Story by Justin Brouillard | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
With 25 pounds, 4 ounces, Georgia pro Trent Palmer takes the Day One lead at stop number four of the NPFL season on Saginaw Bay. Building on his success over the past two seasons, including his 2023 victory, Palmer picked up right where he left off this morning as he eyes back-to-back wins.
“Today was special. I knew in practice what I wanted to do and pretty much ignored my areas from the past, figuring the fish would still be around there,” Palmer said. “One day, I sampled it quick and caught a big one, but overall, I found four or five more areas that I didn’t even touch today.”
Palmer, who owns and operates Sonar Pros in Georgia, remains confident in his plan, and with the weather forecasted to cooperate, he’s optimistic about continuing to target and catch quality bass over the next two days.
“I caught my weight—over 25 pounds—pretty quickly this morning, which allowed me to relax and do some more scouting,” he added. “I wasn’t fishing hard, but I did fish some throughout the day and ended up catching another 23.5 pounds or so of fish that wouldn’t help. I wandered around my area and tried to learn more about it.”
While more anglers are focusing on smallmouth, Palmer was able to fish away from the crowd on Day One. He’s working through a variety of depth ranges and feels that, despite some fish being caught shallow, the types of areas he’s targeting don’t really align with a specific depth.
“Where I am, I’m able to catch them at whatever depth, and it’s definitely more about the area than anything,” said Palmer. Today, I had my spot to myself today, and I’m not sure about the other spots as I didn’t have to move much. The wind the next few days looks fine; I’m not concerned. Today was the worst wind day, so I should be fine to get out there and fish—I’m looking forward to it.”
Kevin Martin
With a total of 23 pounds, 5 ounces, and a lunker 6-pound, 13-ounce smallmouth, Kevin Martin has positioned himself in the second-place spot on Day One at Saginaw Bay. After finishing 3rd in 2022 and 13th in 2023, Martin is off to a solid start as he aims for another strong performance in Bay City.
Martin has targeted both smallmouth and largemouth over the past couple of years at Saginaw Bay, but this time around, it was all about the brown ones. Out of all three days of practice, aside from two hours, he focused his efforts offshore.
“The first year (2022), I had a good finish with largemouth. Last year, I fished a bit of both, but knew in order to win, I would need to target smallmouth, so that’s what I did,” Martin said. “Going into this morning, I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew I was around some good fish.”
The Ohio angler admits he was fishing among some other anglers but slipped off throughout the day to a different area, where he managed to hook the big bass of the day, a 6-pound, 13-ounce smallmouth, by making a small bait adjustment.
“Overall, I have some different depth ranges I’m fishing, and the majority of my fish came from one, but the big fish was a little different,” he added. “I’m not getting a lot of bites, but like the others, I’m looking for them on FFS.”
Looking ahead to the final two days, Martin is optimistic about his chances but understands the bite will get tougher with added pressure, and hopes some of his other areas will pay off.
“I have some other spots, but I have one that’s really good, and I didn’t need to go there today,” he said. “I had a good bag, so there was no reason to burn fish. With the wind expected to blow south tomorrow, I know some spots may be blown out, but some won’t—I’ll be okay.”
Brock Bila sits in eighth place with a Day One weight of 20 pounds, 8 ounces, and is the highest-finishing NPFL Bass Cats Boats angler. With his 6-pound, 13-ounce smallmouth, Kevin Martin holds the big bass of the event, hosted by Bay City, Michigan.
Top Ten Anglers:
Trent Palmer 25-4
Kevin Martin 23-5
Gary Adkins 23-3
Jesse Wise 22-14
Zack Birge 22-11
Kyle Welcher 22-10
Jason Williamson 21-1
Brock Bila 20-8
Matt Looney 19-14
Drew Cook 19-9
