“It was just brutal,” he said. “I just started on the wrong place. In the morning, there was a shad spawn going on and a bunch of guys in the Top 10 caught them there. I didn’t start there, but should have.”
One big adjustment today were the conditions.
In practice, we had 4-foot waves with rain and wind and clouds. We never had a break,” he said. “Today, it was cloudy for 2 hours then slick and bluebird.”
For Saturday, he’s going to steer clear of the area around the shad spawn.
“I’m going to tie on some swimbaits and cranks and try to get lucky and catch one good one,” he said. “That could win me a truck.”
Notable
> Day 1 stats – 38 anglers, 32 limits, 2 fours, 2 threes, 1 two, 1 one.
Weather Forecast
> Sat., May 21 – Clear - 84°/64°
- Wind: From the E at 5 to 10 mph
> Sun., May 22 – Chance of Thunderstorms - 85°/66°
- Wind: From the SE at 10 to 15 mph
Day 1 Standings
> For complete standings, click here.
