Poche blasts into the lead with 27-5 at the Toyota Series Championship
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Some flip-flopping on the leaderboard was expected on Day 2 of the Toyota Series Championship Presented by Bass Boat Technologies on Wheeler Lake. However, Keith Poche moving from 20th to first with 27 pounds, 5 ounces was not on the board. Of course, Poche rarely conforms to the norm, and his big day remade the tournament, putting him in the lead with a 42-13 total going into the final day of competition.
In second, Hayden Marbut tallied 19-10 to bring his total to an even 41 pounds – more than 5 pounds clear of third place. However, instead of a wire-to-wire walk in the park for the young Alabama angler, it looks like Day 3 could be one of the most epic finishes to a tournament we’ve seen in a while. Luckily, it’ll all be live on MLFNOW!.
Poche hits the top end
On Day 1, Poche caught a solid 15 pounds and change – nothing to write home about, but a good start. According to him, 27 pounds wasn’t in the picture at all.
“That was unbelievable,” Poche said. “You know, after yesterday and the bites I had in practice, I thought maybe upper teens, 20 – if everything goes right, and I get lucky. But 27 pounds, I don’t even know, I mean, I don’t even know if the scales are right. I mean, I know they were big, but that was unbelievable. That’s the biggest bag I’ve ever weighed in in my life.”
Considering Poche has fished around the country as a pro for years, it’s a wild statement, and true or nearly true, it’s a testament to just how amazing a day he had. Catching 27 pounds of largemouth is not something that’s supposed to happen at Wheeler this time of year, or really much at all. To top it off, he caught almost all of them in about 40 minutes and was done by 10 o’clock.
Poche said he doesn’t have company, and that there are fish left – he saw them busting and chasing bait at the end of the day. He’s just not sure what the difference between the first day and today was.
“Execution was part of the difference between having upper teens or 20,” Poche said. “But today, I really don’t know, that’s what we battle all the time as fishermen. These fish are like us. I mean, we’re moody. We have feeling. The big ones just didn’t bite as well yesterday, they were nipping at it, and I guess the big ones were just going crazy today.”
From the sounds of it, a limit shouldn’t be a problem, but to stay ahead of Marbut, Poche likely needs another really strong day. Today, Poche may have figured out how to go from good to very good.
“There’s so many fish in this area,” he said. “There’s hundreds of fish. Yesterday, there were fish blowing up everywhere. Most of them small, but there’s key little places in there where I’ve noticed that I’m getting the bigger bites.”
Maybe he does it again, or even in the ballpark, and he’ll get what he came for – the $200,000 winner’s check.
“I want the money,” he said. “Show me the money; that’s what I want.”
Marbut stays steady
While Poche is in the dirt and catching largemouth, Marbut has weighed mostly smallmouth so far (though some key green fish made an appearance today) and isn’t that far from the bank, but certainly not in the dirt.
“I didn’t know after yesterday if I could stay as consistent as I was able to today,” said the Alabama pro. “It was a grind, but I made it happen. I’m in a good spot, I’d almost rather not be leading going into the last day.”
Though Marbut will need to make up some ground, there’s definitely plenty of opportunity for him, considering he’s been the most consistent angler on the board so far. Though he’s not off by himself like Poche is, Marbut feels like he’s got a solid grasp of the situation.
“I’ve kind of narrowed down the section of the lake I need to be in,” he said. “I wasted a couple hours today being in a section of the lake that wasn’t as productive. I’ve got a section of the lake that I feel is a little bit better, and it’s where I’ve caught nine of my 10 keepers so far. They’re just high-percentage areas, really. I mean, the smallmouth are gonna pull up, there’ll be fish swimming through there at some point.”
Today, three of his weigh fish were largemouth, which was not really part of the game plan.
“Today there were more largemouth in my areas, which gives me hope that I could luck into, you know, a 6-pound largemouth,” he said. “I didn’t expect that. I caught my two biggest smallmouth there yesterday. I pulled up this morning and caught two almost 4-pound largemouth.”
Green or brown, tomorrow is a big day for Marbut – he’s planning on breaking out a “Scopin’ is not a crime” hoodie for MLFNOW!, and if he can pull off the win, he’ll lock in REDCREST on the home pond.
Top 10 pros
1. Keith Poche – 42 – 13 (10)
2. Hayden Marbut – 41 – 0 (10)
3. Laker Howell – 35 – 4 (10)
4. Jack Daniel Williams – 33 – 8 (10)
5. Dillon Falardeau – 33 – 5 (10)
6. Drew Gill – 31 – 10 (10)
7. Ethan Fields – 31 – 9 (10)
8. Caleb Kuphall – 31 – 6 (10)
9. Austin Swindle – 31 – 4 (10)
10. Chad Mrazek – 31 – 4 (10)
Honeycutt takes the Strike King co-angler lead
Keith Honeycutt is one of the best Strike King co-anglers of all-time, with almost half a million in earnings under his belt, the vast majority of which have come from the back of the boat. Having limited two days in a row, the Texas angler will go out in the lead tomorrow with a 21-7 total. In second, Stephen Draghi has 19-9 to his credit, and Jonathan Green is a hairsbreadth off that pace with 19-7. It should be a fun finish on that side of things as well.
News and notes
Though there are some races for the $10,000 divisional bonuses nearly settled and some very much up for grabs, the Western Division bonus is a wrap. Finishing 32nd, Todd Kline weighed a big bag on Day 2 to lock up the extra payday. After tomorrow’s championship weigh-in, all the other bonuses will be final as well.
The race to be the collegiate representative to REDCREST is also over – Braylon Eggerding punched his ticket to Guntersville today as well.
Day 3 of the Toyota Series Championship will be live on MLFNOW! from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, and it should be a heck of a showdown.