Story by Justin Brouillard | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
With 29 pounds, 9 ounces to kick off the Epic Baits NPFL championship, Brandon Perkins takes the day one lead. Anchored by his personal best bass weighing 10 pounds, 6 ounces, Perkins turned his slow start this morning into a magical day on Lake Amistad.
“I had a good last two days of practice and felt like I could catch some good fish today,” said Perkins. “My problem is, the way I am fishing, sort of a pre-spawn deal, is that with the water warming and conditions getting right, it’s not going to last for me.”
Perkins started this morning on one of his four “main areas” and left early a bit disappointed. On his second stop, he filled in his bag with solid fish, but not as expected. On the third stop, the magic started to happen.
“I caught a 20-pound bag in that area which calmed me down a bit,” added Perkins. “At that point, I debated going to my fourth spot or saving it. It’s my best area and I figured with the conditions changing, I should go and burn it down and I am glad I did.”
Perkins was able to not only fill out his limit with better quality bass but added his personal best fish to the bag giving him over a 7-pound cull late in the day.
“The lord blessed me today; I just hope with things changing I can catch some of these bigger fish before they abandon my areas and move back to spawn. I am going to change it up tomorrow after fishing one bait all day today. I might try and follow some fish back; we will see.”
John Cox
Florida angler John Cox caught 27 pounds, 14 ounces on day one to finish in second place to start the championship. Known as a sight fishing expert, Cox focused his efforts off the bank targeting “pre-swawn” fish waiting to move up.
“I was looking at local Redfish Tournaments last night and was ready to quit after practice,” laughed Cox. “It has been tough on me and today, I just ran around and threw Berkley baits at them. I only caught like six or seven all day, but they were the right ones.”
Patrick Walters
With a 21-pound, 15-ounce start on day one, Patrick Walters starts the championship in the third place spot. Mixing his day up by fishing specific spots and covering water, Walters is looking forward to getting out on day two.
“I planned on catching a bunch of fish, but today was a really good day,” said Walters. “The trick is weeding through bass to find the bigger bites, but I caught fish everywhere I went today. I believe I am catching a mix of fish staging to spawn and fish that are starting to spawn now.”
Randy Sullivan
With 19 pounds, 15 ounces on day one, Texas angler Randy Sullivan finished the day in the fourth place spot. With a ton of history on Amistad, Sullivan has so shortage of spots to fish, but after a tough practice, he settled into a familiar area and went to work.
“It was tougher for me and I just got into a few places and dragged around on the bottom,” said Sullivan. “I am fishing a community hole, but with the smaller field, not many people know about it. There is grass in the area and I am not fishing the grass, but there are a lot of fish using it.”
Sullivan backed off his area early in the day to save some stuff for the rest of the week, but based on the weights, he knows having a backup area will help keep him in the hunt for the next two days.
“There are big populations of fish that live deeper, and I found a group of over a hundred this afternoon,” he added. “In the past, I have caught some good fish out there but they are hard to catch right now. I need to get that going so I have more places to rotate this week.”
Darrel Robertson
Despite boat problems to begin his morning, Darrel Robertson landed 19 pounds, 5 ounces of bass, with a 5-pound, 13-ounce kicker to start the NPFL championship in the fifth place spot. Robertson used clues from practice to fish similar-looking water to catch his fish and is looking forward to getting out on day two.
“It was a lot better than I expected today, but I did see some big ones in practice that got me going in the right direction,” said Robertson. “This morning, my trolling motor wouldn’t work, so I drove back to the ramp and got a loaner boat. I have to thank Brad and the crew for getting my boat going again.”
Robertson is moving around targeting specific-looking areas and fishing slowly with finesse baits. His two biggest fish and another four-pounder came from areas he never saw in practice, and tomorrow he is expecting to do more of the same.
“I will run some of the same water and more new water,” he added. “I didn’t hurt anything today so I should be able to rotate through. We’re going to catch some tomorrow!”
Rest of the Best:
Kevin Martin 18-9
Dustin Smith 18-6
Jesse Wise 18-2
Trent Palmer 18-0
Louis Fernandes 17-7