Raber sacks 17-12 for the lead on Day 1 at Table Rock
BRANSON, Mo. – The Toyota Series Championship Presented by Simms is loaded with luminaries and local favorites, but Day 1 saw Indiana pro Mike Raber rise to the top at Table Rock Lake. Sacking up a mixed bag of species for 17 pounds, 12 ounces, Raber has a 1-5 edge over reigning All-American champion Emil Wagner and 2-0 on Missouri pro Brad Jelinek.
Raber surprises himself
On a day when the favorites with big national experience largely struggled to produce, a lot of fresh faces performed well. Prior to this year, Raber had largely stuck to events in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine, frequently chasing down smallmouth on the Great Lakes. His first foray into the Toyota Series produced a Northern Division Top 10, and that has him in the hunt for some pretty big things.
Of course, he had to overcome a tough practice on a new body of water to make it happen.
“I’ve never been on anything that looks like this at all, never seen a highland reservoir,” Raber said. “The first couple days of practice was like being on the moon. Where I’m from, largemouth are in grass; here there’s not even moss on the rocks.”
Come Day 1, Raber rustled up a smallmouth, two spotted bass and two largemouth for the lead.
“I caught a couple fish of a caliber that I didn’t see in practice,” he said. “I think things are changing out there. I’m starting to see fish in places I didn’t see them before. We have a warming trend after a terrible, nasty cold front, and I think that’s going to get the fish mobile. But we got lucky, and my co-angler helped me to get on them today.”
Catching about 10 keepers, Raber pulled out all the stops on Day 1 and has his fingers crossed for Day 2.
“I covered a lot of water and hit a couple of places it was happening and a whole lot of places it wasn’t,” he said. “The fishing is brutal. I think everyone in the field will tell you that. I think I’ve got some areas, and we’ll hope they hold out. It could go really well, it could go really terrible, but we’re not here to bunt.”
Wagner proving his worth
Born in Denmark and currently residing in Georgia, Emil Wagner is looking very at home on Table Rock. Having qualified for the championship via his win in the All-American on Lake Hartwell, Wagner is right in the hunt and has a chance to put together an all-time great season with two more good days.
What should scare the other competitors is that his 16-7 limit could have been a lot more.
“Not to sound like every other bass fisherman, but I should have had well over 20 pounds today,” he said. “In the morning, I went like two for 10 on fish, and two of them felt huge. In the afternoon, I lost a 5-pound largemouth on one of my smallmouth spots that I had almost to the boat.”
Catching more than 10 keepers, Wagner is running two distinct programs, one based around largemouth and spots and another based on brown bass. The two smallmouth in his bag provided the bulk of his weight on Day 1, although from the sounds of it, they’re very tricky to fool. Though the fishery is quite different, the herring chasers Wagner normally pursues in the southeast seem to have him well prepared for the Ozarks.
“I’d never seen the lake before official practice; I just came down and fished four days and graphed the whole time, just like I do at home,” he said. “I ran a lot of it today and got a feel for what was good and what wasn’t. The baits and how to catch them, I had to figure out in practice — it’s super different than at home. But, otherwise it is a lot like home, just running and gunning and not staying anywhere too long.”
Jelly going for the gold with bronze
Over the last few years, Brad Jelinek has been one of the hottest sticks in the Ozarks, knocking out big finishes anywhere in the neighborhood of his Missouri address. Still, he’s fallen short of glory on the big stage, missing Angler of the Year in the Plains Division by ounces and never earning a win with MLF. That could change this week.
“I had a very, very good day,” he said. “I started out the morning with the big one, and then I picked away. I had four by about 9-something, and then I just kept chipping away. I had about a 3 ½-pounder I could see, it was like 20 feet from me, and I threw my lure to it, and it bit for some reason. You have to have that stuff happen to have that kind of day.”
Weighing all smallmouth, Jelinek is pretty dialed on the brown fish and may be saving the largemouth for later.
“I don’t think I caught anything other than smallmouth today,” he said. “That was my practice too, honestly. I’ve got two or three things going right now, but generally the same type of pattern, a couple different baits. It’s a numbers game. You have to see enough to get them to bite. Today I got lucky and got five of the right ones to bite. Hopefully, I can do it again tomorrow.
“The size is there. If I set the hook it is normally a good one,” he said. “I feel like I can do it again, I just gotta get them to bite. I tried to go catch fish on the last day at Lake of the Ozarks — I wasn’t trying to win. This one, I would love to catch five fish tomorrow, but I’m going to win. I don’t have a backup plan, a magic tree or dock anywhere. It’s just going to be slow and steady.”
Top 10 pros
1. Mike Raber – 17 – 12 (5)
2. Emil Wagner – 16 – 07 (5)
3. Brad Jelinek – 15 – 12 (5)
4. Alec Morrison – 15 – 4 (5)
5. Evan Kung – 15 – 2 (5)
6. Ken Thompson – 15 – 0 (5)
7. Colby Miller – 14 – 11 (5)
8. Jacob Keenom – 14 – 9 (5)
8. Kyle Cortiana – 14 – 9 (5)
10. Jeremy Gordon – 14 – 6 (5)
Rounding up the storylines
Beyond the winner, there’s a lot on the line this week. Maybe most interesting is the race between Peyton Harris and Dalton Head, the Montevallo teammates who are fishing for a chance to represent the Abu Garcia College Fishing ranks at REDCREST 2024.
After Day 1, it looks like Day 2 will decide their fate, and neither can feel safe going into it. Leading the way, Head is in 114th place after catching four bass for 8-8. In 145th, Harris has three for 6-5. A good day could send either of them rocketing toward a huge championship event on Lay Lake, located less than an hour away from their school.
The other hidden storyline is the hunt for the $10,000 bonuses up for grabs for the top finisher from each division. As expected, things are all over the board. Below are the top two pros so far from each division.
Northern – Mike Raber (1), Jason Gramada (37)
Plains – Brad Jelinek (3), Jacob Keenom (8)
Southwestern – Alec Morrison (4), Dakota Ebare (16)
Central – Kyle Cortiana (6), Charlie Weyer (11)
Western – Ish Monroe (14), Kirk Stickler (23)
Wild Card – Colby Miller (7), Tristan McCormick (25)
International – Evan Kung (5), Erik Luzak (14)
Lancett leads on the Strike King co-angler side
The fishing was super tough for the Strike King co-anglers, but Will Lancett stayed in the game and rallied in a big way late. Weighing four keepers for 11-12, he leads second place by more than a pound and a half, though it seems likely that co-angler standings will be extremely volatile this week.
“It was a tough day. I didn’t have my first keeper bite until 2:45 p.m., and it was the big one,” said Lancett, a 28-year-old fisheries biologist in Arkansas. “I thought it was a catfish. About 15 minutes later, I caught a 2 ½, dragging it behind the boat – I got lucky. Then, right at the end, my boater went to fish a dock, and there was a laydown before it. I pitched in and caught keepers back to back.”
Draw is always important on the co-angler side, and with a lot of the field chasing suspended fish, Lancett got a rare opportunity to cast to visible targets for most of the day.
“I got lucky and got to throw at the bank today,” he said. “I want to give a big shoutout to my boater, Jade Keeton. “He was awesome. He knew there were fish in the area, and we stuck it out, and it paid off.”
Top 10 Strike King co-anglers
1. Will Lancett – 11 – 12 (4)
2. Al Hopkins – 10 – 3 (5)
3. Brett Robbins – 10 – 2 (5)
4. Larry Taylor – 9 – 8 (5)
5. Paul Gelles – 8 – 14 (4)
6. Morgan White – 8 – 12 (4)
7. Bruce Harris – 7 – 11 (3)
7. Chad Garton – 7 – 11 (4)
9. Alex Berry – 7 – 10 (4)
10. Andrew Harper – 7 – 6 (3)