WACO, Texas — The opening day of qualifying at Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech also marked the first day of tour-level competition on Texas’ Lake Whitney.
Chris Lane’s impression of the Brazos River impoundment?
“This lake’s got a lot more fish than what I was thinking.”
Lane steadily stacked Whitney largemouth on SCORETRACKER® throughout the day. He closed with a three-fish flurry in the final 15 minutes before lines out to bring his total to 56 pounds, 12 ounces on 23 scorable bass and give him the lead. Texan Jeff Sprague, who held the top spot on SCORETRACKER® for much of the afternoon, sits in second with 51-7, while Jesse Wiggins is just 11 ounces back of him in third.
The constant action made for a tight leaderboard, with a different angler leading after all three periods on Day 1. If that’s any indication, it should be a wide-open race to win the Qualifying Round tomorrow (which comes with an automatic berth to Sunday’s Championship Round) and a crazy affair around the Lucas Oil Cut Line. The Knockout and Championship Rounds will move to nearby Lake Waco.
Full results can be found here.
Consistency powers Lane
One reason Lane and the rest of the Bass Pro Tour field found the fishing a bit better than expected on Day 1 was the conditions. A warming trend coincided with a full moon to push a wave of bass shallow, with some of them setting up on spawning beds overnight.
“The conditions have set up perfect for Lake Whitney,” Lane said. “You’ve got a full moon. You’ve got warming from a cold front. The water temp is getting up there. And the fish are feeding really good right now.”
That made for a strong shallow bite, which is right up Lane’s alley. He never turned on his forward-facing sonar transducers on Thursday.
Combined with windy conditions, it also caused the lake’s shallow creeks and pockets to get crowded with competitors. Anglers spent a lot of time fishing behind one another, and that pressure will only mount on Day 2.
“That’s one of those things that you’ve got to really keep in the back of your mind,” Lane said. “The fish there that hasn’t bit yet, how are you going to get it to bite? It’s like, what can you do different (from everyone else) to get a bite?”
That likely accounts for the fact that several anglers put together one strong period (mostly in the morning) but found the action slower the rest of the day. Lane, however, started strong and got better as the day progressed. He caught eight scorable bass for 17-2 in Period 1, then another eight for 19-5 in Period 2. He closed strong with almost 22 pounds in the final period.
Lane said he made an adjustment in the afternoon that helped, but he also benefitted from some good fortune.
“I made a little bit of an adjustment and it seemed to pay off,” he said. “But I will say, the Good Lord showed me a few fish jumping, so I said, ‘I think I’ll go over there.’”
Lane’s strong finish was buoyed by pair of 5-pounders. Those bigger bites loomed large on Day 1. Of all the scorable bass caught by the field, 82.6% weighed less than 3 pounds. Lane accounted for two of the 19 bass of 5 pounds and bigger. Sprague caught seven more scorable bass than him on the day, but none weighed more than 2-0.
Lane plans to start Day 2 where he ended Day 1, then explore new water from there. He also has a few tackle tweaks in mind that he hopes will improve his landing ratio.
“I’ve got some work to do,” he said. “I left a lot of fish out there that I hooked, and I’ve got to make some adjustments and figure something out. Whether it’s the way they eat the bait or if there’s a different bait that they’re going to eat better, there’s a lot of adjustments that I need to make if I’m going to do good tomorrow.”
Clearly, Lane is set on trying to win the Qualifying Round. That’s always a conundrum at BPT events, and the fact that this one is split between two fisheries adds another layer of strategy. Since there’s no need to save fish for the weekend, is it better to chase an automatic trip to the Championship Round or to get an extra day to learn Waco in the Knockout Round at the risk of not even making it to Sunday?
Lane didn’t hesitate. He wants the guaranteed Top 10.
“I would love to blow this thing out of the water and have a shot at Waco and not even have to worry about saving fish,” he said. “But first thing’s first, the weights are tight, so you’ve got to stay in that Top 25.”
Second-period surge carries Sprague
Sprague, who finished as the runner-up in the 2021 Heritage Cup event that visited Lakes Whitney and Waco, entered the event on the short list of likely contenders. But it took him awhile to find his footing.
Sprague caught just four scorable bass for 6-13 in the opening period. That prompted him to make a change, leaving the shallows where he’d been targeting spawning bass and cruisers in favor of a windblown prespawn area.
It didn’t take long for that decision to pay off. Sprague stacked up 19 scorable bass totaling 32-4 in the span of 1 hour, 20 minutes during Period 2.
“I made an adjustment,” he said. “I left doing what I was doing, the spinning rod thing, and went to some prespawn fish that I had that were staged up in practice and pulled over there, and they were there. It got pretty fun there for a couple hours.”
Sprague had no problem generating bites. The 30 scorable bass he caught on the day easily topped the field. He just lacked a big one or two. Sprague said that was an issue of execution rather than opportunity.
“I had multiple opportunities at bigger fish today,” he said. “Just couldn’t get them in the boat. I didn’t have a bunch of 5-pounders or nothing, but I know I had two or three fish on that were the fish that I needed.”
Sprague, too, will be gunning for the top spot at the end of the Qualifying Round. He didn’t spend any of the three official practice days on Lake Waco. However, he’s been on the lake once before, and given the time of year, he’s not afraid to figure it out on the fly.
“If I can win, I’m going to try to win,” he said. “If not, two days on Waco doesn’t hurt my feelings. I’ve been on it once before. I’ve got a general idea how it fishes and where it fishes. And I feel confident in being able to go and make some things happen. It’s that time of year when you can just go fishing and know what you’re looking for, and you can have a really good time.”
What’s next at Stage 3
The full 51-angler field will return to Lake Whitney on Friday for Day 2 of the Qualifying Round with the goal of finishing in the Top 25 and advancing to Lake Waco. Four-time Angler of the Year winner Jacob Wheeler will start the day in an unusual position – the first angler below the Lucas Oil Cut Line. He trails 25th-place Marshall Hughes by 2 ounces. It should be a wild fight to finish above the cut line, as Wheeler is one of seven anglers within 2 pounds of Hughes’ total.
Other notes:
A few of the smallmouth bass living in Lake Whitney made an appearance Thursday, but largemouth dominated the catch count. On the day, just 10 scorable smallmouth hit SCORETRACKER® compared to a whopping 622 largemouth.
Waco area native Alton Jones Jr., who is competing close to home for the first time in his touring career, shared Berkley Big Bass honors with Ron Nelson on Day 1. Both anglers caught a 6-6 largemouth.
It’s been a good couple weeks for Takahiro Omori, and he kept the positive momentum rolling Thursday. Omori earned his first Bass Pro Tour win at Stage 2 on Lake Hartwell. On Wednesday evening, he learned that he will be inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame as part of the 2026 class. And on Day 1, he caught 19 scorable bass for 44-5, which has him in fifth place and nearly 20 pounds clear of the cut.