By Justin Brouillard | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons and Ben Kennedy
With temperatures in the low 70’s this morning for day one of the 4th event of the NPFL season, anglers are hoping the later launch and check in time will help alleviate the pressure on Pickwick this week. It’s going to be hot with a chance of a thunderstorms almost every day. The weather should not affect the bite as anglers flip flop the offshore ledges waiting for the bite window.
One angler who won’t be putting himself in the pressure is Progressive AOY leader Nick Prvonocaz. Based on the past results, Prvonocaz estimates around 60-pounds for the win and 36-pounds for a check this week, and says that anywhere he wanted to fish has seen pressure all of practice.
“I don’t like fishing in crowds and every waypoint I had on this place had a boat on it. So, I am going off the beaten path.”
Another angler atop the points list is John Soukup. With a mixed practice, Soukup is going to keep his weigh predictions the same and catch as many fish as he can catch.
“Practice was rough for me; I broke down on day two and had to borrow another boat. Day three was a good practice day. I think it’s still going to take 58 to 60-pounds to win, 46.5-pounds to make a top ten, and 38-pounds to cash a check.”
Tied for second-place in Progressive AOY with Soukup, Keith Carson is also looking away from the ledge game. It’s not that they won’t be caught deep, but pressure and timing will be the keys. Like some others, Carson feels comfortable shallow and if there are fish to be caught, Carson will find them.
“My practice deep and offshore was very difficult, so I will be fishing shallow all day. I doubt I’ll go deeper than 2-feet. To win, I think you need 57-pounds, with 38-pounds getting a check.”
David Gaston also didn’t have a great practice, but that isn’t going to get him down. Gaston is still predicting over 56-pounds to win and is planning to bounce around both shallow and deep to manage what fish he does have.
“It hasn’t bene a good week of practice for me so I’ll be looking forward to what I can put together tomorrow on the water.”
An angler much more local to Pickwick than the rest, Chad Aaron says he didn’t hardly even make a cast in practice to keep his fish fresh for the event.
“I didn’t fish very much at all in practice and mainly graphed and watched other guys to see what stuff was going to get beat up. I feel pretty good about catching fish but the big bites may be hard to come by.”
Planning to fish both deep and shallow like Gaston, Aaron is predicting lower weights in the 54.5-pound range and says to get a check, 13-pounds a day will get it done.
“I’m sure you heard it before, but proper timing is going to be crucial this week.”
Landon Tucker is no stranger to the offshore bite and was seen making a top ten at Lake Eufaula fishing brush piles. This week, Tucker is doing “something unlike anyone else.”
Not wanting to go into details, respectively, Tucker is confident he can easily catch 12 to 22-pounds fishing offshore, and one or two big bites is the difference in his range of weight. He did note, he is exclusively offshore, as expected.
How to Watch
Tune in daily July 15th through the 17th to thenationalprofessionalfishingleague.com to watch daily LIVE Coverage, the LIVE Leaderboard, LIVE Blog, and daily on the water photo galleries of the anglers on the Pickwick Lake.
Under the Go Live Tab, choose LIVE Broadcast with links to the real-time LIVE Leaderboard with estimated weights entered by the anglers.
See the Results from Harris Chain of Lakes, here!
