REDCREST live blog: Day 2 of the Qualifying Round on Lay Lake
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Day 1 of Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Powered by OPTIMA Lithium was a good one, with a lot of bass caught by the whole field. Taking the early lead, Michael Neal tallied 52 pounds, 9 ounces with 21 fish, and Dalton Head worked his way into second with 44-6 (17). Those totals won’t really matter on the weekend, but barring something very surprising, most of the Top 10 pros after the starting day should be able to practice with a fairly clear conscience today.
Outside of the Top 10 is where things get really interesting. Today, there’s a severe thunderstorm watch until 10 a.m. in Columbiana, and it looks like a wetter, more dynamic weather day overall than Day 1, which was slick and unseasonably warm.
The REDCREST Outdoor Expo is Friday-Sunday at the BJCC, with doors opening at 11 a.m. today. At the expo, there are hundreds of giveaways and the free event features over 225,000 square feet of tackle, boats, gear and fun. There’s even at least one retailer there with some hard-to-find baits like the Jackall Drift Fry and Rapala CrushCity Freeloader in stock – you may want to get in line.
The MLFNOW! live stream will run Thursday through Sunday from 7:20 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT for full coverage of the championship event.
3:30 We’re headed to the Knockout Round
As usual, the final minutes of qualifying were very tense, with Nick LeBrun right on the line and five pros within a small keeper of catching him. In the end, none of his chasers got it done, and he snuck in. For the Knockout Round, we should have a fascinating mix of patterns in play, and probably a lot of fish cathcing.
Here are the Top 20 fishing tomorrow, with their Qualifying Round weights.
1. Ryan Salzman – 65 – 14 (20)
2. Dustin Connell – 63 – 04 (25)
3. Michael Neal – 61 – 13 (25)
4. Dalton Head – 61 – 11 (23)
5. Jesse Wiggins – 59 – 10 (25)
6. Cole Floyd – 58 – 14 (23)
7. Jacob Wheeler – 56 – 12 (23)
8. Nick Hatfieldv54 – 01 (20)
9. Anthony Gagliardi – 52 – 11
11. Ron Nelson – 48 – 02 (18)
12. Keith Poche – 46 – 12 (15)
13. Emil Wagner – 46 – 11 (17)
14. Takahiro Omori – 45 – 13 (18)
15. John Cox – 44 – 12 (17)
16. Greg Vinson – 41 – 13 (15)
17. Jonathon VanDam – 41 – 08 (15)
18. Gerald Spohrer – 40 – 07 (15)
19. Alton Jones Jr. – 40 – 01 (16)
20. Nick LeBrun – 39 – 01 (14)
3:15 Wiggins predicts the weekend
According to Jesse Wiggins, who has been shaking off bites for the last few hours, the spawn is going to play in this derby.
“It’s gonna come down to the ‘Scope game vs. the spawn game,” he said. “Usually the ‘Scope wins, but we’ve got perfect weather for the bank.”
He neglected to mention the tailrace game, which does seem like a player as well. Tomorrow, we should get the truest look yet at how much things may have shifted toward the bank since Day 1.
2:50 Salzman takes the lead at the dam
Up under Logan Martin, Ryan Salzman just slid into the lead with a 4-pounder. He’s had a really solid couple of days, and he’s currently catching them on one particular spot. It seems like there may not be a ton of room at the dam, with only a couple of good lineups. It might make boat number important tomorrow – folks don’t race to starting holes often on the Bass Pro Tour, but tomorrow and maybe Sunday could be exceptions.
2:30 The big hitters
With about an hour of fishing left, we’ve got three pros over 30 pounds for the day: Cliff Pace, Emil Wagner and Jesse Wiggins. Wiggins was good to go before today started, but Pace has moved up from 30th and Wagner has moved up from 40th. All three of them are fishing differently – Wiggins is on the bank with a shaky head, Pace is up by the dam and Wagner is doing the ‘Scope deal.
Currently, in the waning hours, there is a very close race to make the cut, with Nick LeBrun hanging in 20th by the skin of his teeth.
1:55 Vinson’s swim jig bite
Greg Vinson locked in his spot in the Knockout Round with a 4-11 swim jig fish he caught about an hour ago, and he was really excited to see it happen.
“I’ve been saying all along, that it’s about to go off,” he said. “I’ve been saying all along, I need a Lay Lake swim jig fish. I’ve been trying to get that bite all week long.”
Per that excitement, and considering that there are four or so others in the Top 20 fishing shallow, an interesting weekend could be in the cards.
1:40 Connell is in scout mode
Not that this comes as a huge surprise, but Dustin Connell is currently headed up the river, probably toward the Logan Martin Dam. He’s covering all his bases today.
1:30 Shaky head pattern looks to be producing for Wiggins
Other than his brother, Jesse Wiggins is the best shaky head angler in the country. He’s slipping along a main lake bank now that is pretty steep, but not on the side of the lake where the current is heaviest. Moments ago, he popped a quality spotted bass to take the lead. Wiggins’ deal is pretty interesting – he’s not looking at his screen, and he’s caught them really good today. A shaky head is a big deal for spawning spotted bass on Smith Lake, and Wiggins certainly knows how to play that game to perfection.
1:10 Omori locks himself into the Knockout Round by staying shallow
With another vibrating jig fish in the boat, Takahiro Omori believes he’s locked himself into the Knockout Round with an even 43 pounds. It’s notable that he’s been able to survive, and even thrive, on the bank, when the bulk of the frontrunners are fishing in open water. Omori has caught one of the biggest bags of the day, which could bode well for the Knockout Round and beyond.
12:35 There’s a heck of a scrum on the cut line
The Top 20 make the Knockout Round for tomorrow, and right now there are nine pros less than 4 ½ pounds from the cutline. Some of the folks are charging hard – Jeremy Lawyer, Dakota Ebare and Chris Lane are all working on big days. Others are stuck in the mud – Greg Vinson, Matt Becker and Bradley Roy are having very slow days.
Currently, the top 13 pros are all over 40 pounds for the first two days, which seems close to safe. But, there’s a lot of room for pros to rise or fall below that mark.
12:05 Connell’s take
Dustin Connell is practicing, panning around looking for suspended spotted bass. But, he seems to think that pattern may be a little played out come Sunday, or at least that he might need to find a new area.
“This weather has changed them a lot, I don’t mind this, but I don’t think this is how the tournament will be won,” he said. “There’s too much pressure, too many boats. I think it will be won off stuff that ain’t been fished. I think you could make the Top 10 on this, but I don’t know if this is how it will be won.”
It sounds like he’s got a hankering to check up the river, or maybe do something else we haven’t thought of. He’s got deep experience on the lake, obviously, so if someone is going to find the newest, best pattern this weekend, he’s probably the man to watch.
11:30 On bite windows…
One of the cool byproducts of the Bass Pro Tour’s every-fish-counts format and live scoring has been a way to quantify something pros have talked about for years: bite windows. For whatever reason, there are stretches throughout just about every day when anglers all over the lake are getting bit, and others when no one can seem to garner a strike.
Today has been a perfect example. During the first 90 minutes or so of competition, the action was fast and furious. The 50 pros on the water combined to catch 79 scorable bass in that span. Then, from 9:22 to 9:47 a.m. CT, not a single fish hit SCORETRACKER®. The action picked up again for a bit, until another dry spell from 10:49 to 11:13, when only one bass was weighed in. Suddenly, the switch flipped again, and we had 10 fish hit the scales in 10 minutes.
Sometimes, there’s a fairly obvious explanation for the shifts. The first 25-minute lull this morning coincided with a line of thunderstorms hitting the main body of Lay Lake, which prompted several anglers to seek cover. The hot action before that could have been a product of low pressure as the front approached. But clearly, there’s still an element to bite windows across an entire fishery that even the top-level anglers don’t fully understand. Yet. Given the tools at our disposal today, I bet we’ll get there soon.
11:20 Wagner is having pollen issues
According to Emil Wagner, who is one of the foremost forward-facing guys going these days, the pollen has gotten worse since the passing rain. We don’t really totally understand pollen and how it relates to sonar, but it seems like it needs to stir into the water to really affect things. Now, post-rain, it is stirred in, which could make the forward-facing bite significantly more difficult going forward – certainly something the bank beaters want to see.
11:05 Lane has busted a bag
Chris Lane is up for 21-6 for five on the day and is really a fish away from the cut. He’ll need a big day to do it, assuming everyone else keeps catching fish too, but gosh, he’s putting on a clinic when it comes to quality today, with his smallest being a 3-1.
10:55 There’s something to the shallow bite
We’ve seen Dalton Head catch a few shallow now, and Takahiro Omori is also catching fishing pretty steadily this morning, mostly on a vibrating jig. Still, a lot of the top pros got there with forward-facing sonar, and many of them have gone away from it or hit the brakes a little today. So, there’s some slop in that data. One point against a good shallow bite is John Cox – he’s still only caught two today. Keith Poche also only has three fish, and he probably needs to catch a few more to lock himself in the cut.
10:24 Topwater alert!
Though it wouldn’t score, Dalton Head just popped a 1-12 on a topwater walking bait. This is huge for folks that like fun and variety, though likely not huge for the tournament overall.
10:20 We have a swim jig alert!
With the opening of Period 2, we’ve finally got Dustin Connell with a baitcaster in hand, shaking a swim jig through the bank grass. He himself doesn’t plan on it being a thing tomorrow, but gosh it would be fun if it was.
10:00 At least six anglers feel safe
At the end of the first period, six anglers have topped the 45-pound mark, which, barring a crazy afternoon flurry, seems like the highest we could see the cut line rise. With 42-11, Ryan Salzman might be safe, too.
A few of those anglers (Michael Neal, Jacob Wheeler, Anthony Gagliardi) have clearly eased up on the throttle, trying not to catch too many fish out of the offshore schools of spotted bass they’ve been targeting. We saw Neal largely use the opening stanza to play defense, trolling around his area and discouraging other anglers who tried to fish it.
The big riser of the opening period was Jesse Wiggins. The Alabama native has already eclipsed his Day 1 production with 11 bass for 25-11. That brought his total weight above 50 pounds, assuring he’ll fish Saturday. Meanwhile, four anglers who began the day below 20th place have climbed above the elimination line — Adrian Avena, Cliff Pace, Jeremy Lawyer and Nick LeBrun. There’s still a lot of guys packed around either side of the cut, though, so expect to see plenty of drama there as the day unfolds.
9:50 Salzman pops two under a train bridge
Ryan Salzman is taking folks to class on the current side of things, and he just put a nice spotted bass in the boat winding a swimbait and then a scrounger along a train trestle piling. He’s fascinating to listen to on MLFNOW! and really knowledgeable about fishing current. Also, while the rain is dumping on the lower end of the lake, things are starting to thin out up the lake. He also thinks that largemouth smell better than spotted bass, but did not rank smallmouth in his list of bass smells.
9:35 Storm has anglers taking shelter
The first wave of thunderstorms forecast for Friday has hit the main body of Lay Lake, bringing with it strong winds and heavy rains. As a result, MLFNOW! viewers saw Michael Neal and Jacob Wheeler seek out shelter under covered boat docks.
That’s one of the perks of starting strong. Neal (54-14) and Wheeler (48-3) currently hold the top two spots on SCORETRACKER®, and both should be safe to advance to the Knockout Round with their current totals. That’s especially true given that the catch rate seems to have slowed down a bit across the field since the squall line arrived.
The current forecast indicates that, while the storm might ease up a bit in severity, anglers will have to continue dealing with rain throughout the day, and there could be a couple more thunderstorms that roll through as well. But with $300,000 on the line and a crowd bunched around the cut line, expect most of the field to push through the conditions.
8:55 There are some big risers this morning
Early today, we’ve seen a few pros really shoot up the leaderboard. Cliff Pace and Jesse Wiggins are probably first on the list, with Wiggins already having sacked up more than 23 pounds to move into second. Otherwise, Adrian Avena is rolling up, with more than 10 pounds on the board, and Emil Wagner is easing on up. The young Georgia pro has three for 10-4 and is up into the 20s on the leaderboard, having started the day in 40th.
8:28 Rain at the dam
Our first precipitation of the day is up the lake, as expected, with a pretty good amount of rain coming down near the Logan Martin Dam where Ryan Salzman is catching stripers. The bulk of the rain is still not to most of the lake, and there doesn’t seem to be lightning in it as of now.
8:20 Big moves early
Out the gate, Jesse Wiggins is locking up his spot in the Knockout Round. He’s now blasted into the Top 10 with six for 15 pounds to get to a 39-6 total – probably just a fish or two away from being safe.
Much farther down the leaderboard, Chris Lane has caught his third fish of the tournament, but, it was a 7-pound largemouth. It’d be an incredible comeback, but Lane has never shied away from doing it big.
8:15 Neal puts his rods down
Michael Neal caught a keeper “Just to prove I could do it,” and he’s wrapped up on trying to catch bass for the day. From the sounds of it, he’s going to hang around the area some, maybe try to dial in a bait or two, and then do a little more scouting. For his part, it sounds like Neal isn’t particularly interested in trying to find some sort of shallow bite.
8:12 Uneven start at the dam
Three anglers have started up by the tailrace of the Logan Martin Dam, Ryan Salzman among them. So far, only Cliff Pace is doing any catching – he’s got four for 13 pounds already. Pace started the day in 30th, and he’s rolled up the leaderboard to 12th now.
7:50 There is some real quality biting this morning
While the weather this morning was theoretically good for the shallow bite, it might just be good across the board. We’ve had a bunch of big fish caught early, with Adrian Avena (offshore) on the board with a 4-pounder, and eight others catching fish over 3 pounds in the first 20 minutes of fishing. Some of the bigger fish have for sure been caught offshore, and we’ll see what sort of trend develops as the day goes on and cameras move off the offshore leaders.
7:35 “Not everybody was here to start”
Right out of the gate, Michael Neal is jawing at Adrian Avena on live. Neal started back on his primary hole from Day 1, and according to him, Avena is a new addition to the crew there. Early on, Neal was not thrilled by Avena’s presence and said “If you knew what was here you’d have started here,” among other things.
Lay fished pretty small on Day 1, and this isn’t the first bickering we’ve seen on the lake. But, there’s a lot on the line this week…
7:25 Weather is still good as of now
The radar north and west of Birmingham looks like a total disaster, but as of now, things are good on the lake. Conditions should be really good for a shallow bite this morning, so we’ll hopefully see plenty of action early. First casts will be incoming shortly.
5:45 Stefan “all-in” on the river
Sitting in 20th and right on the cut, Matthew Stefan caught eight spotted bass for 20-11 on Day 1, and he did it up the river, largely with a prototype Core Tackle swim jig. Though he put together a good day, the conditions were not cut and paste from practice.
“I decided I would use my half hour to run way up and work my way back,” he said of Day 1. “The river just keeps falling. It dropped today, almost a foot, probably 8 inches. It’s probably down 4 feet for sure since the first day of practice. The current flow is down drastically, the water is warming, the water is clearing. Things are just changing. I had several really good current seams that I found the last day of practice that were coming right off the bank. I showed up today, and there was no current seam, and the nearest current was 50 feet off the bank.
“For me, it was a whole new learning curve,” he added. “Some of the stuff had fish on it, a lot of it didn’t. When I got down closer to Beeswax during the third period, I was expecting that to be my best period. I didn’t have crap until I ran 15 miles back up river, and then I caught two keepers on a place I caught fish on in the morning.”
Though Stefan didn’t keep up with the frontrunners on Day 1, he believes that zeroed weights for the Knockout Round and Championship Round can keep the up-river bite in the game.
“I had four other keepers on today, including a 4 ½ I had within 2 feet of my hand,” he said. “But, you’re fishing heavy cover, heavy current — it’s just tough to get them out sometimes with mean spotted bass. With weights resetting, anything is possible. I found one spot that had a wad of fish in it. The current positions the fish, and it replenishes. I think I can maintain throughout the tournament, but if you find that one seam, at the right time, I think you can win.”
Either way, Stefan is going out swinging, fishing his way. At home on the flowages of Wisconsin, he’s probably one of the best in the field at reading current, and going toe to toe with feisty bass in flowing water is in his blood.
5:30 Cox breaks down the shallow bite potential
In 12th after Day 1, John Cox, everyone’s hero, weighed 10 bass for 26-9. He started out “just fishing,” but had to buckle down and catch fish with his eyes to actually put weight on the board.
“Today was a grind; I thought I was going to catch more, to be honest for you,” he said. “I fished for them, and I couldn’t get bit. It was terrible. Then, like every one I caught, they were actually fry guarding. They took forever to catch. I had one little spot, I sat there the entire day — I picked the Poles up like three times, just push-poled around. There were like 15 in that pocket, and they all had hook holes from someone the day before.”
After a day that saw forward-facing sonar take the cake again, could Cox or someone else make it interesting up shallow? In the opinion of Cox, one of the best bed fishermen of all time, a push of prespawn fish is necessary.
“Today there was no movement where any of the prespawners came in, they were stagnant all day,” he noted. “If you get that movement of a prespawn bite, you can hang with the guys, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not. I’m going to try to hang every day, and if the window opens where the prespawners decide to slide up and cooperate, then we might blast them.”
According to Cox, the highest probability of that happening is on Sunday – so, keep your fingers crossed.
5:00 Morning update
Good morning folks! It’s not raining yet, but this could definitely turn out to be a day impacted by weather, as the forecast does not look good for the afternoon, which could be stormy, windy and wet.
Today, Michael Neal will go out in the lead, with Dalton Head right behind him – both saw most of their success on Day 1 with a minnow and forward-facing sonar. Of the 50 pros in the field, only the Top 20 will make tomorrow’s Knockout Round, and that particular race is super tight. In 16th, Gerald Spohrer has 22-15. In 20th, Matt Stefan has 20-11. In 25th, Nick LeBrun has 17-5. So, a fish or two either way could send someone above or below the cut line, and it’s likely we’ll have drama around it all day.
From the current side of things, the Lay Lake Dam is running five generators and spilling, as it has been for most of the event so far. Up the lake, the Logan Martin Dam is running only two generators and not spilling this morning – that could be good conditions for fishing the tailrace there.
So, buckle up for a fun day of bassin’, however much the weather allows.