Lake Murray MLF BPT

[KHNC]

Starts this week. Couple of the guys staying at our house at the lake all week. Just wanted to start a thread if anyone wants to keep it update or has thoughts to share. I fished saturday, but didnt do to well. Did some cranking but it was pretty slow day with only a couple keepers. Water is 55 as of yesterday morning. 

[KHNC]

Dang, these guys practice daylight to dark!! Impressive for sure. Guess when you do it for a living you take advantage of everything you can. 

[TnRiver46]

I practice from daylight to dark as well, only difference is I don’t fish tournaments 😂 

[Jar11591]

Looking cold and windy out there. 

[KHNC]

5 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Looking cold and windy out there. 

20-25 mph gale winds today. Makes Murray a rough bish!! However, most of the upper leaders are fishing right out in the worst of it. Crankbaits and chatterbaits seem to be doing good. Most of the field used their FFS in period one. Edwin Evers scoped a 7-2!! The guys staying at my place are pretty far down in the standings as of 3rd period. 

[Jar11591]

Looks like everybody is cranking. 

[treble hook]

Makes me want to go buy a red crank bait.

[Jar11591]

The one Sprague was throwing (I think it was Sprague) pretty sure was either a DT-8 or DT-10 in Demon color. 

[Tennessee Boy]

The scopers are killing it this morning but Sprague is holding his own with his crankbait.  This is fun to watch.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Wonder why DC is fishing so poorly this year.   Very surprising.  

[A-Jay]

With a 33 lb opening period so far

and moving all the way up into 3rd place this morning is 

Mr Jacob Wheel.

Perhaps you have heard of him.

A-Jay

[KHNC]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

The scopers are killing it this morning but Sprague is holding his own with his crankbait.  This is fun to watch.

Sprague is fishing a creek that is ALWAYS my first stop this time of year. It can get crowded during the spawn though. Interesting thing is , he is running the red CB thru grass between the docks. Not targeting rocks or wood, just the grass. He is doing great! Very cool to see him fishing spots that I know well. As big as Murray is, and as long as I have fished it, it is still hard to recognize a lot of areas they are fishing.

 

Anyone know why there is only 66 competitors? Did Boyd run them all off? 

[A-Jay]

While not really a huge Jeff Sprague fan,

I am Really enjoying watching him hook, fight and land fish

on gear that requires him to actually fight the fish

That slow & steady landing style seen this morning is something

that works for me as well.  @JHoss

Doesn't hurt that he's also bumping into several genuine quality bass either. 

A-Jay

[Jar11591]

What a charge by Wheeler! Looks like he’s hooked into a striper now though. 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, KHNC said:

Sprague is fishing a creek that is ALWAYS my first stop this time of year. It can get crowded during the spawn though. Interesting thing is , he is running the red CB thru grass between the docks. Not targeting rocks or wood, just the grass. He is doing great! Very cool to see him fishing spots that I know well. As big as Murray is, and as long as I have fished it, it is still hard to recognize a lot of areas they are fishing.

 

Anyone know why there is only 66 competitors? Did Boyd run them all off? 

I believe so, even less of them next year 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Wheeler learned from his mistake at stage 2.......he wants no part of winning the knockout stage and earning a bye. 

 

I bet we see that go away next season.   As the season goes on, guys are going to be fighting each other to not end up in 1st place.  

 

eta:  watching Drew Gill fish without the scope is like watching a duck walk on land 😁

[A-Jay]

18 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Wheeler learned from his mistake at stage 2.......he wants no part of winning the knockout stage and earning a bye. 

 

I bet we see that go away next season.   As the season goes on, guys are going to be fighting each other to not end up in 1st place.  

 

eta:  watching Drew Gill fish without the scope is like watching a duck walk on land 😁

Agreed ~ 

Having some trouble with the whole hard target casting thing. 

#wideright

A-Jay

[Jar11591]

Drew Gill wants to “satiate his primitive desire to catch a big one on a buzzbait in March”. I get it. Not something I’ve done but it get the primitive desire part 

[Tennessee Boy]

52 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Wheeler learned from his mistake at stage 2.......he wants no part of winning the knockout stage and earning a bye. 

 

I think Wheeler is always fishing for a win and skipping the knockout hurts your chances of winning.  There are many anglers that will not turn down guaranteed top ten money.

[Craig P]

3 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Wonder why DC is fishing so poorly this year.   Very surprising.  

 

New parent syndrome I'm thinking.  I see it happen in professional sports often.  The first year of becoming a parent is a huge adjustment.  2nd year, they're back to normal.

[KHNC]

Camera coverage is terrible so far. Only a very SMALL percentage of even the top 10 are getting any coverage. Boyd only afford to pay like 5 camera guys today? 😄

Guys like Marty Robinson, Bryan Thrift and many others. Barely even getting a mention at all. Andy Morgan and Michael Neal barely catching anything at all today. The are in like 52-53 position and will be eliminated. Michael finished 3rd here last time and Andy typically does well. Not sure what happened to them. 

[GReb]

3 hours ago, KHNC said:

Camera coverage is terrible so far. Only a very SMALL percentage of even the top 10 are getting any coverage. Boyd only afford to pay like 5 camera guys today? 😄

Guys like Marty Robinson, Bryan Thrift and many others. Barely even getting a mention at all. Andy Morgan and Michael Neal barely catching anything at all today. The are in like 52-53 position and will be eliminated. Michael finished 3rd here last time and Andy typically does well. Not sure what happened to them. 

The lack of cameras is a big problem. The need at least 10. 
 

I believe in elimination days they put cameras in the boats fighting for that position. The guys at the top are just running new water practicing for tomorrow. 

[ryanerb]

6 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

What a charge by Wheeler! Looks like he’s hooked into a striper now though. 

scoretracker is showing wheeler caught zero fish without live scope?

pretttty wild.

shows you how much so many anglers seem to be relying on live scope, and two other periods they flat out blank? hmmmmm maybe i'm missing something... 

[A-Jay]

4 hours ago, KHNC said:

Camera coverage is terrible so far. Only a very SMALL percentage of even the top 10 are getting any coverage.

We get what we pay for, which is to say this whole deal is free for the viewer.

Apparently, MLF ownership doesn't feel the need to give up their advertising $$$ for more coverage. 

Would you pay a subscription fee for better coverage ?

A-Jay

[GReb]

30 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

We get what we pay for, which is to say this whole deal is free for the viewer.

Apparently, MLF ownership doesn't feel the need to give up their advertising $$$ for more coverage. 

Would you pay a subscription fee for better coverage ?

A-Jay

Good question. If it were say $100 per year for all the BPT, invitationals, cups, etc I’d have no problem with that.