Howell rides largemouth to Day 1 lead at Smith
CULLMAN, Ala. – Smith Lake is the sort of fishery where an angler can catch dozens of spotted bass on a good day. To separate from a field of 241 other anglers, though, you need to either luck into some monster spots or you need to find some largemouth.
Tackle Warehouse Invitationals pro Laker Howell, who hails from Guntersville, Alabama, and who has a decent amount of experience fishing for spots at Smith, went with the latter to weigh in 16 pounds, 10 ounces for the Day 1 lead in the second Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Central Division event of the season.
Weighing in a bag comprised entirely of largemouth, Howell went with a high-risk, high-reward approach to his first day of competition at Smith. In practice, he marked several bedding largemouth and planned on going to those fish early, then filling out his limit with spots. Instead, Howell found himself with a tournament-leading bag before lunchtime.
“It was a pretty fast day,” he said. “I had everything by 12 o’clock and went looking (for more beds) the rest of the day. I didn’t touch a rod the rest of the day. The only way I would have is if I saw another big one – a true 4-plus. I just rolled around and marked fish for (Friday) and tried to get somewhat of a game plan.”
Searching for more bedding fish proved to be a necessity after storms early in the week dragged a cold front behind them, leaving largemouth that were itching to spawn retreating back to staging areas to wait for more stable conditions.
“It (the cold front) definitely put a damper on them,” Howell said. “I was nervous about it because I didn’t think it was going to be as good as what it looked like it might be today. I only caught those five fish. The ones I weighed in is what I caught this morning. I had a ton of fish found and most of them left. The ones I caught were the ones still left.”
Luckily for Howell, he still had five fish on beds – the only five fish he worked all day. His biggest went 4 pounds even and his smallest was about 2 3/4 pounds – excellent size for putting together a competitive bag, even in such a jam-packed field.
Howell’s plan for Day 2 is still in flux. He found some more largemouth on beds that he hopes will still be there in the morning (a major question mark considering overnight lows between Days 1 and 2 might hit the high 30s), but he swung for the fences today knowing Friday might be a day in which the largemouth are fewer and further between and he might need to go work on some spotted bass to fill out his limit.
“I came into this knowing I wasn’t going to win on (spotted bass),” he admitted. “I wasn’t planning on fishing for nothing but largemouth today; I was going to just catch a couple bedders and I was going to go ‘Scope after I caught a couple solid fish and then I just stuck with it. It was blessed, luck-of-the-draw day, really.
“It’s such a luck deal. If you catch a 12-to-14-pound bag of spots out here, you go through 50, 60 fish and you catch a couple good ones that anchor your bag. Theoretically, I have enough areas for that, but it’s really luck of the draw because they’re all in pods roaming around. Once you hook one, the rest is done.”
Howell knows that situation all too well. He guides full-time on Guntersville, but he runs smaller guide trips on occasion at Smith Lake, almost always electronics-focused spotted bass fishing. He’s confident in being able to weigh in a bag of spots heavy enough to be fishing Day 3, but he also knows his Day 2 bag is probably going to have to have a couple largemouth in it to maintain his lead.
“I’ve got a bunch of spotted bass stuff,” he said. “I can go forward-facing sonar fishing and catch them. I don’t think I can do a whole lot more than 12 pounds on those. I really wanted to get a big bag on Day 1 and boost myself up the leaderboard to set me up for success. Hopefully the cushion will help me kind of stay up there in the top three. I really would love a big bag tomorrow, but we’ll see what God has in store for it.”
Top 10 pros
1. Laker Howell – 16 – 10 (5)
2. Rusty Cooper – 16 – 7 (5)
3. Blake Knies – 16 – 2 (5)
4. Brad Adkins – 15 – 13 (5)
5. Tim Smiley – 15 – 0 (5)
5. Austin Swindle – 15 – 0 (5)
5. Flint Davis – 15 – 0 (5)
8. Jack Daniel Williams – 14 – 11 (5)
9. Caleb Sheldon – 14 – 7 (5)
10. Andrew Nordbye – 14 – 6 (5)