After a 2 1/2-hour fog delay, the Top 12 pros still fishing the Guntersville Bassmaster were thrust into a sunny, calm, warm day. That was a complete change in conditions from practice and days 1 and 2, and it was made harder by a substantial amount of boat traffic, both spectators and local anglers.
With all that working against the anglers, it's no surprise that the Top 6 from yesterday, which had a solid lead over the bottom 6, made the cut and are fishing tomorrow. But some flip-flopping did occur.
Despite the less-than-favorable conditions, George Cochran racked up 23-10 – his third consecutive 20-pound stringer – to jump from 6th into 1st with 69-11. But fellow Tour veteran and early pre-spawn specialist Stacey King is just 1 pound out with 68-11.
Chad Brauer is in 3rd with 66-01 and Kevin VanDam is 4th with 64-01, and it looks like the party's over for the next two anglers, who were 1st and 2nd yesterday. Mike Iaconelli put only 6-02 in the boat today and is 5th with 54-11, and Zell Rowland only had one fish for 3-07 today, enough to hang onto 6th with 51-06.
Cochran Had Fewer Bites, But...
Cochran is the only angler to weigh in 20-pound-plus limits every day. He's making it look easy, but today it got a little harder for him too – though he's still getting some sold bites.
He's been catching about a dozen keepers a day, and even though he only had 8 bites today, he had his second-best limit so far – including the big bass of the day, a 7-00 – and lost a 6-pounder right at the boat.
Like many of the Top 12 who fished today, he's fishing a jerkbait and the bass are nailing it on the pause. But unlike many others, he wasn't counting on the early-morning bite. "The fog delay didn't affect me all that much because I've been catching fish constantly," he said, noting that he adjusted to the sun today by "fishing a lot slower."
> Aside from winning two Bassmaster Classics (1996, 1987), the only tour event Cochran has won was an FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake in 1996. The last BASS event he won was an Invitational on Virginia's Buggs Island Reservoir in October 1998.
Stacey King already has two March wins, and is going for three (sort of).
Another 'March' Win for King?
Check this out: The last Bassmaster Tour-level event King won was the March 1996 Bassmaster Top 100 on South Carolina's Lake Murray. And the last BASS event he won was the Toledo Bend Central Open in March 2002. Getting the picture? He knows early pre-spawn fish inside and out – and tomorrow would be March 1 had this not been a leap year.
"The fish are in a position right now that I'm very familiar with," he said. "I have lots of experience over the years fishing for pre-spawn staging fish suspended in open water, and I'm catching them on a jerkbait, something I've done for years. I'm fortunate that we hit this timeframe exactly right.
"Another week of warm weather and the fish would be (farther up) in the grass. A lot of guys are fishing for them that way, but the fish I'm fishing for are out on the points in river channels, where they winter."
But today the weather was less wintry than it was the prior 2 days, and it made his fish tougher to catch. "The only thing that changed on my fish was the way they were taking the bait," he said. "The last couple of days I caught every fish, and every one was hooked well with both hooks. But today they were slapping at it, bumping it, hitting with their mouths closed. Almost all the fish I caught this morning, with the exception of one or two, were hooked on the outside of the mouth or on the gill plate.
"I lost a couple of really big ones today that would've put me way out in the lead, but they weren't getting the bait well and I couldn't land them," he said.
But he found some more-aggressive fish this afternoon. "Maybe tomorrow I'll get the early bite, and then do it tomorrow afternoon too. Hopefully I'll get another good stringer tomorrow."
Chad Brauer is in tune with his fish, but needs them to keep biting tomorrow.
Brauer Still Catching Good Ones
Brauer didn't know what he was on on day 1, but yesterday it "got a lot better," he said. "That was probably one of the best tournament days I've ever had in terms of sheer numbers and the size of fish I was catching. But today the conditions changed and it got about what I thought it would be: tough.
"I didn't get a whole lot of bites (7 keepers today vs. 16 yesterday), but I got two pretty good ones (one about 6 and another about 5) to kick up my weight a little bit.
"What tomorrow will bring I don't know. I'm not sure I'm on enough to win, but you always like the opportunity."
He said he didn't have to adjust much today. "My fish don't really move because of the sun, but they reposition. They're harder to get to, and the strike zones seemed to get a lot smaller today."
He also doesn't see changing much tomorrow. "I may try to run some new water," he said. "But the big fog delay today only gave us 6 hours to fish, which didn't allow much time for experimenting." Even so, the 5-pounder came from the little experimenting that he did. "There's some potential there. I'll definitely give my areas a good working over."
> Any advice from his legendary father yet? "No advice from him tonight yet, but I haven't seen him yet," he said. "I imagine he'll probably have a little bit, but it's probably nothing I haven't heard before (laughs)."
If Kevin VanDam's spectators will let him fish unencumbered, he has a shot at winning.
VanDam Manages 17-12
"It was a lot tougher today," VanDam said. "We had that big fog delay, and that really made it tough. There's always a good early bite, and we missed that totally this morning."
His 3 days have been 26-03, 20-02 and 17-12 today, and like most anglers, he found that the fish weren't hitting as well today. "I had quite a few bites, but they just weren't taking the bait well," he said. "It was real bright, no clouds, no wind – the (Strike King) Diamond Shad bite was tough. I tried a few other things, but ended up catching all of my fish on a golden crawfish Diamond Shad.
"I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I learned a few things today and expanded on my areas a little. The other guys are catching them well, so I know I really need to have a phenomenal day. This is a lake where you can catch a 30-pound bag – the other day I caught 26 pounds, all 5-pounders, and if I can get fortunate and get a real big bite with a solid limit like that, I have a shot at it."
> He noted that "local pressure," as he called it, also made it tough. "It made it a little challenging at times for me. It's hard for people to understand (how he's fishing). Spectators are great, but the way I'm fishing makes it hard to control the crowd. But I'm learning a little bit. The way you pull up makes a big difference when you have a pile of boats with you. I'll do it different tomorrow."
Poachers Still Out
VanDam didn't mention anything about locals fishing his spots, as he experienced yesterday, but King did.
"The first spot I'm fishing, where I'm getting a limit each morning, several spectators were watching me," King said. "I left after fishing a couple of hours, and fished another point close by. I noticed a couple of guys fishing back and forth on the point (he'd just left), but that's just the way it is. I hope they won't be there at 6:30 tomorrow."
Auten 3-13 Out of Cut
Yesterday Mike Auten was 4-03 out of the Top 6, and today he finished 3-13 out after boating just one fish for 5-11.
"It got slick and sunny, and I was targeting those little key spots where one fish would live," he said. The weather "just wasn't right for hitting a bunch of that stuff, and they didn't bite. I was just fortunate to catch what I caught.
"I had one key stretch that I could go down and catch a limit on, but I never had a bite there today," he added. "I guess I wore it out or the fish moved on. It was an early bite too."
He note that it was important to let his one-fish areas rest, but with all the local pressure on the lake, that was pretty much impossible.
He caught his fish on a Lucky Craft LV (Lipless Vibrations) 500 crankbait in mad craw (red) and also gold/black back on 17-pound line with a 7' cranking rod. Aside from his one key stretch, he was "targeting secondary points and main-lake points, and the mouths of creeks and pockets – places where fish first move up before going into their spawning areas."
> He had some jerkbait frustration: "Guys were catching them on a jerkbait. I consider myself a decent jerkbait fisherman, and I couldn't find them on it. It kind of ticked me off. Maybe I didn't slow down enough on it, but then again, I didn't have a school of fish so I didn't feel like I had an area where I could go slow in."
Notable
> Paul Elias fell one spot to 10th today. Find out why by clicking here to go On Tour With the BassFan Army.
> If a 2 1/2-hour fog delay with just 12 boats in the water sounds overly cautious, think again. Not only was local traffic on the lake substantial, it was also substantial at the ramp. Iaconelli reportedly had about 15 spectators boats trailing him right at the launch.
> Logo observation: Half the Top 6 fishing tomorrow, and three of the Top 4 – Cochran, Brauer and VanDam – are Strike King team members.
> Looks like it's three youngish guys (Brauer, VanDam, Ike) vs. three veterans (Cochran, King, Rowland).
Weather Forecast
According to the Weather Channel, tonight and tomorrow will be carbon copies of the previous 24 hours.
> Tonight -- Mostly Clear -- 33°
> Sun, Feb 29 -- Partly Cloudy -- 67°/50°
- Wind: From the S/SE at 12 mph
Day 3 Standings
1. George Cochran -- Hot Springs, Ark. -- 15, 69-11
Day 1: 5, 20-12 -- Day 2: 5, 25-05 -- Day 3: 5, 23-10
2. Stacey D King -- Reeds Spring, Mo. -- 15, 68-11
Day 1: 5, 18-10 -- Day 2: 5, 28-02 -- Day 3: 5, 21-15
3. Chad Brauer -- Osage Beach, Mo. -- 15, 66-01
Day 1: 5, 20-09 -- Day 2: 5, 26-03 -- Day 3: 5, 19-05
4. Kevin VanDam -- Kalamazoo, Mich. -- 15, 64-01
Day 1: 5, 26-03 -- Day 2: 5, 20-02 -- Day 3: 5, 17-12
5. Michael Iaconelli -- Runnemede, N.J. -- 12, 54-11
Day 1: 5, 24-03 -- Day 2: 5, 24-06 -- Day 3: 2, 6-02
6. Zell Rowland -- Montgomery, Texas -- 11, 51-06
Day 1: 5, 21-09 -- Day 2: 5, 26-06 -- Day 3: 1, 3-07
The following anglers didn't make the Top 6 cut and won't be fishing tomorrow:
7. Mike Auten -- Benton, Ky. -- 11, 47-09 -- $12,000
Day 1: 5, 20-03 -- Day 2: 5, 21-11 -- Day 3: 1, 5-11
8. Jim Bitter -- Fruitland Park, Fla. -- 12, 42-08 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 17-14 -- Day 2: 5, 20-11 -- Day 3: 2, 3-15
9. David Walker -- Sevierville, Tenn. -- 11, 41-05 -- $9,000
Day 1: 5, 18-11 -- Day 2: 5, 19-01 -- Day 3: 1, 3-09
10. Paul L Elias -- Pachuta, Miss. -- 11, 41-03 -- $8,000
Day 1: 5, 16-01 -- Day 2: 5, 22-13 -- Day 3: 1, 2-05
11. Charlie Hartley -- Grove City, Ohio -- 11, 41-01 -- $6,000
Day 1: 5, 21-15 -- Day 2: 5, 16-00 -- Day 3: 1, 3-02
12. David Wharton -- Sam Rayburn, Texas -- 10 -- 39-14 -- $5,500
Day 1: 5, 22-03 -- Day 2: 5, 17-11 -- Day 3: 0, 0-00
Big Bass
> Day 3 -- George Cochran -- Hot Springs, Ark. -- 7-00 -- $1,000
> Day 2 -- Dennis Kolender -- Henderson, Nev. -- 9-01 -- $1,000
> Day 1 -- Danny White -- Milledgeville, Ga. -- 9-03 -- $1,000
