BROOKELAND, Texas – Day 1 of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division event Sam Rayburn was an absolute banger – from the looks of the weights, now is a great time to be on Big Sam. In the lead, Lee Livesay hammered out 34 pounds, 11 ounces. In second, Dakota Ebare snatched up 31-7.
Behind the two heavy-hitting Texans, the rest of the field is on fire as well. John Warren caught a 10-pounder on the co-angler side, and Chad Mrazek did it on the pro side. In all, six pros weighed more than 25 pounds on Day 1 and 20 pounds went down to 18th.
On the co-angler side, Errol Sigue caught five for 15-13 to take the lead. Warren sits in second with three for 14 pounds and Mark King is holding down third with 13-8.
Livesay crushes a Dirty 34
If you’re looking for someone comfortable in a slugfest, Livesay is your guy. In fact, by his standards, 34 pounds is a walk in the park. This week, running on very little practice, the experienced Texas pro put together a nearly perfect day of fishing.
“I didn’t get to practice because I’ve been in Florida for the first two Elites,” Livesay said. “I got to fish, you know, yesterday ‘till whatever time I had to get off the water. So, I only had a day to practice and, you know, the wind blew, I just had to section it out a little bit. I had two 5-pound bites yesterday that clued me into a little deal, it wasn’t a spot, it wasn’t an area, just kind of a little deal, and I found one little group offshore that I wanted to start on and somebody beat me there.”
Not getting on his starting hole was obviously not a problem.
“I just went fishing and caught what I caught,” Livesay said. “I literally caught two in one creek, two in another creek. Then I got an 8 1/2 in another creek on the way back and just bumped around all day.”
Running a pattern, which is not always the case on Rayburn, Livesay’s small fish was a 5.45 and his big fish was 8 1/2. According to him, his kicker was a pretty wild fish catch.
“Right at the end, I saw one a foot under the water out there, and I threw out and it scared it and it took off,” Livesay said. “And I was like, ‘Damn, it must have been a gar or something.’ It spooked down about 8 foot, and I had thrown a glide out there, a 6th Sense Draw, well, it took off, I scared the hell out of it. So, I just literally burned my glide in, trying to get it back to the boat. I wasn’t even gonna throw at it again. And when I did that, it went crazy like a barracuda and ate it at the boat – an 8 1/2-pounder.”
With more wind in the forecast for Day 2, Livesay is a little worried that he may need to change areas.
“All I’m worried about is the wind,” he said. “Not just blowing, but muddying stuff up that I’ve been fishing. It’s gonna be blowing in my stuff. I think I can probably transfer it to the other side of the lake or another area pretty easy. I just don’t know what the size will be. You know, it might be 3-pounders in the next zone or 2-pounders.”
Still, with an earlier boat number on Day 2, Livesay should be able to get to his original starting spot, and he’s the caliber of angler who can take it from there.
“I’m gonna try to start on that spot I tried to start on this morning and just crank them up with a 6th Sense 300DD and catch whatever I can catch if they’re there,” he said. “But, you know, I’m literally sitting here right now, I’m about to tie up another flipping rod and a ChatterBait. Like, I caught fish doing everything today. I just caught six big ones doing what I was doing with the glide, but I’m gonna keep my options open.”
Ebare is in the hunt as usual
Whenever Ebare is in the field at Rayburn, he’s one to be accounted for – his first MLF win came there and he’s a fixture in the Top 10. Today, he lived up to expectations, cracking out 31 pounds to take the early lead before falling to second. According to the Texas pro, a little bit of practice was all it took to get his expectations sky high.
“I kinda saw this coming,” Ebare said. “I got back on Sunday from Florida and ran out on Monday for the first time I’ve been on the lake since the last Toyota, and it was pretty incredible. What I was seeing and some of the things going on, I really had a feeling it was going to take a whole lot of weight to win. I wasn’t sure after all the weather that we had. You know, we had extreme winds for the last two days from every different direction, a ton of rain, and the lake is pretty dirty, but, it still showed out today.”
While Ebare obviously had a huge day regardless of one fish, he wasn’t over the 30-pound mark until late in the day.
“I made a 2-pound cull at 2:50, and I left at 2:53 – I was due in at 3:00,” he said. “Running Garmins and being able to tell with Auto Guidance+ my exact distance and time from weigh-in really allowed me to cull up that last time.”
While Ebare certainly blasted them today, the dangerous thing is that he sounds primed to do it again.
“I don’t see it weakening,” he said. “I could be wrong, but I don’t feel like they bit that good today, truthfully. I really don’t. I don’t feel like they were really very aggressive today. I just think, the scenario that we’re in is just kind of a perfect storm, and I feel like that’s where the event is at.”
There aren’t many places where expectations like that are reasonable, but everything is bigger in Texas, and it looks like anything is possible this week on Rayburn.
Top 10 pros
1. Lee Livesay – 34 – 11 (5)
2. Dakota Ebare – 31 – 07 (5)
3. Dylan Thompson – 27 – 10 (5)
4. Chad Mrazek – 26 – 08 (5)
5. Riley Harris – 25 – 14 (5)
6. Cody Ross – 25 – 13 (5)
7. Hayden Heck – 24 – 02 (5)
8. Alec Morrison – 24 – 00 (5)
9. Austin Pemberton – 23 – 13 (5)
10. Ryan Satterfield – 23 – 11 (5)