Story by Justin Brouillard | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Throughout practice and during the off day, most of the anglers held to their predictions that the conditions on Lake Amistad would present challenges and big bites would be hard to come by. The interesting thing is most anglers also were hoping that stable water levels and warm temperatures would kick start the bass and turn on the bite. That is exactly what happened on day one.
Leader Brandon Perkins had one of his best tournament days ever which included catching his personal best largemouth bass that tipped the scales at over 10 pounds. Despite weighing in 29 pounds, 9 ounces on day one, Perkins was a bit disappointed in his day overall, and lack of bites, and expected to have more bigger bites running a pattern he dialed in on the last two days of practice.
As the water warms, what Perkins is targeting may go away, and he is preparing to adapt to those potential changes for day two, rigging up some different baits to have ready as needed.
“I caught them all on only one bait (on day one), but as things are changing I am probably going to have to catch them a little differently,” said Perkins, last night. “I did catch the big fish a little differently than how I have been fishing, but tomorrow I am going to swap up my rotation a bit and see if I can take advantage of what fish are left.”
Behind him, John Cox is a shallow fish’s worst nightmare. Making his living around the bank and shallow cover, Cox had a tough practice and was disappointed coming into day one. He put himself in high percentage areas and focused on big fish baits and caught staging fish ready to move in to spawn.
Like Perkins, Cox is unsure of how things may change and is hopeful that more bass will move up to refresh the areas he is fishing. Cox covered a ton of water on day one and expects more of the same to begin day two.
In third place, Patrick Walters is fishing a section of the lake with a big population of bass. He caught fish at every stop and moved around a bunch to try and run into big fish. Randy Sullivan relied on a local community hole to catch his fish and spent a portion of his day practicing for day two. Darrel Robertson, despite boat problems, got going with a finesse approach and is targeting specific-looking spots he can replicate all over the lake.
The top five anglers after day one:
Brandon Perkins 29-9
John Cox 27-14
Patrick Walters 21-15
Randy Sullivan 19-15
Darrel Robertson 19-5
See the full Official Day One leaderboard.
Weather Watch
Day two begins with clear skies and temperatures in the mid 60s. Unlike on day one, the anglers will have mostly sunny conditions all day long with highs in the low 80s. Winds are expected to blow 15 to 20 mph from the Northwest.
How to Watch
Tune in daily from March 7 through 9 to watch daily action from Lake Amistad with Live Coverage here and on the FREE PHYX TV App.
Follow along and watch the daily LIVE Leaderboard, LIVE Blog, and on-the-water photo galleries and blogs of the anglers on Lake Amistad.
Under the Go Live Tab, choose LIVE Broadcast or check out the real-time leaderboard on the Weigh Live Tracker with estimated weights entered by the anglers on the water and join us for the LIVE Weigh-ins, here!
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Event Information, here.
