Duckett Comes Back to Take Lead After Round One for Second Group

If it seemed like a bit of a slow start for Boyd Duckett, then you can understand why the Guntersville, Ala. pro might possibly have been distracted.

After all, Duckett – who is the co-founder of Major League Fishing along with Gary Klein – has plenty on his mind in East Texas as the 2017 MLF General Tire World Championship dream finally becomes a reality. 

As an angler playing dual roles of competitor and executive here in Nacogdoches, Duckett finally was able to get his considerable on-the-water skills untracked during first day action for the Round One group that he is assigned to. 

And when he did that, Duckett – the 2007 Bassmaster Classic champ and winner of  three other B.A.S.S. events in his 15-year long career – was able to surge up the SCORETRACKER LIVE! leaderboard.

Ultimately that surge ended in first place among a field of tightly grouped contenders, thanks to a strong come-from-behind effort by the MLF co-founder.

“Yes it was (a nice come back),” smiled Duckett. “Period One was kind of tough for me, it was disruptive (due to the thunderstorms that rolled through) and kind of hard to stay in a groove.”

After a brief early morning fishing window of 45 minutes or so, the storms rolled in as a cold front swept into East Texas. After the rain, wind and lightning caused a delay, Duckett and the rest of his group were finally able to get back on the water and go back to work.

And that’s when Duckett realized that he had been fishing just a little bit wrong.

“I’m sure there were fish out there (where I was), but I just couldn’t catch them,” Duckett said. “But I did figure out how to catch them at the end of the first period when I got dialed in (a little bit).

“Actually, it will be a pretty good film clip because at the end of each period, you do a close and I was like (saying to the camera) ‘I’m going to catch them (next period),'” he added.

“Sometimes you know, sometimes you don’t, but I kind of knew that what I had gotten dialed in should continue to work. Then it was just a matter of running it in the second and third period.”

Duckett said that he pretty much had three things going – throwing a buzzbait, a speed-worm and a weightless Senko. The key was figuring out the current mood of the fish at the time of day he was fishing and adjusting accordingly. 

“Their personality, it just changes through the day,” Duckett said. “I caught some in the morning on a swim jig, too. And I could catch (a few) pitching. A lot of guys are doing that as well, but you’ll lose about 50 percent of them doing that (in this heavy timber stuff).” 

By throwing the buzzbait, speed-worm and Senko long distances, Duckett was able to make long casts and keep his baits up in the water column, a key consideration on both parts given the thick standing timber and difficulty in moving around on Naconiche.

“I’m still losing tons (of bass too), but everybody is losing tons,” he said. “But at least they are high and you can get ’em (out of the timber and back to the boat.”

With three guys in close proximity to each other in the low 50-pound range  – arguably tied as Duckett described his lead over Bobby Lane and Mark Davis – there are three periods left to go in the second day dubbed as the “Shotgun Round.”

If he can survive that, the bass angler/business executive/co-founder of Major League Fishing will be through and on his way to the Sudden Death semifinals here in Nacogdoches.

“You’ve got three guys (bunched together) and you’ve got a pretty good gap between first, second and third,” said Duckett.

“Now, traditionally, in a normal event, one of those guys towards the bottom, about halfway up the leaderboard will come through in the second or third period,” he added.

“Well, we have six periods in this (event this week) and we’re at the end of the third, so I would bet that one of the three guys on the bottom will come (up) because they always do. It might not be Edwin (in fourth place), it might be someone else who surprises you.”

One thing that Duckett is pretty confident in is that it will take a solid effort to advance because Naconiche is a very good East Texas bass fishery.

“The lake is pretty cool,” Duckett said. “It’s a post-spawn deal here. I don’t think there are any, or hardly any, females (on the bank). I didn’t hook any of them and didn’t see any of them (today). 

“It’s males guarding fry, which means the females (up shallow) are long past,” he added. “Not that there isn’t one out there somewhere that will still come shallow, but that isn’t the deal (here) this week.

“So that’s what I’m doing, is catching fry guarders. That will eventually go away, but they will feed after that. They may not be right where they were, they may not be on the fry ball (anymore), but it should still be fairly easy to catch a few. If you see fry, that’s where you’re going to catch a few.” 

As one of the sport’s top competitors over the past decade, Duckett is the first to admit that he hasn’t won anything yet despite sitting in first place.

It’s just that in a new MLF event wrinkle of having a second day to fish on the same body of water, he is indeed in first place…albeit still with some work left to do. 

“It’s kind of like leading halfway through the event, that’s kind of like what it is,” smiled Duckett. “It’s also kind of like leading at the halfway point of one of our regular (Bassmaster Elite Series tour) events.

“There’s no place you’d rather be (than in first),” he added. “But it doesn’t matter until it’s over (on the weekend).”

And when it’s all over later on this week, Duckett hopes to be able to add yet another thing to his crowded business card, one that already reads MLF co-founder, Bassmaster Classic champion, and owner of one of the country’s top rod-and-reel manufacturing companies.

What’s that one more thing?

Simple – Boyd Duckett, Major League Fishing General Tire World Champion, that’s what.