MANY, LOUISIANA – Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Kentucky.
Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Oklahoma.
Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
No, that’s not some new-fangled NCAA Football Super Conference. It’s a quick list of the 19 different states competing in the Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional presented by Magellan Outdoors.
There are 380 anglers swinging sticks the next three days on Toledo Bend Reservoir in northwestern Louisiana. And those folks fish on some vastly different bodies of water, stretching from the Canadian border all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
I love a good finish as much as anyone, but to me, Day 1 is almost always the most interesting in just about any tournament we host around the U.S. It’s the day you get to see which strategies are being employed and which one looks like it might be most successful.
It’s also a chance to see someone set the tone for the rest of the week. And if what I heard this morning from the guys in the small armada that launched onto Toledo Bend, there should be some quality bites – beginning today.
“I’ve seen the water come up roughly 4 feet since I got here on Feb. 22,” said Indiana boater Dave Schneider Jr., who drew the No. 2 boat in the 190-boat navy. “The water got muddy, but since then, the fish started to prespawn and go into spawn. The water started lowering, so I’ve been fishing shallow.”
Schneider said he boated a 7 1/2-pound bass during practice, which ranks right up there with the heaviest catches that anglers showcased with “Grip and Grin” photos on the tournament blog. Most of the other anglers I spoke with at Wednesday’s launch at Cypress Bend Park said their heaviest bass was in the 5-pound range.
But as one boater called out to me from the water: “All it takes is five of those, and you’ve got one heck of day on your hands.”
Day 1.
Opening Day.
Always filled with surprises.
Stay tuned! Live weigh-in begins at 2:30 p.m. CST right here on Bassmaster.com.
Originally posted on Bassmaster Go to Source
Author: Andrew Canulette
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