2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster OPENS LIVE (SAM RAYBURN FINAL DAY)

live [Music] welcome to the final day action of the 2020 basspro.com bassmaster central open here at sam rayburn reservoir jasper texas is the host location and it is the final day of action we've cut the field and we have the top 12 pros and co anglers vying for a victory today some guys have classic births on the line some guys want to gather as many points towards an elite series berth and here's the rules of the game like i said we cut it down the field from roughly 220 anglers on day one and day two cut it down to just the top 12 on day three three days to fish eight hours today to get it done five fish limit for the pros three fish limit for the co-anglers and at the end of three days the heaviest three-day total weight gets you the victory and we've got a tight competitive top 12. and we say tight you look at the standings and you're like it's ten pound gap from first to tenth how our first and twelfth how is that tight ronnie because sam rayburn has been kicking out some big big weights this week and we'll talk about those weights when we get into it but the location like we said legendary sam rayburn reservoir right there in southeast texas place that's hosted elite series events and opens in the past has been a great destination texas parks and wildlife working with them through texas fest over the years but sam rayburn taking off at the south end of the lake and a lot of our top competitors headed towards the north right there above the main bridges there on the on the main drag of sam rayburn and we're going to go out and check out some of the anglers live out on the water we got to see a little bit on facebook this morning if you joined us some action and we've gotten some good cell coverage with these anglers early on and we have a three box with keith combs josh douglas and masuyuki matsushita you see in your bottom right matsushita he was our day one leader 27 pounds 10 ounces the biggest bag of the week and you can see he started early this morning as the sun was just creeping over the horizon anglers made the run up the lake and started on their offshore brush piles and some of their shallow grass and that's a sheet is obviously fishing offshore and caught a three pounder to start matsushita that was some of his or his catch this morning unofficially would put him in the lead the only angler we haven't heard heard or seen from is our leader daryl gleason but keith combs josh douglas they're all in the similar region and we can break that down we got a lot of time to get to that specific locations and key patterns we'll see that transpire today as we as you see there are obviously two anglers in the boat that's why our cameras will be boat to boat today with the top five anglers we'll get as close as we can and get the details from them and watch it but it is good to see live fishing on the final day of a bass pro.com bassmaster open we had a great time doing this for the arkansas river just a few months ago like i mentioned the top 12 fishing today here's your top 10 leaderboard daryl gleason 44 pounds four ounces after two days of competition that was a 17 pound bag and a 27 pound bag for him masayuki matsushita had a 27-pound bag on day one we see chris wilson unofficially moving from seventh into third josh douglas started our morning in third place he's in fourth right now brian shot keith combs shane campbell logan latusso brian posting gerald swindle we also have albert collins great sam rayburn angler great toledo bend angler he started the morning in 11th we also have jason christie in 12th place and that's our top 12. for the pro side the coes are obviously fishing for prizes as well and we will get to those competitors and we will see them catch them from the back of the boat today it has been a very interesting turn of events we showed the leaderboard there and it hasn't been you know you think about the 44 pounds that's leading it has that been consistent no it hasn't 17 pounds on day one 27 pounds on day two for daryl gleeson matsushita had 27 on day one 15 on day two josh douglas 22 and 19. a lot of these guys have been catching a big bag followed up by a a smaller bag or vice versa and even brian shot he also caught a 27 pound bag on day one followed up with 14 pounds on day two and that was how he got us in our top four you want to eat today i had to you got two bites on it i had a bite on it two [Applause] keith combs you know him from the bassmaster elite series this is his stomping grounds huntington texas near the north side of the lake basically left his house launched at the bottom side of the lake to basically drive by boat to the nearest place to his home my coach got one fish uh about a good three pounder and uh slow morning man just it's slow fishing out here in general on rayburn right now you know if you're if you're doing the right thing to try to catch a big fish um i think you're not gonna get many many bites gonna be long stressful periods with no bites but uh you know we're fishing the fish in a pattern that can produce a you know eight or ten pound fish at any time so we're just going to stick with it all we got to get is five i got a long day and a lot of places to hit but i haven't got one yet keith combs obviously one to fear here in texas and nationwide and he is a two-time elite series champion falcon like the opposite side of texas he got it done there breaking the century mark really telling the world about it we've had a couple great events at falcon and keith combs has been featured in a couple of those and he was able to take that title over rick clun in 2013. an interesting event it actually turned into a five-day event four days of competition but the final day was dusted out a heavy heavy wind storm postponed that day they moved it to the next day and he won it there and then talk about opposite fishing somewhat his second elite series win coming up north at mille lacs lake 2017 angler of the year championship event took the title there but hey similar approach a fantastic offshore angler no surprise to see him be successful there and at falcon fishing offshore no surprise to see him in our top 12 this week at sam rayburn right in his backyard fishing offshore and it's going to be interesting to see how he breaks down the brush this week some of those offshore spots as well that don't have brush but a lot of our anglers concentrating in that that teen depth range you know 13 to 20 feet of water that's where a lot of brush piles are and a lot of timber a lot of wood on sam rayburn and that's where a lot of fish have been caught this week a lot of big ones as well combs we mentioned started the morning in fifth place he had 19 pounds on day one 21 on day two that's about as consistent as it gets for our top 12. it's really been do or die like i mentioned earlier day one weights and day two weights vastly different it will be a saturday on sam rayburn so not only will there be 12 bassmaster opens anglers but there should be plenty of other boats out there fishing as well sand river in a great lake and a tough time of year but a time of year where you really see some of the biggest fish in the lake get caught you see our photographers out on the water as well with our pros documenting it all a lot of these guys lining it up on their electronics knowing where that brush is that they found in practice or in the tournament staying as far away as they possibly can to make an accurate cast and to still fish through that cover and we're gonna see a lot of worms a lot of jigs even some crankbaits with keith combs on camera you know we're going to see some crankbaits for sure there has been definitely a rise of the japanese angler in the bassmaster opens we see takuito on the bassmaster elite series doing well second in the angler of the year first in rookie of the year and he qualified last year through the opens we see guys like masuyuki matsushita we had dice k ayuki at the arkansas river hopefully i said his last name correctly a lot of japanese anglers grace in our top ten week after week on the elite series and the opens they are here to stay and great competitors showing their skill a lot of them fishing offshore that's what they do that's what they've done growing up ooh train wreck out here so combs start of the day less than four pounds back about three pounds three pounds ten ounces three and a half pounds give or take he'll look to make up that gap today masayuki started in second one pound five ounces behind he already has one in the boat to unofficially be in the lead with that three pounder we'll get the bass track totals updated and whatnot throughout the day letting these guys get situated get started on the final day start to formulate the leaderboard and see those weights rise and fall conditions this week have been sunny not a lot of wind the only real wave action you get is from boat traffic they've been pulling the water some it's been dropping level wise each day of competition just slightly but enough to make a difference from when the practice started been hot hot hot temperatures in texas water temperatures in that mid to upper 80s some places 85 86 some places 88 89 degrees that's why a lot of these anglers catching them offshore have been more successful there was a shallow grass bite i heard in practice it's been one that's been utilized it's been getting harder and harder each day for the anglers though with that rising water temperature in certain areas getting hotter a little falling water with the level dropping as well those shallow fish aren't as safe and secure they might want to wander off and move a little deeper and for some of our guys like josh douglas mentioned that his biggest fish of the week they've came off shore but they came in seven to ten feet of water where the rest of his brush piles and stuff that have paid off have been 12 to 20 feet of water those shallowest brush piles he has have yielded some of the biggest fish of the week and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out today it will be an all-day affair though some of these guys took all day long to catch their five keepers that they weighed in some caught on their last stop of the day a six-pounder to call out and head back to weigh in a lot of lost big fish stories this week rayburn has been pumping out some big ones three bags over 27 pounds for the south texas fishery like i mentioned josh douglas josh douglas is cohen they're getting in on the action as well they are fighting for prizes today plenty of opportunity to win for them as well some of these co-anglers use their winnings today and in tournaments this year to propel them to the front of the boat opportunity to be a pro maybe next year in future years weigh in at 2 20. i couldn't call them all day that is mr robert kessler robert kessler fishing with josh douglas from the back of the boat kessler started his final day in seventh place 15 pounds for two days of fishing like we said three fish limit for the co-anglers so catching one means a whole lot more to them than the pro or a third of the way to their limit when they catch one keeper he started today six pounds behind dusty frank had 15 pounds for three fish on day one and then five pounds for three fish on day two oh i like it really what is it kind of casting run casting or spinning boy josh douglas bottom left of your screen you can hear the conversation between him and his co-robert kessler kessler just caught a keeper i believe it's a keeper he's messing with it in the bottom of the boat long enough getting it unhooked and douglas is an interesting one to watch he's doing very well overall in the points race to try to qualify for the elite series and in his career the bassmaster opens he has six top 20 finishes six top 20s a lot of those happened in 2017. a lot of those happen in 2015 as well so close to qualifying both years for the elites just missing out by just a few spots see keith combs co-angler catching one as well that would be keeper number two for his co-angler mr hayden heck started the day in fourth place only about a pound and a half off the lead so that is a good sign for hayden that he's got two fish in the boat only needs one more to have a limit he could be on his way to a co-angler title we've seen big bass this week eight pounds 13 ounces on the co-angler side what is amazing is that that does not guarantee making the cut 8-13 on the co-angler side for ben schuler did not make the cut this week for the top 12. you have to catch them have to get your limit one fish will not do and on the pro side albert collins a living legend in this region of texas texas in general but for sure toledo ben and sam rayburn he caught a nine pound nine pound 12 ouncer yesterday to anchor his 20 pound bag which shows that it wasn't easy out there one fish for nine twelve four fish making up roughly 10 pounds so collins needed that big one to make it to today he did so for by just uh less than half a pound out of here now all right but he's a dangerous one to watch on the final day i said show him the fish hold it up keith comes making a move at the top of your screen i mean his co-angler hayden heck moving on like i said some of these guys are going to be rolling up to their locations their brush piles make three to five casts maybe ten cast at most and then head on to another one especially they have 50 brush piles or so some of these anglers that they'll uh they'll need to catch them by surprise basically don't let them know you're there make a move catch some fish josh douglas on the move as well staying put though he has fished this spot since this morning keeping it honest masayuki will have a shot at the bassmaster classic berth did fish the first one that is in question sometimes for anglers i believe brian shot and shane campbell are our highest two anglers that did not fish the first open so they cannot make the bassmaster classic but masayuki matsushita can make the classic didn't do too great at the arkansas river but as long as you fish them and then get a win in one of them you will be fine he does have a third place finish in 2017 grand lake and in a bassmaster central open and like we said he's part of the contingent that has shown that here they are here to stay and they are competitive the japanese anglers have been fantastic not only at the opens level but on the elite series level we got to see takuito a product of the opens fished last year four opens for him last year qualified for the elites and is making a big splash in his rookie season takuido lake saint claire the northern swing shoot all of 2020. takuito has been fantastic three top tens up north okay [Music] really loving life battling adversity dealing with everything that 2020 has thrown at him and he has stayed put in america to pursue his dream of the elite series a lot of obstacles along the way and he is setting the example anglers before him have set the example given him the dream to come and pursue the elite series goal and he is making that happen in his rookie year setting the stage for a lot of other japanese anglers that are competing at this bassmaster opens level looking to qualify for the elites looking to make the classic looking to make their mark in bass fishing bright young star has been a pleasure to have him on camera as much as we have this year that's a good one yes we've really seen him grow from the first time we had him on camera at the st lawrence river he was calling everything a three pounder to now he'll be a little more honest a little more accurate with us he's confident in himself and his ability and come on come on a lot of these anglers are rooting for each other it is a tight-knit group to take that chance to come from japan to pursue your dreams and fish the bassmaster opens to qualify for the elites this is an awesome group to be a part of it's paying off big time halfway through the season he got his first introduction to a lamprey as well at lake saint claire what's up he had no idea what to do with it but our camera ain't got him situated okay he removed that from the small mouth what do you think good good one [Music] that is just a look into some of the promising japanese anglers we have one on camera today masayuki matsushita and takuito on the bassmaster elite series like we see keith combs josh douglas they have made moves we just saw them pack up just a minute ago and they've already stopped and continued to fish so a lot of guys are going to be hopping and skipping and jumping from one brush pile to another keeping them honest seeing which one has active feeding fish on it like one of the anglers i've interviewed on the phone last night said hey we got to keep them keep them surprised don't stay too long they'll know you're there roll up make the perfect cast see if you can catch the fish and utilize all the practice and time you've put into it looks like josh douglas is hooked up no maybe hung up in the brush his cow angler looks hooked up mr robert kessler that's a good one looks like a good good fish for him those are difference makers on rayburn but really difference makers when there's only a three fish limit for the co-anglers having that be one of your three is going to be fantastic for robert seeing a hayden heck in the back of keith combs boat robert kessler in the back of josh douglas's boat both with two fish in the bow right now all right we're gonna move combs is on the move again so got not only cameras out with the top five but we have photographers and bloggers out with some of our top anglers as well steve bowman is out there with daryl gleeson daryl gleason had a big flotilla of boats this morning follow him to his first area he is a local louisiana texas guy gleason does have two keepers in the boat we'll keep you updated on that hopefully we'll be able to see him he's in this neck of the woods where douglas matsushita keith combs they're all in similar areas of the lake of this big fishery a given area they're all in that same region that seems to be the area right up there where castle boykins is top of the lake where the uh the common popular boat ramp is that's been the the main area so hopefully we'll be able to see that from daryl gleason today he's got two fish in the boat nothing really worth bragging about but they are place keepers they are holding a spot in his limit once you get a limit you can worry about getting rid of the small ones but it's important to have a limb in the boat so so good nerves are in the air this morning it's the final day of the basspro.com bassmaster opens a lot of quiet anglers who are just trying to feel their way through this morning portion make sure they execute when they can because it has a long day it's not been easy out on sam rayburn but the big fish have been active and have been caught this week that's why no one in the top 12 is out of it even if you're nine pounds and change back like jason christie is in 12th with 27 pound bags swimming around 30 pound bags a lot of those guys that have had the greatest days of anyone on rayburn this week have said they could have been even better slight mistakes misfortune caused those to be uh 27 instead of 30 pound days lots of is co-anglers hooked up go go stuck that fish or not oh daryl gleason getting a first look at him we'll show you some footage today we're gonna take commercial breaks every 30 minutes today and when we come back we will see plenty of action make sure you join us darrell gleason hoping to go to another bassmaster classic the 2019 opens winner at toledo bend looking to win not far from his home over at sam rayburn this week and if he can do so possibly punch his ticket to another bassmaster classic there's our leaderboard the top 10 unofficially right now we'll see right after commercial break join in just a few minutes bassmaster.com the nationwide bassmaster opens live is brought to you by power pole [Music] skeeter boats [Music] yamaha and by toyota we will be able to see what's going on each and every moment um from here until weigh-in as we're checking out masayuki matsushita i'm not going to ask you to pronounce that brian he started quick this morning with a three pounder and word from the water was he caught a five to six pounder to back it up for number two he's got some good quality there he does have some and that's the some of these guys have been filling their limits pretty quick with those one to two pounders those don't help you a lot of these guys have maybe been riding it around all day long to catch their five biggest ones you know some of those guys catching a six pounder at their last stop of the day to fill their limit there's it's kind of a two strategy deal right that usually occurs when you're fishing a lot of offshore stuff yeah and we'll get into it for sure with with you brian you know that some of these brush piles don't have any bait don't have any bass they're just a tree underwater and some will have the bait the bass aren't there yet and some have a mixture of both and those ones that have have the bait and the bass are the ones that you want to be around here's that big one that we talked about yes oh yes that is a good one yes i think that's over [Laughter] five yes i agree brian he called it a five i definitely could see that being a six pounder and sitting there with two fish in the boat right now unofficially on bass track and that's you know he started one pound five ounces behind that is literally nothing on this lake we said first through twelfth all the way down from daryl gleason to jason christie nine pounds 14 ounces nine pounds 12 ounces that seems like a big big margin when 27 pounds is a big bag here and when a 912 is the big bass for the week that is we always say it on the elite series if you are within the weight of the single biggest bass in the tournament so far you have a chance to win and that's what first to 12th is today well you see that a lot you know this year for 10th place guys eighth place guys coming back to win and you know i like his strategy though he's definitely doing the quality versus quantity and i think you know when fishing's a little tougher this time of year that's one of the best ways to approach that one of the hardest things it seems at least in late late summer like we are you know it's it's still hot in texas the water temp's still in the high 80s the deal is though you're going to catch a big bag one day and you can't follow it up with consistency you know we've seen uh masayuki have 2710 on day one and then 15 pounds yesterday we saw daryl gleason have 17 pounds on day one and then 27 pounds yesterday so how is i mean it's hard to have a set weight for these guys on the final day because you've caught one almost 30 pounds and you've caught one in the teens it's like you gotta find at least 20 pounds even is probably your goal but even then it might not be enough right and you know what happens a lot of times it's just it's just it's a timing thing and their rotation so if you can get the right rotation you get those 25 26 27 pound stringers and then you're down to that 12 to 15 if you have a wrong rotation and you know it's a lot of it's the conditions slick calm's not real great for brush pile fishing it looks like they've got a great day out there with just enough chop break up that surface water but still be able to position that boat correctly we have had high suns if i can get that out we've had high suns all week those 90 degree temperatures that we totally expect in the summer here and like you said brian offshore fishing some of those schools on those brush piles might be grouped up size wise you roll up to a brush pile can maybe catch two eight pounders or you roll up to a brush pile and catch a bunch of two pounders it's kind of hard to tell for you do you like to pull up like some of these guys are and just stay all day or stay for a good hour on a brush pile or are you one of those guys that likes to run uh and and hit it with three to five casts and then keep running because we're seeing uh daryl gleason our leader right now most of the time you kind of let the fish tell you how fast to move you know you don't want to leave someplace that the fish are biting especially if they're better than average size so i'm going to stay longer if they're the three plus pound fish i'm gonna move a lot quicker when they're that two pound and three quarters to two and a half pound fish um and a lot of times with electronics now you know we've we've got such great electronics that we're able to see how many fish are around those brush piles and know exactly what we were fishing down there and that kind of also dictates how long i stay if i see more fish a lot of times i'll stay longer even if i'm not getting a it a lot of these anglers explained on the phone to me that hey i've got a bunch of brush piles i've got a bunch of waypoints that i found in practice that are marked with a green tree and when i catch a fish off of them in a tournament i mark them as a red tree so that i can tell you still might try those green trees on the final day you know some fresh brush piles that you haven't tried but how often times do you when dwindle your waypoints down from maybe 50 60 brush piles and you're going to have your rotation of maybe 10 on that final day the ones that have really been good to you yeah and that happens a lot you know you go out there and you're trying to find as many as you can in practice because you don't know what the potential of those are but once you start bearing down in the tournaments and actually catching fish from there you'll find those brush piles that are really holding the fish versus the ones that maybe only have one or two on it and i'm sure that's what they're doing is the last day they're going to key in on those brush piles that have definitely produced throughout the week and they may add one or two new ones to the mix that's either on the way to the next good one or one that they they caught some in practice and kind of saving it for the last day uh you know if a guy is familiar with the lake which several of these top 12 anglers are you know they're going to save a few for the last day daryl gleason our day two leader right there top left your screen currently third place he called them purple piles brian every single waypoint he's changed to the color purple has been good to him this week and he's got a key one that he's caught two fish over eight pounds on yesterday 27 pounds brought to the scales and that's why he took the lead that was a 9-7 and an 8-11 he had a 9-7 and a ladle 8-11 up to anchor his back i think he caught an eight on day one on a brush pile and that 8-11 on the other brush pile the 970 came from another place but i said hey when you roll up to that brush pile let me know today let me know on camera so we can be ready is he going to give the thumbs up for that yeah he said he was going to like twitch maybe like you know shake his lower half or something a little different but i don't know maybe maybe audibly that would be good if he did let us know he seems fairly calm so i don't know if he's on the nine pile i would be i would be shaking with every cast for sure and i think uh gleason with with the small ones in the boat this morning steve bowman's been out on the water covering him he's one that's very interesting because he is a guide on toledo and sam rayburn but he tours nationally fishes fishes across the country and fishes all the opens as well made the bassmaster classic this year and fished at guntersville via an open win at toledo bend last year so for someone you probably think that when a tournament comes to table rock brian's i want to be in the mix for someone to be a local but also a national angler to compete at toledo and sam rayburn and and beat some of the best of the best that fish it it's got to feel good well you know it always does and you know people think you get to fish your home lake a lot um when you're traveling fishing the tour and then the opens he's got a busy schedule and he probably guides half on rayburn half on toledo bend so you really you know you spend some time on your local lakes but not as much as people think we've got a couple familiar faces keith combs top right bassmaster elite series pro two-time champion there oh and he's always deadly in texas isn't he yes i said that he drove from his home south to take off and then got in his boat and drove back up to the north side of the lake not far from his home uh on the lake when you consider it there but between gleason combs a lot of experience here and then uh masayuki he is an opens pro fished here for a little while brian shot he is not far he's a local from sam rayburn as well and he definitely looks to be the shallowest out of the group he said he was going to mix it up today he was really non-committal on what he was going to do wasn't fishing exactly shallow not fishing completely deep but he's mixing it up pretty good bit and brian i appreciate you joining us we're gonna we're gonna continue this live coverage and we're gonna go to commercial break real quick thank you for joining us sorry for the technical difficulties we're glad to be back watching these anglers fish as we go to commercial break look at our unofficial top 10 right now masayuki matt sashida i'm going to leave that to you brian next segment shane campbell local down at the south end of rayburn gerald swindle making a run he's in third place from the 10th place starting spot harold gleason brian shot and the rest of our anglers we'll see five of them live when we get back from commercial break join us just a little bit from now bassmaster live on bassmaster.com the nationwide bassmaster opens live is brought to you by humminbird mercury minn kota and by talon you're watching the nationwide bassmaster opens live or welcome back to the final day action sam raymond reservoir the bass pro.com bassmaster central open jasper texas is our host and here's your unofficial top 10 right now masayuki matsushita i said i was going to let you do it i took it off the top shane campbell local product down at the south part of the south end of rayburn he's in second place right now we should keep an eye out for him gerald swindle bassmaster lead series pro moved up from 10th to third place unofficially daryl gleason our day two leader dropped back to fourth and brian shot is in fifth place rounding out our top five right now and we mentioned it masayuki matsushita had a 27 pound bag on day one was our day one leader biggest bag of the tournament 27-10 started quick with about a three pounder this morning yeah then it went slo-go for a little while until this second keeper brian we get to see this last segment oh look at this one oh no he's not swinging it in the boat as you noticed yes i found though and then moments ago it looks like a good one yeah looked like he he did get it stuck in the brush and you could see it oh spots three keepers in the boat for masayuki and then there's our day two leader daryl gleason the local toledo bend sam rayburn product was was that a spinning reel i saw i think so he's been using since my first day using a drop shot a little bit keith combs we know him from the bassmaster elite series we got to see him catch a few this morning this was earlier today during during the period when we had technical difficulties and i'm going to show you that now you want to say he's throwing a crank bait oh no he's not he's got a little bit yeah that has been the bait it's gonna be a big one overall i've heard from the top 12 more than any other bait football jig football jig football jig it's funny how some guy oh josh douglas as well he is one who's mixed in a big worm a jig drop shot but then also had a swim bait and a crank bait you know when he's when he's as far as he can get away from the brush piles yeah it was like a funk you know that yeah that's gonna be all right that's an all-right one maybe if that's his smallest or is his fourth his fourth biggest in his bag whatever like we said brian snowden joining us in studio thanks for making the drive down from table rock i appreciate you coming down and obviously you fish sam rayburn quite a bit with the elite series and throughout texas fest and other events it's a place that you're never out of it always big bag potential it definitely does you know just any any cast could be a nine pounder and that's that's what's so great about this lake and as you can see you saw some guys move up the leaderboard they're definitely within striking distance swindle's done a great job of moving up only a few ounces out of first place so that's what keeps it interesting you always know that it's going to come down to the wire on sam rayburn i wanted to ask all the guys what was their target weight uh going into the final day but it's very difficult when most of the guys have had 24 25 27 pound bags and then followed them up with 14 15 16. they got to find some kind of consistency and it hasn't been a big change up in weather it's been the same weather the last two days of competition it's just the rotation like you said sometimes you start on stuff day one and you don't need to start on it you need to end on it and do your rotation backwards the next day and then all of a sudden you have a giant bag some guys very confused they run the same rotation and it just doesn't yield that maybe you're fishing behind other anglers that fish those brush piles as well yeah and you know it's such a difficult time of year you know it's one of those times a year that's always challenging so this has been an impressive tournament for this time of year you know with the weights they've caught and uh i think you're going to see the end today you know the guy that comes out on top is definitely going to have to have over 20 pounds i feel like this is a good precursor to what the three event elite series stretch is going to be at guntersville santee cooper and lake chickamauga where guys will catch 20 25 pounds and then and then have 12 the next day and then or some guys bring in three for 16 just to certain you know they that's all they caught that day and but they're big ones because these lakes have them they start to show up this time of the year as that fall is is approaching is encroaching um but it's still not easy to pinpoint them daily right it's just it's just the time of year and the water's still so warm you know if we were here when the water was in the 60s you'd see a lot more of those big fish caught but um they're doing an excellent job you know working this the structure that they've got and the fish that want to cooperate and i think that's why you've seen some of the guys start using some spinning you know spinning equipment with a drop shot they've pounded on these brush piles for a while and now they're getting those drop shot finesse techniques down we've got a double right now with daryl gleason and his co-angler let me see who that co-angler is with him he was not coming off daryl gleason and ken sanders this one was too as soon as he got to the boat sanders started his day in eighth gerald with the lead co-anglers are randomly paired with the pros it's not always the best going there with the best pro it's random oh yeah looks like he's got a pretty decent one on here you know it's it it's really amazing you can throw a lot of different baits into a brush pile and not get a bite but the drop shot always seems to produce some fish it just day in and day out is the most consistent technique when you're fishing structure a lot of numbers not always the biggest ones but when you need to catch some fish i always have it ready to go and for some of these guys who have been using it to get a better than average fish or uh once these brush piles get pounded to pick up an extra bite josh douglas mentioned yesterday on the phone he lost an eight-pounder on a drop shot yesterday he set the hook it went the other way through the brush pile came up jumped and his line was in the brush pile as the fish was out fought with it for ten minutes couldn't get it out and ended up just sawing off his line and that's a heartbreaker for him somebody who's in you know a pound and a half two pounds out of the lead pounder and weight in a two and three corner yeah it's very difficult but daryl he told me on the phone and i'm going to call him out on this he said i'm going to lock a football jig in my hand all day and now we've seen a drop shot until he gets a limit of course and when he gets the limit he will probably uh try to call up specifically with that and we saw him catch two on the spinning yes gleason said uh i think he's caught three on day one on a football jig and then he caught all five yesterday and that's the difference in 17 pounds and 27 pounds having all five of your bites come on a football jig he's throwing a three-quarter ounce v m football jig with a problem then j bug on the back and gleason's candy has his own it's always good when you can catch them on your own right signature color and that's one thing he sent me the photo last night well he probably knows what colors you know work best down there because he pushes it all the time we're watching daryl gleason on the left josh douglas on the right douglas is one of those opens pros that has fished so many years and has been so close to elite series qualification missed out on the classic just narrowly in events he's got six top twenties in the opens and he's missed the points race by less than five spots at least three or four times doing very well in the points race i teased it up a little earlier especially to you brian i said we got to see daryl catch a giant on day two he caught a 9-7 and an 8-11 and he was kind enough to send us that footage yesterday and this is one of his what he calls an ocean pony some guys call him giants some guys call him launches he calls it an ocean pony yeah his ocean pony's way out there do you see that it was it jumped a couple times during this fish and he's barefooted you know what i mean you gotta love that look at that [Music] [Applause] oh lord oh get your football jig wow listen oh as much as his dog does so i don't know if his dog is eight eleven or nine seven but that is a really good one and that was he had the phoenix boats big bass of the tournament for a little bit there at 9-7 until albert collins came invested when that nine twelve doesn't that make you feel sick you catch a nine and a half pounder and don't win big bass for the tournament that's gotta be brutal yeah one time at falcon i had a 12 7 or something no big bass can you believe that the biggest one i've ever weighed in we just had a two box with daryl gleason and josh douglas and wanted to show you that catch from gleeson and here's a live here's another drop shot a live catch from josh like we mentioned on a drop shot he's one of those minnesota pros loves spinning spinning gear when he can use it a little bigger than he thought there that rub rail always gets in the way another solid one from him but we've seen we went down yesterday we've seen giants and and dinks with these guys and he's caught two in the last couple of minutes that are you know two and a half to three pounds you know he's got the largemouth on the drop shot where a lot of the other guys were catching the spotted bass which you know definitely is not what you want to have in your bag when you're at sam rayburn what the hell is going on top of his head seriously there's like it's like there's a cave inside that thing and if i can get it to fall in there it'll bite it looks like he's warning two pounds maybe dang it two for three and a quarter two for three and a quarter three in a two for three and a quarter no not three and a quarter no i might need to check my scale after that douglas said to me that the lake's about two and a half three feet low uh surprising with with the hurricane that came through the lake charles region just just east of where sam rayburn is he said not a lot of those uh not a lot of those places necessarily drained into rayburn that had all that flooding you know and if they did rayburn was prepared for it and already had water pulling and moving and that's a couple locals said a couple of my favorite areas on rayburn are destroyed because the amount of current that they pulled in anticipation of the current of the floods actually moved the bro he's i don't know where the brush is like it's gone like it's it's some the brush piles actually gone from those spots but now it's now it's three feet low from when practice started the grass had more water on it and he said he tried it for two days but it was work like it was hard work to catch five fish out of the grass that were you know 15 pounds so he said he started graphing and did nothing but graphing for two days of practice and has found 50 50 brush piles that he thought were solid caught a seven pounder out of one of them in practice and didn't fish any more and so then he went on faith of what he saw in his brush piles and like you said it's those ones that have bluegill around them or bait around them or the ones that have fish activity some are spotted by some are largemouth that's really important dialing that in well with the lake falling that should just only help out the brush piles you know i really thought we would see a lot more cranking that seven to nine foot grass line but i think due to the water falling so rapidly that it moved them out of the grassland edge on out into the deeper brush piles looks like gleeson caught another one on a drop shot there keith combs his co-angler hayden heck he's done good this will be his third keeper i believe of the of the deal which is his limit for a coming three fish limit he'll him and combs will be released and hayden hex got an opportunity started the day in fourth one pound 12 ounces out of the lead three fish limit he had like uh he had a oh he's calling right now oh yeah he's definitely gonna move up he definitely will he'll really have a good shot at winning this he's one of those guys who had a big bag he had 13 11 yesterday with three fish that is a good day holmes is hooked up they've found a spot obviously with similar sized fish yeah i've seen all the dudes i seen them here on the graph when i looked at this spot thing you've got to watch with keith is it just takes him about 15 minutes in the right spot i've seen him do it on lake fork i've seen him do it on conroe um he's pretty deadly when that crankbait's in play some guys are deadly when they're on the water for eight hours and some are deadly when they get a couple casts yeah the right spot at a certain spot yeah he's got plenty of those right spots it's which ones which one's firing when he pulls up looks a little busy out there today yeah it's sam rayburn no no saturday we should i feel like we're going to see daryl gleason put this spinning rod down and i say that even though he started catching fish on it because he'll be getting close to his limit he'll fill his limit pretty soon and then he'll he'll realize hey if i can't cull one and a half with two and a half's with a spinning rod i need to just throw that football jig now well you know his confidence has got to be really high in catching another quality fish like he did the first day i believe you know you must be using morning dawn look like it did look like morning dawn i believe josh douglas sent me his drop shot color morning dawn as well that wasn't a keeper for daryl gleason we're going to see a lot of techniques come into play today we're starting to see it fire up keith combs darrell gleason josh douglas tune in after the commercial break for more bassmaster live live coverage of the nationwide bassmaster opens live where we turn after this short break [Music] you're watching the nationwide bassmaster opens live [Music] back out on sam rayburn moves are being made today on the final day of competition we see keith combs bottom left of your screen taking off heading to a new spot rotating a lot of different brush piles and we have brian snowden bassmaster elite series pro in studio with us breaking it down and we're watching the leader darrell gleason and it actually looks like he's not fishing brush piles at the moment but maybe vertically fishing some fish maybe some fish he pulled from these last fish catches came off the brush pile he just dropped straight down under his trolling motor he might even be fishing like a bridge or a creek channel bend yeah definitely fishing vertical i caught my first ever fish on rayburn with daryl gleason did you really we covered a toledo bend event he lives right there toledo bend i said hey i got like half a day you want to go to rayburn and he took me to rayburn i caught my first one on a chatterbait and i was all happy i was like hey we're good i'm good now check sam rayburn off my list so he's one of your favorites so hey i'm i'm waiting to see the i'm waiting to see the spot pop up maybe he's fishing it this week i don't know we were a little shallower than he's fishing now yeah different time of year i'm sure oh exactly it was a cool memory daryl the great angler and great human as well got to make the classic he won an open not far from here toledo been his home home lake he does spend a lot of time at rayburn but far more at toledo to win an open on your home lake to make the classic has to feel amazing to have the opportunity to maybe do it twice in two years in a row that's got to be something special yeah that would be very special for him you know and he's giving it his all out there as you can see he's uh he's definitely taking his time at his current spot looks like he's uh found something he's liked either on the graph or it's got a place that's got a lot of history for him and you know better than anybody else probably if you rotate brush piles and don't catch fish don't catch fish don't catch fish and then you find one and you're catching them even if they're small yes you maybe burn it down today and try to catch as many as you can maybe there's a four pounder maybe there's you can call out all your one and a half's with two and a half's you know yeah something but while they're biting there i'd maybe try to catch them as many as you can you know and a lot of it it builds up its confidence too you know and and it gets that that limited in the box and then he probably is going to switch techniques i think you know you're going to see him a lot more football jig and uh put the drop shot down trying to catch those bigger three to five pound fish guys like him and josh douglas both mentioned that 1 30 and 3 o'clock seem to be some some key important windows for them that so it's not always that morning bite you know maybe it's that usually the pressure changes or something yeah there's a couple different bite windows though yeah you know structure is usually first thing in the morning and then you've got a couple good feeding opportunities later in the day one good thing about it is if you don't capitalize in the morning you guess wrong go to the wrong brush pile once you make that rotation throughout the day when you get to your last hour or two of fishing you kind of know okay there's about five places i've caught fish instead of running all of them let me run back through them and then you end up catching maybe a giant that pulled up because because you've cleared off some of the smaller fish now it's his brush pile to own or her brush pile to own it's it's their territory now well and a lot of times too you can come back two or three hours later if someone else hasn't been there and you know the first cast a lot of times is is the best fish so you might start at one um work it in the morning then come back one two o'clock you know one of your your prime brush piles is produced for you all week um one guy when i mentioned brian shot started the day in um i believe fourth place started the day in fourth place yes and he is has an interesting story brian he used to fish all the all the big tournaments around texas a lot of team tournaments really competitive guy in this region he lives more uh i believe in the longview neck of the woods you know the north north part of uh of rayburn and you know in between rayburn and fork and brian said that he got out of the team tournaments about a year or two ago because his son is to the age they start fishing together now so they fished some tournaments father-son tournaments and whatnot he said this was his first great chance to wet his whistle of competitive tournaments again and uh i said well you might be wetting your whistle a little bit more sit in continue to win this thing yeah definitely he wins it's going to change a lot don't you think i said i think his son is going to love bass fishing a lot more yeah that's a pretty cool story a lot of guys have done that you know we know rick morris fishes the elites he took some time off when his when his kids went to college got them all situated and then came back and made the elites again you know and your hat's off to someone that's that dedicated to their their family and their kids you know that's the way it should be and uh you know when he comes back look at him he's in contention to win it's got to feel good about that and even guys like shane campbell sixth place he's from i believe it's called brookfield which is the uh southeast part of rayburn he's a local here and he's like man because of covid i was signed up for all the opens and because of covet i decided to drop out of the first open at the arkansas river and i still decided to fish this one and i'll have a chance to win this one and now i'm regretting dropping out because if i win i can't go to the bassmaster classic but he said this has definitely lit a fire that now he'll be he'll be he'll sign up for yeah next year yeah maybe get some seed money today yeah maybe a few new sponsors yeah exactly but that's you know we talk about the elite series with the competition level there it doesn't get any easier throughout the field the the odds of making the top 40 are still just as hard as they've ever been but then you go to the opens level and the opens is a combination of the top bassmaster elite series pros that like to still travel and fish as many tournaments as possible you've got flw tour pros fishing there as well and you you know you're trying to make the elites or make the classic you know there's there's different incentives there and then you have the best of the best opens anglers that just do this every single year the josh douglas is the the mayas uh the i messed it up for the first time today i did i botched that one guys like that who travel the country fish in the opens they're very difficult and then you mix in all the local guys the brian shots the shane campbells the brian posts the albert collins there's a chris wilson's there's a couple in the top 12 that are local to this region so then it just becomes a who's who best of the best locally regionally and nationally at these opens yeah and you know that's what makes the the competition so tough and and then you've got so so many anglers that are competing at the you know at the same time that really hinders the amount of movement you can do all the different places you know so the you know the local guys might have more knowledge but a lot of times you're not able to get on some of those spots due to the fact of the you know the 225 230 boat field um that's one thing that changes a little bit in the elites and as you know notice that you know there's only 88 of us so we get to move around a lot more on a big lake like sam rayburn so that makes it a little better when you actually figure out that pattern so some of these guys you know really have to be cautious of what they did the first two days not not burning too many of their their critical brush piles or offshore structure spots that's what some of these guys were saying that a fresh brush pile isn't one that hasn't been hit it's one that hasn't been hit in the last 30 minutes yes that's probably true i see someone leave a brush pile and i'm fishing and then uh no one's been there for a couple minutes i'm gonna go run over there before someone rolls up we saw this week it took 27 pounds six ounces to make the top 40 to get a check here this week 27 27.6 so roughly that heavy 13 you know light 14 pound day on average got the got the last check spot still great for you know late august september getting to be one of the toughest times what's crazy is 27 6 got the 40 cut and 27-10 was what massive matt sashida had on day one the biggest bag of the tournament well there you go just take whatever yeah exactly he's like hey shoot i made the i made a check already with this one bag if i zero tomorrow i still made it i think he's a little more driven than that exactly exactly i think he's going for the win here today looks like he's finally packing up the first time really we've seen today he's definitely shown patience in that area for sure and some of those guys that we said are willing to run the the gleasons the combs the shots those guys are willing to run 50 spots because they have faith in them when you're someone who's from out of town and you found something good that week you might just hey i need to just keep my bait in the water i'm going to fish five brush piles or six brush piles yeah you know i find myself a table rocker bullshoals like i know i run a lot more in places i don't know just because you know you have so much confidence in areas and you have so much history and pass there but a lot of times i do better on lakes that i'm really a lot less familiar with because i'll stay in an area and learn all the little small nuances of that that structure and that area and uh you'll be amazed at how many fish you can catch over the course of three or four days in in one area it's just um there's a lot of fish down there and just figuring out different cadences techniques uh different colors to make those fish react we were watching josh douglas earlier when he caught one on a drop shot he said if there's like a bunch of little caves and i don't know if it was like a hard structure like uh like a big pipe or or something else or if it was a brush pile that just had openings but he said if i can get my drop shot to fall in there i feel like i can catch one and that's like you said he's from out of town and he's learning it and he's learning the structure and he knows okay and if you watch that fish yesterday for gleason he's pulling the football jig through the cover and it looks like he's bowed up like a fish is biting it and then all of a sudden right when his rod gets out of the picture it pops back down because it finally came free and then he reels down and sets the hook and people are like he had a fish the whole time no he was bringing it over and as soon as it went over the brush eight pounder bites it yeah you know that's um one of the things i've started learning with uh my my garmin live scope is you'll you'll see the way they position differently in the brush some days they'll be off to the left or right side sometimes like you were saying there they'll be in the top or suspended above that brush pile and i've learned a lot just with watching my electronics and how those fish move around how they position differently based on the time of day that you'll be you know early morning versus afternoon it's pretty interesting how much they actually do move even if they stay within a small area shane campbell started the day in sixth place just outside of our coverage map he's a local though and i talked to him and he was really in-depth about it he said a lot of my stuff's been 20 to 25 feet deep but my is 10 8 to 10 feet tall so it's in 20 feet deep 10 feet tall and so there's only 10 feet of water above that and he said the fish have been above it they've been above it so they're not deep they're over deep water but they're relatively shallow so a lot of his a lot of his baits have been different because he doesn't have to drag the bottom with it you know he can he can clip them above the brush or when he does work his bait through the top of the brush as soon as it gets gets up there and you're going to let it fall it doesn't fall yeah that's when they bite it it doesn't fall yeah they're just swimming around everywhere have you seen anyone use a jerkbait if they're suspended in the time i have not not today and i know that was a thing kelly j was doing well with a texas fest a few years ago with a jerkbait catching doubles and whatnot well you know you just think with the way you were explaining that if they're suspended 10 feet down would be one of those things you know this late in the year they just might not be aggressive enough to to really want to chase a lot of things because most of the guys you see definitely you know soaking that bait in the brush fishing pretty slow we have seen i don't i can't tell what keith combs is using i assume it's not a spinning rod i think it's still a baitcaster we've got three drop shotters right now and uh and keith comes just set the hook with a football jig in a big way in a big enough wad to really mess with him oh oh what happened did he oh that's what a couple guys mentioned on the oh he broke off he did digging all in the brush you know and unfortunately that's the nature of the beast if you're on the back side and you set the hook not so good you're on the front side or at the top a lot easier to get those fish out that's the if you're not getting stuck you're not in the right spot just like with a lay down if you don't if you don't picture the heart of it you know like that's what i'll never forget this when i was a kid growing up watching bassmaster tv charlie hartley said it at the classic at hartwell in 2008 he said if you worry about getting stuck you're never going to get the bite you pitch in there whether it's a dock all in the metal or a brush pile pitch in there and try to get a bite and then worry about getting them out if you worry about getting stuck you're probably not going to get a bite you'd rather you'd rather go get a bite and then have to fight to get them out then not get a bite at all and that's the way you've always got to look at things you know it's what am i going to do when you get it you know when you get the bite you got to get the bite before you can really care about what happens you know after that because you know you just don't never know unless you put it in there if you can get him out or not and sometimes you win sometimes you lose there are those lost fish like combs said right there like douglas with the eight pounder yesterday that got his line stuck in the brush pile those are ones that are gonna be stories they're gonna hurt your feelings but it's the ones that you get out of the brush and get to the boat and lose at your hand that really hurts you and douglas had a four plus pounder do that yesterday he touched it twice and he said if you don't touch a fish when they jump at the boat or if you touch it you gotta land it and he touched it yesterday and did not did not get it and it finally came off yeah i think i would rather not get them close to the boat you know keys feel like i i can accept that sometimes it just happens but when you get them out of all the brush and next to the boat you should try you know you should put them in but you know we just came from up north where those smallmouth are just so hard to control with spinning equipment and uh you know it's it's amazing the the more time you take with them the more you land it's it's one of those things as soon as i start hurrying break them off lose them at the boat and that's one of the things i found with getting those fish close to the boat you just got to be patient if you're just joining us and wondering who these voices are ronnie moore here um host of bassmaster live my and my guests today we've got two different guests showing up we have brian snowden elite series pro on camera with us right now we will have chad morgan taylor in just a little bit and brian you've got experience on rayburn has it been a good track record for you here i feel like you're a patient offshore fisherman but also it doesn't always translate based on what time of year we come you know unfortunately uh toledo ben i've had great success on that lake and sam raymond i have not so for two lakes to be so close they fish totally different um they just they just don't act the same to me and sam raymond has not been kind to brian um it's been one of the ones i i love going there i like to fish there i've had some great practices but when it comes tournament time always a little difficult i remember last year before the schedule came out everyone was saying i wonder if texas fest is going to be back at rayburn because it's been a few years i thought it was and then everybody was guessing that and it wasn't but we had a bassmaster open there and it's been a long time since we had a bassmaster open here we've obviously had some texas fest events as well and we've had college events i've covered college events here at rayburn but like you said rayburn's one of those jewels one of those gyms not only in texas but the country i mean to put out 27 three different 27 pound bags this week with 88 to 89 90 degree water temperatures bright sun no wind that's impressive that's definitely impressive you know and it's still got good quality grass it's it's got a huge large fish population with you know seven to nine pounders as we saw during the weigh-ins so it's just a fantastic place to fish but it's also an exciting place to to be able to do something like this where you can watch these guys and know that one bite one cast to change the outcome one cast will change the outcome of this deal we've seen a nine pound 12 ouncer get caught this week albert collins with the big bass of the tournament there's going to be some more big bass caught today got some masayuki matsushita there i killed it right there right now with this six pounder earlier the biggest one we've seen on camera today and he started the day one pound and change out of the lead the day one leader fell back to second yesterday and he is looking to take home not only a win here at sam rayburn but a bassmaster classic berth points towards the elite series money in your pocket and a trophy on your shelf there's a lot more to come join us just a few minutes we're going to take a quick commercial break and we'll bring you back with the 12 final day anglers and 12 co-anglers on sam rayburn today basspro.com bassmaster central opens hey you going to join us for this last 15-20 minutes of the live oh you betcha awesome join us just after this commercial break we'll be right back with action from sam rayburn bassmaster live the nationwide bassmaster opens live is brought to you by abu garcia [Music] berkeley nitro boats and by ranger boats you're watching the nationwide bassmaster opens live [Music] welcome back into the final day coverage of the basspro.com bassmaster central open at sam rayburn reservoir this is just our third open of the year in the next open on the docket lake hartwell and roughly about 10 days or so those guys will get fired up for official practice september 23rd through the 25th we will bring you final day coverage there i'm super excited about that one that's from my neck of the woods and great cell coverage on lake hartwell we we should see all five it's much more manageable than maybe sam rayburn if someone peeks around the wrong corner you lose them but brian snowden joining us for this last 20-minute push of the first three-hour segment been been kind of as expected on rayburn big ones but a lot of small ones mixed in yeah and it's you know it's been a grind you know you we've been watching today and it's it's just not fast and furious by any means but uh you know i think the guy that grinds it out and gets that rotation right and finds the brush piles in 15 to 20 feet is gonna be the guy that brings home the win today josh douglas yesterday had some fireworks on the last stop of the day caught a six pounder before coming away and that was crucial to him being in third place coming into the final day he's caught some fish today on a drop shot he's something he's very comfortable with not only smallmouth fishing but largemouth fishing chad morgan taylor off off our set over here said that josh has a lot of experience here fishing the sealy's big bass the pro side of it which is normally this time of the year we see why with 27 pound bags and some nine pounders and double digits getting caught up in practice yesterday in the same couple in the boat for douglas and keith combs one to keep our eyes on fifth place coming in the final day the elite series pro two-time champion knows a lot about rayburn right now real close to where he's fishing right now he's been using a football jig we've seen him crank some haven't seen a spinning rod from him don't know if we will i don't know if he even wants to win with a spinning rod uh he knows plenty of spots on this lake that he can power fish his way to the top and he's had a pretty solid two days of competition and 21-6 so he's been pretty keeping it honest uh with a 20-pound average daryl gleason our day two leader had 27 pounds on day two he's caught some fish today on a drop shot his co-anglers put some in the boat with a drop shot half the time i think they're at table rock as much dropped out exactly i wouldn't have expected that from morning dawn morning dawn from up north to tampa there you go it works everywhere everywhere these guys have been dropped out on that color brush piles have been a main uh structure that these guys have been focused on and gleason is getting his day started with some of those fish we showed off his big one from yesterday and we'll do that again throughout the show masayuki matsushita i killed it that time he started the morning very strong three pounder and then he uh had a little bit of a lull but then he caught this one and brian this is when we came back from technical difficulties we have to see this giant yeah and this definitely makes up for the slow start you know and he's got some quality fish uh you haven't seen him though lately yeah he primarily sat on the same spot for a good while this morning didn't jump around like a lot of other guys did but he finally pulled the trolling motor up left and went somewhere else saw him catch this one as well that one you can see it got stuck in the brush as he said spotted bass that was the last keeper i think i i saw him catch so he's got three three fish for masayuki he had 27 pounds 10 ounces on day one 15-5 on day two you know you might see a little more of the drop shotting today just because of the fact that you know just because it's saturday a lot more boat traffic running around um you know i might have those fish a little you know a little a little more locked into that brush and a little less reluctant to bite you know it just seems like a lot of times on the weekend that pressure just the boats being out and people fishing tends to slow that bite down some and a lot of those fish you know brian with that high sun not a bunch of wind they do have a little bit more wind today than the last two days will sometimes push those fish to the center of the brush which makes it a deal like we saw keith in the last segment combs hooked up and broke his line ended up breaking off the fish we know josh douglas yesterday he said he went all the way up he's been fishing 50 to 100 feet away from his brush piles he went within 20 feet of it pitched his drop shot out to the center of it hooked an eight-pounder it came up and jumped his line was stuck in the brush and it ended up breaking off uh there so high sun might put those fish right at the base of some of these brush so you can't easily get them you have to really work for it right and then you know i mean if you do get the bite it's so difficult to get it out through all that brush but you know that's one thing that fishing pressure and boat traffic lack of wind all that causes them to to really stay tight to that brush we're bringing you live pictures video from the top five anglers after day two of competition that was daryl gleeson masuyuki matsushita josh douglas brian shot and keith combs four or three of those five have a shot at a classic berth combs and shot have not fished the first open you have to fish all four opens in the division to make the classic if you win maybe what keith's thinking right now he's uh definitely looks like he's i think he's considering moving or are you just working on his line up there i know he trolled away there was another boat in the background that probably messed up his lineup he's looking for something though there he's getting ready a lot of these guys mentioned they might have 50 brush piles but it's not half a mile away two miles away they might be within trolling distance you just got one here one here one here and then you can pick up and actually make a move yeah you know because it a lot of these are long you know points or drops or ridges that you know there's there's several brush piles that you know when i've been down there you know the ridge might be five or six hundred yards long and there might be ten brush piles scattered throughout that whole area which you have to give them all a shot because they're all in the same depth range if one holds fish and then all of a sudden it doesn't they might have literally swam to another brush pile based on uh look at josh i think you found one of those brush piles i wonder if he he had a fish if he still has it on oh you know that just the worst feeling in the world is when you can feel him moving and tightening up that line but you can't get him to come forward oh hey is he going to get him i think you got him i wanted how he got out of it and then it got hooked in another piece of it i want to know you know is that are those his floating city using for marker still on there what's what's behind you see that in the water i don't i don't know what they are today's technology in gps i don't know if he's if he would need him or if those are you know catfish yeah floats or it might be a good old texas buoy i think it's a texas buoy there he's just a barking whatever's there it's letting you know there's brush there and josh obviously knows that because he's hung up he's definitely taking his time here trying to work that fish loose you see he's positioned the boat where he's got a different angle on it now yeah he can see the fish that was amazing it's not a bad one that was worth tv though not that big but better than probably doubles his weight good job that was not terrible better not getting him better than not getting him amen to that oh you know if you break him off he's always four yeah i mean at least a seven yeah see if we can hear a weight on it two and a quarter got about six pounds he said in the live well right now so he's definitely got a lot of room to move yeah he probably wants to add about 20 pounds to i would think so we all have stories if you fish long enough with being impatient or breaking off brush fish and i didn't know this but the opportunity to fish in the college classic bracket you know they have that every year one representative gets to make the classic my final year fishing broke off our final keeper with 20 minutes left in a brush pile i was trying to rush it and keep get him out of there before he got stuck stuck ended up sawing the line broke it off me and my partner missed the classic uh the classic bracket birth by less than three pounds and it was i mean it came up and jumped it was at least a three to four pounder and i got impatient and broke it off and we didn't bring we didn't catch a fifth i said we're going to catch a fit don't worry we didn't catch a fit and that's why i got this job right here well that's not all bad no it's not not bad at all well you saw how patient he was i was pretty impressed and and i want to know his line set up there yeah what size it was you know it might not be a six eight pound leader like we see on really clear fisheries this is you catch ten pounders he might have 12 pound fluoro go into 15 pound braid or something like that that would be definitely interesting because he uh he worked it through there and it didn't i mean it was almost a minute i would say wouldn't you oh at least yes and then he had enough time to go from below it up above it to get that angle changed like you said and then the fish came out like keith's connie was gone doesn't it yeah in the back of the boat this will be maybe not number 27 for him he has had a good day from the back of the boat i think they're moving keith making a move he'll find a good rotation who we saw at lake fork when we thought he was dead in the water on camera the final hour he ends up coming in and we're like man we're gonna have him on camera again tomorrow and so he he's one of those guys that like you said it only takes him 15 minutes it's amazing you know and he's just he's so dedicated to it he just keeps pushing it and pushing it and he knows eventually he's going to run into that active feeding school and that's one of those guys that's always dangerous because he can put a lot of weight in the boat really quick josh douglas it says seventh place 41.15 he hasn't updated his bass track yet but with six pounds and change roughly he'll be around 48 pounds and change that'll have him in fifth place in our top five still within two pounds of the lead it's been to be honest it's been a little bit of a slow morning for a lot of these guys but they're still getting situated and like we said it hasn't been fast and furious it's been you pull up to that right brush pile and the one that did you right yesterday might yield nothing today and the one that you didn't catch a fish off of yesterday it has the five right ones that you need and it's getting to be you know a little later in the day they should really be locking into that brush and you know a lot of the guys were saying that they were catching them later in the day so you know it's you're going to see a lot of changes still plenty of time and you're going to see a lot of changes in the next two or three hours i'm excited to see masayuki matsushita's game plan you know i could make it easier and just pick his first or last name but i'm just going to go both of them for now on just i'm going to say the whole fullness make myself you're very impressive with your ability to pronounce this you should have seen how many times i said it in the mirror last night oh did you practice if you're just joining us for our final day coverage of the basspro.com bassmaster central opens the live coverage provided by nationwide this week it's been great having these anglers on camera our top five and we have to be boat to boat because we have co-anglers fishing the final day for prize money and opportunities as well they're they're making their claim whether they're local or whether they're a young angler they get the chance to maybe get some money to maybe move up to the pro side in the next couple years we know a lot of people have different journeys and different paths to getting to the front of the boat and we're seeing some of the the best co-anglers of the week managing and that's difficult you've been a pro that has had co-anglers on the elite series and in the open level then i've been back at the boat you got to switch it up each day you don't know what you're you don't know what your boat is going to do you don't know what to prepare for and so it's it's very good for these 12 to make it to the day oh yeah you know it's it's a lot about what they're doing and being able to do something just a little bit different you know when i was in the back of the boat going through college and working my way up as a as an angler it was a good learning tool i i really enjoyed that just being in the back of the boat and getting to see what the guys do different and their and their thought process you know when they move when they stay and what they do and uh i always just packed a few of a little bit of everything and i didn't mind if i had to babysit a big bag on the floor all the time because i just was gonna bring what i wanted no matter what let's go let's go let's go for a guy who gets paired up with maybe a keith combs you know he's probably not going to throw a drop shot out there so you might want to bring one because even though you want a power fish with him you're not going to out power fish keith comes from the back of the boat so if you throw a drop shot you might get a couple more bites to help your three fish limit which is different these guys aren't competing against each other from the front and the back of the boat they are divvying up fish but five fish limit for the boaters three fish limit for the co-anglers and they're all fighting you know against other anglers and other boats no they're not each other yeah and that's uh you know that's one of the best things is to watch what they're doing and always try and vary it a little bit you know either if they're throwing a football jig a texas rib you know 10-inch old monster zoom worm something different drop shot you know if they're cranking you might try a a jerkbait or you know something that's just different color sometimes that works a lot swim bait a lot of times you know if i'm even if i'm in a team terminal one guy i'll be throwing a deep diving crankbait the other one will be throwing a a uh you know like a five inch zoom z swimmer on a three quarter ounce head and uh you figure out what they like and sometimes it helps you know even when you're in the front of the boat they start catching fish on one certain technique you know you guys you get to put the pieces to the puzzle together for sure right you hear the boaters doing that they're sitting there fishing for a classic birth and they're they're obviously found these fish they found these spots and they're would you catch that one yeah oh green pumpkin purple okay you know and like just a little bit of notes maybe there's an adjustment maybe there's this or that plus when you see these guys they're obviously pulling up to a specific brush pile but like you said there's there could be some in the region as well there could be a drop and the co-angler who casts off the back of the boat gets to fish the drop not the brush pile and and tells the pro something that that might not know you know they just they all can learn together out there yeah which is great i mean it's like a free guide trip as well you get to really learn it's a good learning lesson with some of best people on that lake you know some of the the local people that have spent years and years to learn that and that's one of the things that you know i gained was a lot of experience when i moved from california to missouri fishing with the club and then in the back of the boat got to learn a lot of different techniques that we never used in california you have an interesting story moving from california to go to you said hey i'm going to there's one big tackle retailer i don't know if you've heard of it but bass pro shops they opened up a big one in springfield and you moved from california to to go to college there and work there and then also gave you fishing opportunities it did you know and it was one of those plans that uh it worked out great uh better than expected most of my plans you know sometimes they go a little south on me but at the time there was only one bass pro shops now there's a couple in california and so it would have been a little different i might have stayed out there a little longer but it was uh it was one of those things i thought well you know you're young you got a couple more years of college let's go out there see what it's all about and i just fell in love with the area i miss my family you know a lot of families still out there in california my parents still live out there and uh so i kind of missed you know i wish basses go out there a little bit yeah maybe we'll do another west coast swing i always enjoy it when we go out there they still have some of the best fishing in the nation just a long drive what would be your if you if you had to pick three west western lakes let's just say three because we've done two in the past if you could pick three western lakes to have maybe three tournaments in four weeks for the elites where would you want us to go i would it would still be northern but it would be a clear lake you've got to go there california delta of course and then don pedro don pedro really yeah it's a fantastic fishery big enough but it's different than the other ones more of a canyon style clear water but it's got a lot of big fish well you mentioned it one of the guys who's one to watch this week keith combs hooked up live right now and what did he catch it on a big crankbait i mean i don't think he owns another color other than chartreuse back i don't know if he does if he owns another color i've actually seen him with a few okay but he sure likes that yeah i'd like to i'd like to see how many he has though maybe maybe like 250 of that one and maybe like 250 other colors probably we've seen some action it's getting fired up the first half of sam rayburn's final day is in the books these guys are still putting together piecing together the puzzle like we just mentioned putting together a limit whether they're surviving with a drop shot whether they're sticking to their guns and power fishing a big crank bait or a big jig the guys are making it happen and 27 plus pound bags are out there on sam rayburn brian snowden thanks for joining us we're going to have you and chad morgan taylor back and forth on live in the last three hours make sure you come back and join us at 12 30 p.m eastern time we'll be here on bassmaster.com we'll watch the last three hours go down on camera before we ship it off the way and to see who gets crowned the champion we'll be back less than an hour fastmaster.com [Music] and we are out here having a tough day man tough day but yesterday at this time i had about the same weight and and i made three critical stops and and caught you know two great big ones and two other really good ones so we're still feeling good about everything it's uh it's just honestly just been a dang a blast just being out here today we still got you know 15 boats watching us i've never had anybody follow me around and watch me fish and all that stuff and it's just oh that's really cool i would love to give them one to scream about though so it's been real slow jig bite hasn't been as good today and uh you know i don't know just all the pressure we've beat on a lot of these piles and there's a little extra pressure today people fishing on the lake and stuff and so can't get around to everywhere today and so we're just trying to make it happen i just need a little more magic like i've had every day last three hours game plan is probably going to go down with my football jig in my hand i felt like every day like the late bite was my best opportunity to catch a real big one so i'm i'm probably going to try to run some fresher type piles that haven't been beat to death and uh you know just try to catch one or two by surprise i just had one right there bite it but just trying to catch them by surprise it's hard because all these piles are getting beat up so many people out here fishing both competitive you know competitors in our tournament and other guys have turns and stuff like that it's it's saturday at rayburn so there's a lot of people fishing so uh but i'm gonna go down with with my jig probably most likely might make a stop or two and look at some keeper areas and see if i can get rid of my little smallest one maybe but but honestly think as hard as it was to get in a position with a chance to win that uh you know i'm gonna go down swinging with what uh this is my dream scenario when i saw this tournament was for it to be tough fishing and uh sunny and slick and me have a jig in my hand out here fishing offshore and so you know i'm gonna probably go down with it and see if it works out for me and if it doesn't uh man's been a blast this week either way he mentioned it we saw it he's been throwing a drop shot all morning and now he's gonna switch to his football jig and keep that in his hand now that he has a limit he's been throwing a three cops shout out to all my sponsors um for all our support but uh the tackle addict guys have been great to me they're they're located over here at rayburn and uh cool little tackle store and vienna been venom baits has really got me through this week and falcon rods obviously i wouldn't be out here doing the opens if it wasn't for all the support from toyota and yamaha carhartt and then you know huge thanks to my title sponsor foster fence trent holloway with those guys changed my life when he stepped into my life and you know decided to give me a chance to uh to pursue this full-time so uh walker toyota alexandria louisiana great dealership and i'm sure i'm probably leaving somebody out and if i am i hope they forgive me my wife tells me i'm a softie so it's real hard for me to focus and fish without letting it all out right now so we're gonna bottle it up for two and a half more hours three hours and then uh see where we end up and i am very grateful all these people been out here watching that's just they have no idea what that means to me it's really cool i i don't know of all the years i've worked with bassmasters is the seventh season of seeing tournaments if i've seen that many people following somebody on the final day of a bassmaster open we see a flotilla like this on elites or a classic for him to be the local one of the local maybe heroes that one's in a second i mean right there that he is right there at the top of the lake but that's got to mean something to have a lot of followers out there yeah it does it it it it feels the photos the spotty bass or something small you know waiting it solidifies everything up to this point right now he's got a ton he's got even though he's maybe headed into his second you're killing me actually if he can win this thing and then fishes the final event get my mind going but he's got a lot of emotions he's controlling right now it's yeah so like what i mentioned a second ago i'm talking about 12 12 30. trying to go down with that jig i stopped on a spot and i caught two three and a half pounders and went to another spot and caught at 8 13 and then ran back up here and hit a spot and i caught a 9-7 and so if it wasn't for those i'd be at the golf course today probably so that's what's special about sam rayburn toledo bend these big fish areas is just any moment a couple cracks of the rod and you just change everything so i've had three fish over eight pounds this week and it's very hard to rely on those those kind of fish but those are the bites i'm hunting for so you know like you just stay upbeat and keep fishing it hasn't been the greatest of days yet but you know it is what it is i feel like i'm doing the right things to win and so you just stick with it and the good lord wants you to have your opportunity you'll get it you just got to capitalize on it but we're going to give it all we got all the way until 2 45 any stop even right but by the ramp we could stop somewhere and catch two or three great vegans and be right where we need to be tell ronnie more if i pull this off i'm going to pinch his little dimples give him a little sugar dave mercer is probably the one that's scared of most everybody because i threatened uh i threatened for like six months to kiss him on the classic stage so he got lucky i didn't do all that wonderful and he didn't get any sugars but just uh can't say what it would mean to make something happen the last couple hours and and to get that chance so we'll give it all we got well i would i wouldn't mind i mean if he pinched my pinch my dimples yeah oh does he i'll run my fingers through his sweet hair too and watch out daryl's a good guy and a good friend i actually i told brian this in the first three hours i caught my first ever fish on sam rayburn with daryl we we did a tournament coverage at toledo bend he was free for half a day i was free i said will you take me to rayburn and we'll go fish for a little bit ponies i've been getting every day also kudos to him he sent me today that gopro clip and it feels like a real big day i don't know what the other competitors do and they may be they may be slamming them but it sure feels like a tough day in this boat so yeah it is amazing i i think five or six of the top 12 has been in here at some point so and a lot of guys that ended up not making the final day if someone could have had if there could have just been two or three of us up here there's no telling what kind of weight we could have caught it's very very tough fishing but there happens to be some good ones in the area so yeah we've been seeing a lot of competitors running around a lot of people around the area there actually hasn't been too many locals fishing today on spots i just i have one key area that someone's kind of sit on but you know chances are they there's a lot of good locals fish here and so they come out here and found these fish on their own it ain't one of those those negative deals or anything but but these rayburn bass are smart they know when it's a saturday several club derbys some high school stuff going on today and but look it's the weekend in east texas people want to fish i don't blame them what i was trying to say before all the dimple pinching and all the rubbing through my hair that gleason's threatening over here he's using a three-quarter ounce v m football jig and gleason's candy it's his own color that he loves for this part of the country pairing it up with a v m baits j bug on the back in that same color it's it's just i mean it mimics a bluegill very well it looks great in that and that's probably what a lot of the forage might be around those brush piles when i move i'm going like right over there like a quarter mile i think you really hit on something really um really important there running because at this time of the year especially back home you'll you will see a lot of bluegill that they've moved out that they're done spawning everything they're out there in that deeper water and they get around brush and um it's just like whenever they're up on the bank spawning you know anything that you use that kind of mimics that color or is in that same color class um a lot of times in in that that's right they can't uh they can't tell the difference and whenever you get it just right when everything lines up the stars and the moon and everything goes and you make that right cast or the right drag or y'all try to stop shorting me if y'all can you mentioned how a lot of the anglers have gotten bites whenever the jig has he said he'll slap you around if you don't deflected popped or moved over a branch or in the brush pile and that's what's happening is a lot of times the fish are right there with it but it's done finally done something different and they react to it we're out with josh douglas live oh that's brush ah come here slide backwards no she's there she's there wow where are you oh where are you oh my god it's way out there ain't that big i knew i had a bite i'll keep though that makes fun that's number five looks like you might have keyed another one up on that swimbait ronnie and if you look at it now the bass track leaderboard has updated and mr josh douglas that's 14 right he's sitting on top of the leaderboard right now he had four for 13 and three quarters right there and then that fifth keeper i mean that's another two pounder probably he'll be up around 15 pounds not a great bag but it's got him situated he's got a limit now well he's got room to upgrade he's not setting on you know the best bag that he can possibly catch today he's been pretty consistent over the final two day and we obviously know that there are big fish out there everyone's in play this week even the even down in 12th place jason christie he was only nine pounds and change back that's the size of the big bass this week with 30 pound bags swimming around it's a possibility for anyone to be to have a comeback and win so douglas started the day in third has a pretty solid day he's got a two pound lead right now on bash track unofficially he's sitting in a good position but darrell gleason like we mentioned he only has a limit for about eight pounds maybe they're all like this size if he can get two he's not big maybe three bites with that jig it can go from eight pound limit to 18 pound limit just like that game changer yep and leaderboard changer exactly he's gonna have to manage it though he does have a big flotilla of boats and that'll that'll impact how you pull up on a brush pile and how you fish it correct chad that impacts a lot of things that if you haven't experienced that before you just don't have the noise the uh the confinement the the angles it changes right now it changes it all thank you dude and uh you kind of have to start if you'll see he's now starting to think about that because he asked him to stop short he's going to have to control that crowd he's got to put them where he wants it or he's got to use his we mentioned him and josh douglas those are two guys who have fished the opens for a long time and had really close encounters to the elite series bids and also classic opportunities douglas started his morning with a drop shot picked it up much sooner than anybody else in our field uh he's been using that with a big worm and a jig mostly but then when he's out before he gets to the brush he throws a swimbait or a crankbait we'll be able to show that but he has fought a couple fish not only out of the brush but through brush he has hooked him got stuck and been able to play with him we saw him messing with the brush pile for two three minutes and was able to get a fish out to fit now hey we would have said it's only a two pounder why are you taking so much time because he now has a limit that is important if he would have done that he'd still be short of a limit josh is such a well-rounded angler because of where he lives up in minnesota and fishing mille lacs he fishes this stuff every day he fishes one rock one hard spot one little brush pile that's why he's so good that's why he's here and he feels comfortable no matter what size fish he's catching with a spinning rod in his hand and he showed his versatility here he can change it up immediately with all that forward facing sonar the the lowrance live site the garmin panoptix he's using laurent's live site and was able to see the brush pile way out in front of the boat see how they're reacting and be able to throw a swimbait before he gets up there and it yields a seven and a half pounder yes i told you i got bit right here dude i got it where are you oh my god it's weird this fish he actually set the hook thought it was brushed kind of gave it a little bit of slack and then it fought back and he said no it is a bite swings that in that's his limit fish now we're up to 15 pounds and change on bass track and he is about two pounds ahead of chris wilson we mentioned his name earlier better keep an eye on him second place right now he's one of those texas anglers that's from that region of sam rayburn josh is obviously fishing a little bit shallower brush right here as you can see he's not only looking his electronics but he he made a short pitch so my guess is it's not super deep where he's at right now may not be seeing it but it looks like i believe we have a limit for keith combs it'll update in just a minute but about a 13 pound limit for keith combs that'll put him in that third place position going to be really interesting to see now how these guys that are up there in the top three or four positions whether they start really moving a lot to try to cover as many structures as they can before the end of the day to see if they can catch one of those fresh ones or if they lock down and just completely saturate an area if they've got an area that's got a lot of cover in it like gleason said he's got an area that he really likes it's got a lot of cover in it i suspect he's going to stay in that area just fish different structures within that area because he believes that there is a good chance a big one could turn up somewhere in there he's just got to hit the right spot at the right time now the interesting part is is he going to change his presentations or is he going to change baits and it all didn't sound like he was yeah he said he was going to stick with that jig now that he has a limit even though he's small and it'll be interesting to see if it pays off it has for the last couple of days it's a different day today though it is as well saturday on rayburn we know on elite series competitions four day events that saturday always seems to be the down day if we're to have a tougher day day three always is there's a lot more people out there weather systems coming through different things impacting it and today if it is tougher there's nothing saying that it's going to be there obviously we have eight hours to fish it doesn't matter if you catch 20 in the first hour or the last hour as long as you have 20 we have a couple anglers approaching that douglas mentioned to me he started he he got here this weekend you know or last weekend you know saturday sunday time time frame start to practice fish two days two days of grass shallow grass and he said it was work and not just like oh it was it was i caught some fish it was tough it was work to get five keeper bites out of grass he said the water kept dropping so he decided to just graph brush and he said that his shallower brush maybe seven to nine feet have yielded his three biggest fish of the week but most of his fish have came from deeper but his three biggest have been that shallower brush do you think it's those same fish that were in grass pulling off with the with the falling water slightly more than likely they probably didn't even check up on a grass edge because the water was falling they probably swam right on out to them brush piles and they're going to check up there for a little bit before they decide what's going to happen or see where the water levels are going to go but something else that's probably happening with those shallower brush piles would be my guess not only are you catching some of those fish that were scattered out in the grass because obviously that was pretty much the case and usually is in the fall at rayburn there'll be areas but there won't be large groups of fish in any grass beds for the most part you might catch two or three in one area and you might go down another fifty hundred yards and catch another one when those fish start bailing out of there you know and come off that grass edge as such as they have in this fall and water conditions they want to stop on that first thing but those are the brush piles that get overlooked because they're the hardest to find most of the other guys can graph and see things on their electronics a lot easier whenever they're in that 15 to 25 foot range because you just have a bigger path that you're looking at those nine to twelve foot brush piles are a little more isolated 114 inches that last one passed up so he uh he kind of has something special going there for sure we got a four box it's great late late in the day at rayburn we got a four box here daryl gleason top left josh douglas top right [Music] you got it you got it masuyuki matsushiba bottom left and brian shot on the bottom right there i got it i just was a little tongue tied there for a second unofficial top 10 right now josh douglas it has updated i promised it would and it did 57 pounds two ounces unofficially right now for douglas on top of the leaderboard chris wilson right behind him daryl gleason filling his limit but needs big ones keith combs will update with his limit momentarily that's your unofficial top ten we'll be right back after 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in the lead with this single fish chad this is what sam rayburn's about right here it's these bites that'll make the difference on any day but today specifically on a tough day look at the size of that one oh boy come here come here come here yes [Music] yes i told you i got bit right here dude i got her yeah seven and a half pounds he put it on the scale they were guessing seven seven and a half and they were right on them right on the money big fish of the day we've seen from any angler and that's the reason he is on top of the leaderboard we mentioned it a lot of these guys who have had that that difference from 18 to 20 to the 24 to 27. you've got to have two maybe three of those he already has one uh it's only one more swing of the swing of the hook set to be able to get another one whereas other guys are still catching pound and a half to two and a half pounders absolutely you know josh is such a well-rounded angler he he knows what he's doing he's got the ability to keep it together during this time frame he's a high intense intensity angler anyway but he really really is good with electronics he's good with the spinning rod as well as power fishing baits he's talking to him yeah he is it must be in the heart of a brush pile right now as masayuki makes a move brian's shot in the bottom of your screen josh douglas at the top keith combs it's so hard not to think that he's going to run into a feeding school on a brush pile and just with the style of fishing he's known for and the baits that he's using today when he gets a bite they're gonna be good ones yeah and you know the thing about keith you know what he does on his off day he goes out to river and he grabs so he knows that lake so well he lives there obviously um has so many different spots and you know sometimes that can be a hindrance just having too many areas to go to but keith he knows that he's going to continue to power fish this with his crankbait and with the jig more than likely um those are the two baits it's going to produce and have produced pretty much the bigger bites so he's going to he's definitely could be a threat going he said the other side over there is just not as good no don't do freaking that yeah yeah my brush piles are well you're looking at it right now three of the top six anglers in our leaderboard right now did not fish the first bassmaster open of the central so no classic spot to them which you and brian's known in studio will be happy because that adds a spot to the elite series angler of the year whoever to make the classic but josh douglas daryl gleeson masuyuki matsushita those three in our top six right now are all gunning for a classic spot be big for every single one of those anglers i mean never a classic birth can never be taken for granted you never know if you'll get a chance at them again no any and you cherish each and every one of them that's for sure i mean that's you got to get there to be able to capture that title to have a chance taking it home you've got to get there first and it's real it's uh definitely it's it's it's an achievement to say the least and and it's exciting and it's a long road definitely a career career maker for some people going back to where i first started then we're going back i mean just imagine punching your ticket to an event that if you won you could be set for life in bass fishing and be able to do what you love you know for a for a career and that's what some of these guys are fighting for that financial stability lights back on i mean it puts weight to your name you know you could be chad morgan taylor bassmaster elite series pro or you could be chad morgan taylor uh you know bassmaster classic competitor absolutely and the earlier you get it in your career the better chance you have of having a long-standing career at the at the top level such as the elite series you just it's you know i've talked to josh a lot over the years and um you know i just can't i can't fathom has said it's a talented angler that i can't fathom that he hasn't already qualified for the elites and we talk about this occasionally and he'll tell me you know he's sick i seem to always just stumble on one and that's how hard the road is if you stumble just a little bit even though most of these a lot of these anglers are very consistent and they're certainly talented enough to compete at the lead series level but just to have a flawless season that puts you into the elite series category is hard and there's been many years where for douglas he's been three to five spots outside or you know back when they used to accept invites and if someone said no they just worked down to make sure all five spots were filled for each division uh he would be like this the first person before him would accept and he wouldn't be able to get that thing so 12 20 right now basically so two hours and 20 minutes probably 20-ish minutes to run back 25. so got two hours to run around flail around and we are trying right now with everything we got to make it happen so fishing a couple places i got bit on yesterday and then we we might uh i might just start hitting something i hadn't got bid on just run some fresh brush piles hope uh hope i hit one by surprise and they don't know what's up probably got to get rid of everyone in the box still to uh to have a chance to win but anything can happen the unknowns that are out there that goes with decision making when it comes to this game is beyond belief and you can hear these guys when they're talking to themselves and to us and kind of trying to help help help understand what we go through whenever we're on the water like this it's uh it's hard it is definitely hard to uh make it you know you're asking yourself should i stick with what's gotten me my three or four big bites over the last couple days and got me here should i move around a little bit should i try some new stuff and as you can see daryl is asking himself those questions on a fairly frequent basis right now i will have to say i am really really impressed with how these guys are fishing very composed right now two hours left in the event a lot on the line they know they're they they don't know where they're at in the standings but they know that they are probably one of the three or four that's actually got a legitimate shot every time i get taken in that brush ball you just intend to bite it's the closest you can be to success in the forest away only being three to five minutes you know or a three to five cast from making it happen you know that's that's all it takes three to five casts but then those three to five casts never come and you have no idea what happened this sport is like none you've ever seen before simply because we've seen you you mentioned that josh had lost a giant and he lost a four pounder that he touched those are game changers even in this event he would have sewn this thing up had those two fish been landed so it's a it's a game of highs and lows and they happen within a split second you hook an eight pounder you're probably the happiest guy in the entire world until you get him to the boat and he comes off and then you could possibly be the lowest man in the world at that point in time just because that fish got away and boy that's the guys that can bounce out of that and bounce back are the ones that typically tend to really strive in in this sport because you've got to shake that you've got to get that out of your head and go on there's nothing you can do about what is in the past at that point other than try not to make a mistake if you've made one or change a piece of equipment that caused that issue to arrive that's it and these guys are really fishing composed they feel like they're sticking to their guns now i noticed that scott is fishing in a grass line now yeah brian he and that's what i was just pulling up some notes from last night he said he wasn't really wasn't really dialed in to one thing or another he wasn't going to just stick out deep he wasn't going to go shallow he was going to maybe fish some grass he was going to switch it up in the morning and see what it told him he didn't really have that great of a morning so now he's exploring some of those grass lines and it you can get right in the in the perfect grass mat at rayburn just as quick as you can in a brush pile yeah right the right five casts and a grass mat can yield three or four the quality bites you need absolutely i mean he's got some pretty good territory going on there it looks like a lot of hydrilla out there i mean just because the water's dropped a little bit doesn't mean it means they were scattered out before yes and maybe the lot the majority of them have moved to those offshore brush piles but that doesn't mean that there still couldn't be a couple of giants up there and if you make the right pitch i've based a lot of my career on that just just trying to you know put the bait in front of one of those big bites but it's it's one of those places that are just less pressured as um daryl mentioned earlier there's a lot of pressure on reverend today because it's a saturday a lot of other events going on and there's systems within the nation that are just known for that type of fishing so you go to sam rayburn in the summertime you know that most of the big fish are going to be caught offshore on brush piles especially in a multi-tournament multi-day tournament exactly and so he who gets in the right rotation has the most brush piles and the best brush pulse wins right but when you get added pressure boat pressure flotillas other events going on and now a lot of the anglers with today's technology have found everything that there is to find even if they can't maximize its potential they've still been around it and they've caused the fish to become a little bit leery so now you have grass edges that have completely been overlooked and they're and they're they're fresh they're rested yeah so when it comes to those brush piles i want to i want to roll you know an animation and show our viewers what we're talking about with offshore brush piles if you don't know what sam rayburn's about some of these might be five ten feet wide four feet tall some of these are 10 20 feet tall you know and they're 30 feet of water chad walk me through this animation it's gonna it's gonna show us this brush pile and how the fish relate to it there's a lot of different fish around each brush pile and how some are tucked in in summer on the outskirts you know and there's a lot of different conditions that that are variables that change their position a pressure sun positioned wind lack of wind cloud cover you can see the ones that are buried in the brush pile like that that that typically happens a lot of times whenever the sun's at its highest point you have you know um no wind whatsoever or they've been pressured really hard and they're getting this far into that cover because that's where they feel as safe as possible it's kind of like riding out a tornado in your home you get to the in innermost portion that is the safest now here comes the bait yeah so a couple there's a couple different ways to approach it some want to go straight to the center of the brush pile and some want to give it a run on the outside like we saw with douglas with a swim bait but also a guy like keith combs with a crankbait that's what this whole goal is to hit those edges before you work to the center of it absolutely that way you've got more of a chance of catching them if they're if they're on top or off to the sides or out of front or back depending on the approach obviously that's where your different baits and different casts and different angles will really pay off like it has for josh and it's probably going to pay off in highs already for heath and they're trying different baits so they're giving the fish a different look you know obviously a crankbait has worked at a completely different speed than the jig is the jig you throw it closer to the cover work it a little slower through the cover up and over whereas a crank bait you have the speed the deflection and you have more of a reaction type bike that occurs now once you figure that out and there's a specific rotation with baits when an approach to a brush pile that work best at any given time and the guys who figure that out and capitalize on it that's what brush pile fishing is all about right there and that's one benefit i mean a jig is great for maybe lethargic fish not not feeding active feeding fish but also it does a reaction strike we saw it in that fish catch of an 811 with daryl gleason yesterday we saw it with josh douglas even when you pull it over that limb because it's primarily weedless and you can fish thicker the heart of those as soon as you pull it over a limb that fish is maybe rising up from the center of the brush pile watching it and when it's struggling and finally breaks free they know they have to they have to get it right then or they're not going to be able to get it it's almost like a it's almost like a bait fish or other food source fleeing at the last second it's it's last ditch effort and that's what's causing that reaction bite from that jig that's been pulled up over or worked into that heavy cover i love those old-school animations i i grew up with those fast master tv i mean they explained it so great unless you get a scuba mask and you swim down to see what a brush pile is some of those animations are just so explanatory for viewers who who don't fish sam rayburn or don't know maybe they only fish grass and they don't fish wood they don't see how fish positioned within it so you bring up an interesting point now with today's electronics that we can look forward in all around while we're actually fishing like that garmin live scope and some of the others what happens is now we have learned so much more about fish reaction and position that it's so obvious you can't ignore it and it's not an unknown anymore whereas before the animations is what educated us in bassmaster magazine and the television show and then you put it all together but then now you really have an interesting perspective in a different different view and it is educational it's justifying and it's aggravating all three at the same time because sometimes you could see them down there my my my uh partner there brian snowden he can attest to that at table rock we spent several hours in the boat together fishing trees and brush piles and you're like well i can see him down there here he comes and no bite that does teach you you know color change up cadence or heavier jig lighter jig you know fall rate different things and you get to experiment and see a live result of how they do it i remember seeing some of that live sonar with a swimbait watching fish follow it back and see them not yep commit to it and then you can now throw a drop shot and catch those same fish and you're like why am i not getting a bite oh well they're following it and you wouldn't have known it in years past you can kick you can kick the swim bait and get him to react to it right the last second make a couple quick retrieve changes and and all of a sudden the bite happens and um you know when to do it more so now than what we did in the past before we were kind of guessing at or just trying and then we'd get it's something that worked for us for a little while um and just stick with it we'll get this one we'll roll all right he said we're gonna hit this and i mean this four pounder is what i mean this four pounder what he's did say was i'm gonna make you know one more cast and then we're gonna roll no doubt in my mind there's one in there just hadn't made it bite today brian schatz got an awesome story he's on the right this is his first bassmaster event since 1997. he said when he was a young man he gave it a run and traveled the country and did a lot of things i i noticed the states that were involved he fished all over the country took a break in 97 or after 97 season fished around texas did all that stuff and basically quit team partner fishing uh maybe two years ago and started fishing with his son teaching his son how to fish and getting him involved and he said man i haven't fished team tournaments with high intensity high competitiveness i'm going to give it a shot with this open coming up and and he's obviously sitting in the top 12. i said man your whistle might have been wet just enough to maybe do this next year maybe do it going forward and get back into it he said well we'll we'll play by ear and see i know that if he won a trophy today it probably uh his son might love bass fishing a little bit more and i know he'd be a it would be very fulfilling for a local angler to compete at this level oh yeah absolutely and what you know what better thing to take a break for is to to spend time with your son and teaching fishing that's what this sport's about and obviously he has a tremendous amount of skill to pass on and experience to his son so his son's very lucky that he has a dad that is so talented and well diverse and can obviously still catch him get the job done right when he says son i know what i'm doing his son has to now believe him so brian shot one of our top 12 anglers we've seen a lot of guys out on the water today five cameras uh with the top five guys we've seen some magic with josh douglas a seven and a half pounder gleeson has been doing his milk run do you think gleason will get the two or three necessary bites for him to regain that lead he's got two hours like he said that's a tough deal but like you said right brush pile the right time and it can work i like i do like the fact that he has a lot of room to move because of his weight that he currently has and he's still so close and he knows the area really well so if he can just do it i think he can get the job done we will see we've got just a few hours left of tournament action every single big fish is going to help a lot of these guys have now filled their limit and it's time to cull like you said daryl gleason a lot of room to grow with one and a half pounders in his live well he's looking for those four five six pounders to make a big impact on the leaderboard keith combs won as well he's got a couple small ones in the live well darrell gleason's looking to retain his lead that he had to start the day this seven and fish half pounder has josh douglas on the unofficial lead at the top of bass track with just an hour and a half or so of fishing left before they run back in can it will it be enough it's gonna be some fireworks coming up also watch chris wilson coming from back in the pack has a chance he's within range we know how fast track can be guys can underestimate fish they can catch fish at the last second they don't make it on the on bash track we will see but no one's out of it no one's out of it from the top seven or eight up everyone's got a shot tune in right after this commercial break we'll be right back to see more fireworks on sam rayburn live coverage of the nationwide bassmaster opens live will return after this short break you're watching the nationwide bassmaster opens live welcome back bassmaster live final day action at sam rayburn reservoir jasper texas is the host we're glad to bring you live coverage brought to you by nationwide and that's our top 10 right now unofficially josh douglas still on top chris wilson sneaking up from back in the pack into second keith combs filled his limit 53 pounds 11 ounces overall darryl gleason still stuck with his small limit we're watching douglas right now live [Music] on sam rayburn looks like josh maybe made another move it looks like he's throwing something slow like he's either dragging his football jig or a carolina rig maybe at this point i know that's a real effective way to fish around a brush too obviously i said hey josh dial me in on a couple key baits that you've used and he said yeah you know i've done a few i've used the uh his coatings hooked up good he's sawing like he's a big one you sure oh no uh is he a helper was he a helper maybe a yeah that's what i'm thinking but i asked him i said dial me in on a few baits just to give me a couple just just a taste of what you're throwing out there he said well i've been throwing a big worm you know and then i'll also throw a big jig and then you know i'll crank some maybe throw a drop shot you know throw a swim bait a little bit carolina rigs i'm like oh okay so you're really keeping everything wide open and that's what that's josh's style just not letting anything go unchecked and so he's like he's switching right now yeah that's that's not a bad way to fish in the fall because they get such a good look at a lot of football jigs and guys get locked into one thing and then and then the next thing you know the time just kind of slips away from you but that's pretty good now on the other hand when you're a guy like on the left side of the screen here keith combs he's got all the experience in the world that you could possibly want not that josh doesn't but keith i mean he's so confident with just a couple of baits yeah that that that's what makes him dangerous exactly yes but those baits do different things and operate at different speeds obviously and you couple that with the knowledge that he's got in all of the different locations that he can fish and um i tell you you can't count him out until the the bell rings till his floats in the net they'll check in that's it he's cranking now he's cranking again i'm surprised we haven't seen someone throw a normal spoon or or maybe even a magnum spoon because it's not the deepest brush and you can and with our techno you can see the brush much better so you know you're not going to get hung up directly casting it but something like that but i don't know what size the gizzard shad are right now what phase they are if they're out there you know why someone hasn't thrown a big spoon that's a good question it is challenging in and around brush but like you said with today's electronics you can you can definitely put that into your favor now i'm certain with the depth that they're fishing on these brush piles they're not the fish are not going to let them get over them but still you can make those casts if those fish get on the outside of that at all yeah let that let that spoon come jerk by the side of the brush pile or out you know like those fish you said on the way to a brush pile before you get up to it this would be big i would i feel like i know josh pretty well or daryl pretty well if if either one of them won today i guarantee you there will be some some water works at some point during the the process because it they have they have calluses on their hands you know they're bruised and beaten up from just years and years of of high level competition and getting so close yeah no doubt douglas is making a run move now you know i don't know daryl and i certainly goes by it's obvious that you and him have a special relationship if he's pinching your dimples and running your fingers through your hair but i do know josh so i'm assuming daryl's a pretty good guy if you're vouching for him um but um when josh same way he is uh he's really put in a lot of time and effort he's been so close and uh i know that this would mean the world to him and he's one of those anglers that we are talking about that that this could be a life even though josh fish is for a living this could be a lot one of those life-altering situations for him to get to go to the class and just to make the classic and or maybe the solidifying elite series he's one you know a lot of guys take a classic birth and it's a classic birth some guys take advantage of it and make it more than that there are a couple anglers today that would love to take home the title not only to prove themselves they can win at this level but also the prize money that comes with it and the opportunity for the classic the elite series points that it provides for you to possibly qualify it's uh we'll get into the qualification in this last hour and a half of how those guys will do at the points but like we said daryl gleason having a heck of a week 17 pounds on day one 27 pounds on day two he had that nine seven and an eight eleven yesterday and he's got a limit for about eight eleven today you know that's the the he's not it was easy for him almost to catch two fish over 811 and today all five of his fish probably weigh around that mark so one or two key calls a four or five pounder doesn't even have to be that much it doesn't have to be that much from where he's at in the leaderboard he's only about five or six pounds off the pace if he catches two four pounders calls out two ones that's that's the six pounds you need maybe gleason's obviously been wanting to throw a football jig all day but has been opting for a drop shot early to fill his limit now he has put the jig in his hand and a guy who hasn't put down any of the power fishing stuff you mentioned it chad a dangerous angler when he's got these two or three baits in his hand a big jig for keith combs and a crankbait his iconic i'm surprised it's not called like combs truce or something is the color blue back chartreuse belly that is keith combs crankbait of choice and we saw him catch some on it this morning the punch just came up back there he is definitely talented with it that is far sure big one he's the one who's right there just lingering three pounds seven ounces out of the league right now with plenty of room to move with plenty of room he's got a two pounder and a one pounder a guy who has been in contention all week the day one leader dropped back to second place yesterday masayuki matsushita started with a three pounder earlier this one we got to see that immediately the first fish of bassmaster live yeah then he went on a lull he was one of those guys who didn't run around a bunch he stayed on those certain brush piles that were good to him and he yielded this six pounder before he made his first move of the day he had to have a big stream of confidence coming to him knowing that you know knowing that he already has a six pounder in the live well early second fish of the day but since then it's just been caught a spotted bass right here out of a brush pile you can see that one was either on the back side of it or right in the heart of it you said his bait his bait choice has been mixed up a little bit throwing what looks like to maybe be like a fluke which i know is great on a carolina rig things like that that was a that was a texas rig but different subtle approaches these changes whether it's a drop shot whether it's a different kind of soft plastic or yielding fish on these brush piles josh douglas started this morning with a drop shot it's becoming pretty apparent that today is certainly uh showing that the lake has succumbed to pressure and and the the weekend it's just you are not the one most of the fish catches that we've seen take place have been on finesse tactics most of them not all but um and then you know obviously josh really feeling comfortable with the finesse approach as he always does or i'm sure i said versatile you're going to see here you can change it up that's one good thing fishing a drop shot to get bites is good but keeping those power efficient baits honest when it's the right time that can be the game changer this was one resulted in him nothing but one to two pounders in his live well and then he catches this oh boy oh boy come here come here come here he's still hanging on to that one he's still barely hanging on to the lead unofficially so i know he'd like to have another one like that yeah and really i told you i got bit right he's gonna be strong strong if he gets one more he was hung up in the brush there set the hook thought he had a fish hung up in the brush and then gave it a little bit of slack and fish swam out out of the game for a moment there i thought he did hook brush on the hook set and the fish ate it off the brush you never know he said he felt a bite but they often do that as well it's one of those things you see a jig flying gets stuck into a piece of wood and all of a sudden you're like whoa i don't have to get off because the fish bit it right off the the structure yep a lot of times cranking a crankbait it gets hung in a brush pile you're trying to pop it free and the next thing you know it's got help elite series pro lee lipsy fish this event had a solid showing um overall this week let me see where he finished at lee lucy finished 36 got a check in cut range top 40 get a check he said the spoon was definitely a big player that's how i was catching my big ones out deep off the brush piles i just never got comf comfortable enough to go fish for them i had two almost nine uh two almost nine pounds out deep on a spoon in practice i didn't want to leave my shallow stuff until i had 17 pounds and i never got to go on on day 2. it just goes to show you know that that you had talked about the spoon earlier and just like the football jig it can definitely trigger by looks like josh might have had a bite there he was about to set the hook it looked like back back off of it one thing that that tells me and tell me if i'm reading between the lines incorrectly but it seemed like it was a little easier for libsy to catch numbers of fish up shallow and he said once he got to 17 pounds he would go offshore and fish for him which tells me that maybe it was much tougher offshore he wasn't getting many bites so the guys who picked offshore they better live there all day long because it's not like you can go out there and and get right into her you need to have weight and go cold and that's what it seemed like he only had 16 and 12 each day so he didn't get the chance to go spend time out there yeah that's that's just one of those you know one of those judgment calls that you've got to make depending on how your practice went and your confidence going out it's hard to switch from it's hard to leave biting fish to go to something that you you've spent several hours doing it maybe only had one or two yeah they they're bigger but um when you set those when you set those guidelines for yourself a lot of times um it can be a lot of times it can just be challenging going getting out of it because you you're always wanting to get to that mark you know that makes you feel safe it's just like catching a few before you go ahead and commit to another pattern it's uh and it's one of those one of those really difficult decisions to make i don't know if keesco angler's cranking yeah he's cranking out of the back those two guys came into today chasing this man our day two leader daryl gleeson hooked up moments ago he's kind of what i got i can catch up to it he's got five for seven and three quarters in his live well most anything will call like a good keeper i think get rid of that little one he acts like he's gonna cuddle up for a few ounces right here couldn't catch up that little sucker dude one thing that's different thank you he measured almost all of his hair i'm so happy to see a little two pounder in that one so he knows it's you know it's still a lot i've been to a lot of tournaments where i was happy yeah he's making a pretty significant call there i'll take that train yeah most definitely almost a pound call up right there it looked like that's another lot i want to be greedy right now we'll catch you big thank you still fishing really poised he's doing a good job keeping it together i think he took second here at sam rayburn earlier this year in an flw flw event was he may not have been second but he was in the top five for sure had a shot to win that's where he coined the coin the phrase ocean pony that's what he calls a big one he got to do that on camera just like he did yesterday on the gopro now what does this do we're watching keith combs on the right we have gerald swindle in our top 12 as well from the elite series and then i just mentioned lee lipsy finished 36th lee livesey's having a tough tough year sitting down unexpectedly in 68th and points gerald swindle 57th in points and then keith combs 34th in points three guys you expect to be within the classic cut line for sure and they're they're ones in one's out and one's far away from it having good finishes at the opens level what does that do for you even though it's a different field no points for your elites it doesn't help you in there but to to remind yourself you can catch them get back on track when we hit guntersville for the three-week stretch uh and start that maybe have a different mindset than getting you know coming from the northern swing yeah so there's a couple of things to keep in mind here and that's a good question obviously um these guys don't need to prove that they can catch fish but what happens is you get to questioning the the calls that you're making on the water and and and then sometimes you way overthink the situation and you start fishing patterns that uh that everything not only shouldn't be but aren't and uh it's just kind of one of those things where it's hard to get out of that pattern sometimes and like i said you don't they don't need to prove anything to anybody they've they've already very much substantiated their presence in this industry and and um have been for quite some time but you know you just have sometimes you have a few off years but the one thing that all three of those guys have in common that you just mentioned mentioned those are largemouth fishermen extreme not that they can't do really well on smallmouth but coming back to their wheelhouse they're coming back into their wheelhouse we're going to get into some tournaments and i'm pretty sure you're going to see out of a couple of them for sure you're going to see them up the leaderboard not any further down so it might make hard drive and you can catch a little power now when you go into a tough tournament with a lot of boats and you catch them and you grab that confidence and then you get into the lead series the the competition is still extremely difficult to unwind but the field size is smaller it's half the size you don't you don't have co-anglers in the boat with you not that that's good or bad but it just is different you make decisions differently and you're like and it just gives you that maybe that little boost that you get we're gonna go right gleason's planning on making a move it's some interesting insight i know that not every single year goes to plan for pros but we also have to think every year we end our season on smallmouth the points are pretty much solidified there's a little bit of movement that can be had for the last two or three small mouth events those two three or two or three smallmouth events happened as event three four and five of our season and we still have half the year left of largemouth and so instead of already having those points racked up where you're allowed to struggle now these guys who are large mouth specialists like you said have to really prove it and catch back up a little bit but they can do it really quick oh absolutely i think everybody can agree this has been a uh let's just put an interesting year to say the least with everything that's going on and all of the changes and postponements and the effects and from covid and and all the restrictions that we've had to abide by um just to even make place looks like combs is hooked up and it might be a decent grab not too far long and lean that one's probably not gonna whoa is that a different crankbait color that is not the chartreuse blue bag oh you're right brian brian's over here watching off off camera he's uh he does have other colors he does have other colors that's the one other color he throws i think he if i'm remembering he likes a green gizzard as well that's a solid color all over the country this might call from him like i said he has i think he has a a limit that has a four a three a three and then a two and a one so this depending on how small his one is it could be like a call that gleason just did mm-hmm yeah it is oh yeah for sure that is literally the definition of a swimmer it must have been a spot which is also interesting over the last few years having spots come into toledo bend and rayburn that changes the dynamics of some of these i could see an eight pounder eating a spotted bass compared to why why feed on a bluegill if you want to eat a 12-inch spot yeah i mean they eat giant crappie all the time i wouldn't eat a spot of bass too for sure you know a lot of these guys also like you said they're really um they're really pushing hard not only for a win in a classic birth year but the points race is still on and this will be the second out of three so it's getting this jockeying position is getting established you know and the cut line is pretty much going to be able to be established point wise to where these guys have a chance and these guys don't you know i certainly uh i'm not sure how josh did in the first one he's actually i was just pulling it up one thing that's interesting this year you take the top four qualifiers from the eastern division the top four from the central and then top four overall there are eight bassmaster opens four in each division and if you fish all of them you fish both divisions that ups your odds of making it not only in each division but overall and douglas fishing all eight of them seventh overall in the points race um and then obviously he'll do just fine um with this good finish in central so well like you said the only three events under our belts in the opens five more left to go this season i'm excited to continue to bring live coverage to the open see these stories pan out see those seven and a half pounders for guys like josh douglas see the charisma from guys like daryl gleason trying to maximize their opportunity to win events like this there's your unofficial top 10 right now as we head to a commercial break real quick josh douglas still on top looking to make another call or two chris wilson right behind him keith combs just made a call we'll see that update in just a moment darrell gleason rounding out the top four we'll be right back the nationwide bassmaster opens live is brought to you by humminbird [Music] mercury minn kota and by talon you're watching the nationwide bassmaster opens live welcome back to final day coverage we're winding down the day it's 2 10 eastern time we have an hour and a half of fishing before they check in for weigh-in you watch the weigh-in on bassmaster.com 3 45 p.m eastern time that's when the first flight checks in there is only one flight today you'll be able to watch that all go down chris bose the tournament director will host the weigh-in and crown champions not only on the pro side but there is a co-angler division going on right now as well in the backs of the boats we've seen some co-anglers land some fish this morning that will have them in a good position to win some prize money as we go through the day's action so far our day two leader daryl gleason sitting on top he had 44 pounds and four ounces after two days of fishing that was a 17-pound bag and a 27-pound bag nothing but small fish so far to him for him today on a spinning rod with a drop shot once he got his limit he said hey i'm going to dedicate the rest of my day to a jig now i need those crucial bites and that's what he's utilized uh to cull up each and every day but today it's only been a once that he he has only had one bite on the jig since he's done that and it was not the quality nearly of an eight or nine pounder but more of a two and a half pounder [Applause] chad morgan taylor elite series pro joining me in studio today co-host in the duty and one of your one of your competitors on the elite series one of the guys who's actually if he won it today would add a classic spot to the elite series angler of the year keith combs because he didn't fish any of the other opens winning today would just prove that well everything that we already thought keith comes was very good at sam rayburn and very great in texas but he is sticking to his guns chad just like you expect we know him as a great power fisherman crankbait big jig and that's what he's done today and that's what he's going to end this tournament with that's what he's done for two days that's what he's going to do you don't see a spinning rod i don't believe it all on keith's deck and you probably won't even see one in these boats but that's what makes him dangerous all the way till the whistle sounds like you said the fob's in the net yeah that's what that's when he's no longer a threat but even then you gotta weigh him in so and somehow that all rhymes by the way i just realized that until the bob's in the net he's no longer throwing keith comes he's got a four pounder some three pounders and then uh some two pounders in his live well he did just make a coal when we went to commercial break last time and so we take it out to him live and he's in third his coal is not reflected he should be around 54 and a half pounds maybe but he's still in third place behind chris wilson and josh douglas our leader chad you got about an hour and a half of fishing left 20 minutes of that is probably running back at least to take off so about an hour for most of these guys at minimum what are you looking to achieve in this final hour normally when you have 19 flights or 10 flights of boats you have an advantage you get to check in later than other people today everyone checks in the same time you can't gain an advantage by culling late in the day when someone's not fishing so you know that when you check in they're all done what are you doing for this last hour to get your job done man you got to let it all hang out right now and you got to cut it to the wire if you think you're close and you got a shot so you got to think okay the worst i can do is 10th here and obviously you don't want to check in late but i mean you're going to cut it to the last minute and you're putting together your a game plan at this point and you are you are pulling all the tricks out of the hat you are hitting some of your juice and you're relying on every bit of experience and on the water time that you have to lead you into the as good of a finish as you can possibly have now no matter what happens here today whoever ends up on top all these anglers have had a great event okay we can sit here at armchair quarterback this and this is my first time being able to do this and it's very interesting we talked about this of some of the things that you see that is so different that you that you know what they're going through that you get you know some of the some of the anglers get into uh a pattern or a vision and that's all they're going to try that's what got them here that's what they're going to take and you're sitting here watching them and say wow i can see why whenever i finish an event you know some of my friends say well why didn't you do this or why didn't you try that or if you'd just win or why did you decide to do that and um it's interesting to see how that that information rise but these guys have all had great events only one person can win this event that's the sad thing about it but right now it looks like it boils down to if anybody had a trick that could put a percentage of catching a large fish higher than than anything else they better be doing it right now because one of those is going to make the difference for every single yeah every one of them yeah every one of them so you got to do it you got a fish if it's throwing a big swim bait if it's trying something different or if it's sticking with that jig in the brush piles just do it and know that you've done everything that you can at that point josh douglas our unofficial leader right now start of the day in third very confident very confident yesterday had a great bag to jump into third 19 pounds and change after having 24 on day one but he was so disappointed he said he could have had a giant day he had a four pounder in his hands and it came off that big yesterday he lost an eight-pounder in a brush pile it came up to the surface and then went back down and got stuck today hasn't that we've seen he's gotten out and then he caught that seven and a half pounder that we'll see in just a second that's exactly even that big kind of the way you want your day to go you would love to catch five big ones to start your day and be done but he did he caught a limit or he caught he caught three or four fish and capped it off with a seven and a half pounder and then from there made another call and he's he's still sitting at that uneasy spot where he can get caught real easy but he's also he can close the door real fast as well yeah one more and he will close the door to where it's just barely cracked for sure and there'll only be one or two anglers that could slide in it yeah six or seven at the last stop of the day to do that exactly exactly oh boy come here come here come here yes man i just love what i've seen with how josh is approaching some of these piles just a little bit differently than some of these other guys i told you i got you there he is he he is definitely checking all the boxes fish on the outsides fish on top fish on swim baits you've not seen him with a spinning rod at this point at this point much anymore you know he's throwing bigger baits it looks like to try to catch that one he knows nope there he is with a spinning rod right now so it's interesting he might be going back to some of those key brush piles that have yielded big fish and now he realizes that he himself not the lake not the spec he himself have put so much pressure on some of these spots that he needs to now adjust and come back with now you did say he lost a big one on a spinning rod yesterday right that took a lot don't do this to me come on you got to come out you got to come out you got to come out you got to come out come out come out come out come on please come out please come out don't do this to me come out oh dude that's a big end dude come out please come oh find your way out come on come on come on come on don't come on no no no no no no no no come on still there i think it's still there dude come on she's there she's still there come on oh god come on find your way out of the brush pile please swim away swim out of there come on come on oh come on dude come on come out please come out come on just comes nope come on come on he's changing angles open find your way out earlier earlier with a two pounder but this is different it was pulling drag big time come on girl you're still there come on oh you feel that get pissed come on come on i i think i can still hear his drag peeling just a little bit like every every so often i don't know if it's him pulling it or if it's whatever stuck on the other end of it he doesn't know where he sits in the leaderboard but that was me quietly trying to take a breath because i've been holding it the whole time this is crazy he doesn't know that he's on top he probably thinks he needs 20 pounds to even be close he thinks he's out of it and so he knows he needs this fish and he hasn't realized the position he's in that this could be the one like you said that could close the door where it's just barely barely cracked the fact that his mind hasn't broke is is astounding to me that he has put that much pressure on it lately and he's practicing so much patience right now just hoping he just went i think he went back and below it and now he's over to the side of it just a little bit so now he's right over top of it try to poke it with his rod anything right now normally if you pull it like he is straight up and down when it's stuck in brush it's gonna break and so if it's a fish it's you can probably feel it maybe see-sawing back and forth he hasn't given us any indication that he can still feel her anymore she's still there she's still there yeah wow he's going to give her last oh god she just moved where are you and then you just pray it's a bass i wish i was illegal to go swimming god come on these are this highs and lows that we talked about earlier if he lands his fish look at her you can see her best ketchup here he'll be unbreakable see swim out there you go swim out i can't get this she's still going oh oh come on she's swimming away get out of there oh oh my gosh no don't keep coming keep coming keep coming oh oh he is so close don't do that i got some line back she already said there you got sun line back which means you know like that would show that he made some she goes again yeah if you're just tuning in to bassmaster live right now josh douglas our unofficial leader oh hooked up with this fish and it put him in the brush took him back under wrapped him up and he we saw it earlier he fought a two pounder got it out of the brush and was able to land it this one seems much bigger we haven't got to see it uh come up and splash yet he says he still feels it on he made some progress with it just a moment ago and brought it closer to the top of the brush pile but it's still hung up this is one that could be the decision maker exactly he acted like when he first said this was definitely definitely the size that he was looking for it was like when he set the hook it was going away from him towards the brush when he set the hook come out yeah um he's torquing that rod and it's over that's so frustrating ah i just lost one i can't even really be mad it's the spinning rod's my last my last option might as well pull up the troll motor and leave because he just tortured that brush pile enough like you said disturbed it the fish that are there and this is where he's been putting whatever braid to floral combo he's had this week has been fantastic but just one too many torques on it and it and it finally gave way and you want to get out of there before you see it come up and jump and show what it was you don't want to be there and see that you might as well get out but josh jokes that was a make or break moment like you said if he catches that fish he is bulletproof he is he is you know going to be so confident but we got to put in perspective still in the lead with an hour left in the tournament yeah i mean he's he's just looking to to expand that lead obviously you know and to try to try to secure that position but uh man oh man what a heartbreaker no matter what you know that fish definitely was ones he's keying on and the one he wants to try to catch there's gonna be a couple key fish caught in the last hour of this tournament make sure you stick with us we're gonna go to commercial break we'll be right back and we're gonna see it unfold who wins sam rayburn live coverage of the nationwide bassmaster opens live will return after this short break [Music] you're watching the nationwide bassmaster opens live here we are the final day action final hour action sam rayburn for the basspro.com bassmaster central open if you've been following along josh douglas the man right there our unofficial leader with just an hour left of action and he fought this fish for five six seven minutes spinning rod the fish got tangled up in brush he got right over top of it made progress put some put some torque on it tried a lot of different angles finally got a little bit of light at the end of tunnel that the fish was going to come out and then it eventually didn't he put a little too much pressure and right here broke his line off and did not get that fish in the boat he had to had to pull up from there and leave because that brush pile is no longer good to him but hey you can take those risks you can make those gambles when you have a seven and a half pounder as your kicker on the final day of competition in your limit in this seven and a half pounder he fought out of the brush earlier is one that is really helping his cause if he wants to win today's open and punch his ticket to the bassmaster classic seven and a half pounder helps the cause and that's why he is on the unofficial lead on bass track by about two pounds give or take some he's got about 15 pounds with that seven and a half so if he can make a cull in this last hour he has a lot of room to grow he has four for seven and a half and then you add that seven and a half and that's how he has 15 pounds that is our unofficial leader board right there josh douglas like i said just a little bit a little bit less than two pound lead over chris wilson keith combs is looming behind there another pound and a half behind darryl gleason the day two leader small small limit for him right now it's been a tough day on here on uh sam rayburn for him and masayuki matt sashida has been at the top of the leaderboarder near it all three days of this event the day one leader felt a second day two and now he's in the top five we welcome in brian snowden he joined us in the first three hour segment of bassmaster live for the open at rayburn it's been some wild last two hours of action and you're gonna be able to watch the final hour unfold what do you expect to see well you're going to see some uh you know i think some guys move hit their most key areas at the last bit to try and catch those big fish and i'm just real impressed with josh's patience i mean working that fish that long in that brush amazing it is if josh would have paid off and caught that it could have been a sportscenter top 10 you know a highlight moment of his career but he learned from it he broke it off and he moved on kept his head up hey i'm gonna go look for more fish i got i still have to get a fish or two probably with the weights they've had this week douglas has nowhere near what he thinks he needs to win he doesn't know he's in the unofficial lead right now and brian shot he is one who's uh a local to rayburn one of those texas guys jumping in the open trying to put his hat in the ring to win and he's hooked up right now yeah fell down to eighth place today from the fourth yeah and he's one of the guys we've seen him do actually the most unique moving for shallow i think he's got a good one i don't know he's crazy right he's just crazy he's just crazy he's doing the big fish shuffle you notice that left right left right squat down a little bit more athletic position oh no oh we got it nothing unconventional but it is boat flipped and it does count i got the color how about this move it's uh i got a pliers this will put him up a lot and there was four i think this just uh this was moments ago when we were starting uh from commercial break and this has moved him up to fifth place 52 pounds he's in that 52-53 range where three or four guys are so he could be as low as fifth and as high as third you just don't know we see a two box there with daryl gleason on the left and keith combs on the right and make a few casts and go we uh we got an hour and five minutes and we are probably 15 get back or so something like that but i'm just going to keep fishing my way back i'm going to stop and uh you know make six seven casts at a few key piles that i'm hoping hasn't been beat to death everything's been beat up and know probably look at my weight yesterday and think i just had a great week and was on them and all that stuff and it just really didn't i've been fortunate to get where i'm at so we're talking about how tough it is we're just sticking with our plan it's the best thing i know to do to catch some big ones and um and now it looks like he's talking positive that's what i needed some great big seven or eight casts each of this we're just gonna run it all the way back but down to an hour and five minutes so something's gotta happen pretty quick probably only have time to really hit maybe three or four spots or something and see what happens that coal that we saw him make that we you know sorry for one though if he's crazy enough to bite this jig right put it up to nine pounds and change for him so it was a steady call for him yeah this is a you know brush pile fishing one-on-one you know everything works right three over eight pounds you know you end up with and all the solid 59 10 pounds come on so you know what i believe they only got one jig fish they wouldn't be here the day before i had three so no it's a v m pacemaker football jig and and we actually have it in a color called gleason's candy that that i really like and uh throwing a little j bug on it which is a v m bait also and it's in a matching color and gleason's candy so it uh it's just my my confidence color and uh i kind of knew after practice i didn't find anything spectacular that i'd be running around chasing these brush pile fish and i told my wife if i could weigh in 15 out of the brush that i may have a chance to do something special and you know we just hadn't had enough bites today i probably just didn't have enough of the key areas and have my timing down just right and so we fished pretty clean no uh no regrets any stuff so far today so i'm just gonna try to finish the last hour like i've been doing all week and just try to it it's really hard i'm trying to fish a lot of places but i'm trying to fish them slow so you go from running 70 miles an hour down the lake and you jump up and you throw in there and you drive as low as you can so yeah you really got to keep your wits about you and uh when you do get a bite especially if it's a good one you really got to be on your game to get a good hook set and get them out of that pile so but we got an hour left and then i'm probably gonna play golf for a day or two and chill on the couch so for the next hour we're gonna try to uh just stay focused and cover as much of these piles we can see if anything magical happens how's darrell gleason broke it down i mean from his from his three-quarter ounce football jig with a j bugger every time my jig gets in that pile i'm just waiting for that magic thump trying to imagine something while running fast to get to each other it keeps us all fishing you never know what's going to be on the end of it when you feel that so i was blessed this week to catch the three great big ones i did and catch two of them like that yesterday it was just a you know those just miracle fish he's still got time for a couple more miracles you know oh exactly thankful i had him though and and and had this chance all day today man it's been a ball even though i don't look like it i've had a awesome time guys like me don't get this chance very often to uh you know be in position to to win and make the bassmasters classic and so doesn't matter what happens next hour we'll be happy with the results he says that but if he keeps getting it open on toledo bend on my home lake and it was it was incredible but everything has to go your way and everything went my way that week and this week most everything went my way and it got me here uh you know i think we just kind of ran out of gas so far so but we'll see we still got plenty of time you know yesterday i caught basically in an hour i caught almost all the fish i weighed in and it was late in the day so there we go you know just try to stay positive anything can happen i just got to keep yeah they probably want to check that out because i'm sure if i don't do it somebody's gonna probably catch one at the end here it's gonna really change things for everybody uh there's no reason not to watch it over here at sam rayburn anything can happen so yeah bassmaster.com live weigh-in i believe it's gonna start at three we're all checking in at 2 45 so yeah i would tell everybody tune in and see how it goes if uh if i catch a couple of ocean ponies into the day i'll be ugly crying on stage and won't be ashamed of it a bit i'd like to he said that you know we still got time for some miracles he doesn't need miracles this point i do whatever it only takes one bite a seven pounder is is a five pound upgrade for him you know and that's and that's the league and it's not out of the question it's not like someone's at saint claire looking for a nine pound smallmouth at the last minute you know where it sounds is here i mean it can happen in in the middle of the version of like the little debbie brand i think he's talking about me again but his wife better lock the door mail him a selfie or something that's right boys gleason's making a move here like you said again gonna be running 70 miles an hour to get to his spot and just start hitting stuff okay and then stopping at brush piles making five six kev seven casts running five six seven cast brian shot still fishing like we said an hour until check-in which means maybe only 40 minutes of fishing 20 minutes of running unless you're slowly working your way down the lake where you only have a 10 minute final run to take off and i think that's what several of them are doing they're heading that way we're starting to see cameras fall off here and there from running they're picking up going so quick daryl gleason really wanted to just keep a jig locked in his hand if his perfect day on rayburn this week would just be five jig fish and that's what happened yesterday 27 pounds today one jig fish to cull out one of his drop shot fish that he used to uh fill his limit he caught five drop shot fish and then he's called up that coal took him from about seven pounds 12 ounces to about nine pounds and change so a good solid coal for him yeah he had the spinning rolled out and that just shows he said ma'am it's it's rayburn there's pressure i don't know if i fished out these spots when a brush pile produces a big fish each day for you you think maybe one more day but that could be just two territorial big ones that are on it it is a little different for viewers who might not know brush pile fishing possibly a little different than a than a ledge you know a ledge of kentucky lake that you find a school and they're all four pounders you find a school they're all two pounders brush piles they can mix in they do like to stay the same size though so that's not a good sign if you're catching small ones yeah and then they will vary to some extent but a lot of times um you know especially this time of year they don't seem to reload very well you know there's just uh you know one here one there and then with the pressure and the weekend i think that really slowed the fishing down today we're about maybe two three two three weeks maybe a month away from when fish start moving and that's when you say replenishing those fish aren't traveling anywhere to move to a different depth because of time of year they're already where they're going to be until fall hits right and if it's still 90 degrees in texas it's still status quo for summer yeah the douglas is hooked up oh yeah uh-oh looks like a decent one this could be oh god it's a big that's a big one dude oh my oh my oh she's not that big but she's not that small either come here not that small oh yeah see i was cutting like yeah that rod was doubled up i wasn't seeing anything right there that's one of the top four fish we've seen from all our anglers today and he has the number one one who thinks that before huh is that on the swim bait again i don't know if it was uh while he was reeling or if he was dragging but he said it was cutting so maybe when it thumped that swim bait maybe it just moved off one way which could be a good sign too maybe four pounder oh four what's he getting rid of i think he's got a two seventeen and something i don't know i'm just gonna gain two man more than two probably and see which one oh wait that is above 17. exactly and he had 15 three so that is a two plus pound call that is impressive the door is barely cracked now i'm going to throw my i'm crazy in there one time and one thing hey we got to point it out one thing that's important is uh fish health and and with the hot water temperatures if you get stuck with a small fish you might not be able to call your smallest because you can't throw back a dead one in bassmaster tournaments you can't you know you gotta you gotta weigh that so if let's just say douglas's smallest one wasn't doing well and wasn't wasn't alive that he can only call his next smallest one so it's less of an impact and that that's a possibility i don't know we heard when we were when the camera switched over he kind of seemed disgruntled and something was wrong and i don't know if it's i swear my we'll have to get my pull on my 360 is rotated it's off just a degree or two yeah maybe not it's never good when it's off a little bit until you hit that cover and you're like oh no no it's close it's pretty close to the boat it's pretty close to the hood i mean i'm way in it right there i promise that one more time we're gonna kind of and i will say we mentioned that fish care douglas brought in one that was deceased yesterday he checked in early but one had passed away and it was a four ounce four ounce penalty but also you can't get rid of it and so yesterday he made a call with a six pounder at the end of the day instead of getting rid of a two and a quarter he had to get rid of two and three quarter so that's half that he didn't get and then today if that's the case as well those are just ounces that you can't get back something to think about but it's a part of the sports part of the game and most people you know they take tremendous care of their fish with ice ices you know and you know if you need to fizz them because of that because of that penalty you know it really matters a lot and not to not to chill the water for people who are like oh just throw ice in there not to chill it to 75 but to keep it from rising to 93 94 you keep it at similar water that they would have came from if you catch them in 30 feet of water and the water temp on the surface is 88 it's probably maybe 80 down there or it's a little less usually it's about 5 degrees yes from the surface temperature and so that's what you're wanting you want to keep that water temperature uh to what they came from what they what they were living in because they're obviously healthy enough and fine enough to live in that on their own so in the live well they want to be that same water temperature so it's good to have a little handy do you have a floating thermometer or anything that you just have sitting in there that kind of tells you oh you can have a we have them mounted from our units yep they have a little sensor just like the ones on the outside of the boat it's also important to recirculate and pump in fresh water every now and then maybe pump in fresh water put ice cool that down and then whenever the ice is fully melted maybe you pump in a little bit more fresh water and keep it keep it i guess equilibrium keep it that normal and so it doesn't get too cold or too hot and when you're using ice you just don't want to pump in a lot of lake water you know recirculate usually always on high oxygenators if you have them and then just fill the water as needed that coal has josh at 17 and three quarters figuring out bass track today but what's crazy and i'm just going to say this albert collins is a guy who is known across the country at being a great sam rayburn angler i know i know albert he's old school he's probably not going to put in bass track numbers he's going to let the scales tell it he's down in 11th place 34-11 for two days he's 23-9 behind 23.9 is just a normal bag on rayburn so you just never know a lot of guys still in the game even ones that aren't on bass track jason christie's just below him 24 pounds behind even oh you know 24 even and they have not entered it yeah yeah exactly and so it's going to be a really fun way and but right there we could have just witnessed the fish the fish that won not only an event a classic birth uh a paycheck points towards the elites i mean it's everything josh has been wanting and working for exactly everything he's been so close to before like i mentioned he's got six top 20s in the opens amazing and the opens is a combination of the top elite series pros that decide to fish more tournaments in their years so they fish the opens you've got the top opens pros that are traveling rooting and trying to make the elite series you've got other touring pros and then you have the best locals that are going to jump in and throw their hat in the ring on there so you literally have a combination of the best of the best and that's exactly what we have even if you don't know that yeah even if you don't know their name you might not know brian's shot you might not know shane campbell people who fish rayburn know those names they're definitely pleased to see them fishing this tournament on saturday and not the local tournament might have launched as well i think keith's due for a good one i know it's been a little while he's back to a spot that he's been at this morning he's really leaned on this spot i can you can obviously tell the way the water is you can see it's low and it's it's got a main tree and bush area off the end of that point but then there's that little bit of that little peninsula yeah the saddle that's a perfect word for yeah saddle probably got a drain i would assume coming out of there a little depression i think it's called a creek channel across the whole country except in texas and it's called a drain right yeah that's it i think that's because of the grass i don't know they always refer to it as as a drain that region of where these guys are is some of it's right there where castle boykin is the boat ramp but also some is if you're on the other side of the lake that same region that other side it's called the canyons and it's and it's because there are a ton of drains that form islands that form you know that just all filter in those channels together a bunch of contour changes and a lot of those guys have been concentrating in that area yeah you've got a lot of good areas for spawning then the fish just move right out to like like we say those drains and depressions and pumps and the locals will put a lot of brush in there as well so yes and you can see the water line i'll tell you what when you're on the bushes i don't know if that's normal water line i've caught three bass in a row and then i start reeling it and i'm three for three so just remember that one i know i will i don't know why they don't eat it on the fall but they hit it you must be throwing a swim bait again if i caught a seven and a half pounder on championship saturday i would probably yeah especially now after you got the four yeah exactly and in the heat of the summer people might be like well that's just a lucky bite when you have a seven and a half and a four and that 11 and a half pounds makes up your 17 pounds that's not luck that's just nature of summertime fishing on these lakes you're going to get a big bite and you're going to just do your best to make your other four as good as they can be you know and at home it's more of a four and five pound size but it's always the person that has one or two of those wins the events and that's what you're seeing right here he's got a seven and a half and a four and the other ones are still quality not you know nothing nothing too small and uh he's still got room one more four pounder moving up another two pounds they're almost two pounds pounding three quarters with 220 plus boats the first two days of competition we narrowed it down to the top 12 and they're competing fishing a lot of spots you just think about it maybe these guys haven't had a lot of pressure today from competitors or anglers or random fishermen out there but 220 boats fishing you you know that there's a good number of them that have probably fished some of these spots and have just at least been around like like you said earlier maybe not maximized it but but fished it at least they were present there oh yeah you know with the electronics that everyone has nowadays it's it's almost impossible and the mapping is so good on our units that a lot of people fish these kind of places and they look for the same kind of structure so i don't have to look in there anymore be done with them we haven't really seen coma running gun we've seen a move but i haven't seen it like he seems to be pretty patient today i was surprised i thought he every time i see him he's going like crazy you know exactly and you can't tell if he's desperate or he is just putting the nail farther in the either way because coffin yeah running quick yeah he's always on the move this would be a feat though i know rayburn's great one of the best lakes in the country two o'clock he's so close to 60 pounds 20 pounds per day in late september or mid-september that is that's strong that is strong miles we've got to go he's checking his too choppy if i get on that bank distance right now 21 miles 30 minutes yeah he's got 45 minutes left to this day that gives us 15 minutes man he's got he's happy he's got a dialed in might be the last cast we see from josh douglas but the last fish we saw from him four pounder and on other days where you need a nine and you need an eight today it could be a seven and a four that gets it done for you small either the way the fishings look you know these guys don't know but it definitely looks like that's gonna be the case today and josh is still panicking as if he doesn't have enough and he may not but unofficially what we've seen today by far the best bag of anyone on camera it will be interesting we've got 45 minutes left in the fishing competition but 30 minutes left of bassmaster live join us watch the fireworks whoever is fishing and making the most cast at the end of this 30 minutes might be the one that catches that key fish josh douglas unofficial leader chris wilson second keith combs third daryl gleason fourth and brian shot fifth join us the last 30 minutes is coming up and follow it on to weigh in right after the crown of champion [Music] the nationwide bassmaster opens live is brought to you by avro garcia berkeley nitro boats and by ranger boats you're watching the nationwide bassmaster opens live welcome to the final day coverage final 30 minutes of fishing going on at thebasspro.com bassmaster central open at sam raber thank you for joining us for our live coverage today brought to you by nationwide and josh douglas has been dominating the coverage today because he's got two of the better sized fish that have entered live wells today and that is the reason he is our unofficial leader chris wilson coming from back in the pack around seventh or eighth into second place keith combs darrell gleason all still having a shot really one key fish could be the one that gets you over the top and we saw the best we saw douglas do that in two different ways seven and a half earlier and then he caught a four later seven and a half was big as he was still building his limbs yes [Music] yes i told you i got bit right here dude i got it [Music] like we mentioned the reason that he's on top he's got two of the right bites and this is the second of those yeah let's two his co-angler knew it immediately nice nice call josh because he know he's not going to be in question there going to make a two pound upgrade for him and that is why he's on the top of the leaderboard brian snowden joining us hey thank you and chad for joining us all day long today uh bringing some awesome elite series insight and we're going to just walk through that elite series the elite series schedule so far and what we've been uh we've been from florida to new york everywhere in the middle that started off at st john's a little different st john's than what we saw in 2019 definitely a different you know it was different we had a lot of wind that year and uh this year just seemed like the the grass wasn't really prevalent at all a lot more pad fishing a lot more pad fishing some canals came into play we saw guys like kyle watcher catch a 10 pounder jake whittaker with that seven pounder and it wasn't easy to get a lot of bites colder temperatures you see them bundled up in florida you don't normally see that's not that doesn't bode well for fishing and uh he did something out of the norm went north went to towards jacksonville something we've never seen that payoff and it paid it was the right storm for him this week and i think that was a lot because of the lack of grass he found that creek with all the pads in it and that's just uh less pressure than all the pads that we were fishing down the lake hey he showed you hey i'm a dynamic angler i've won on i've won on lake lanier and i've won now at st john's river then we took a couple months off not on purpose but because of kovid we took a couple months off and came back strong at lake eufaula and boy were the fans on espn2 and the anglers ready to get it going yeah we were definitely ready to get started after that break and what a place to start the offshore fishing was fantastic and i mean these guys were really impressive with what they did in that top 10. we got to see buddy gross do one of those you mentioned it earlier when guys are 8th 9th 10th place it's not uncommon for them to come back and have a shot to win he did that 27 pounds and an ounce 27 pounds and 11 ounces my bad 84 pounds eight ounces overall and he came back from tenth to first to win that event and incredible we're going to chickamauga exactly the one that's right across to the front of his jersey then we took a little bit more of a break because we had our new york swing slated for late july the saint lawrence river plus lake ontario this year a little bit different than what we've done in past years and paul mueller had a shot to win another elite series event and i just think here weather got him you know he was on the quality it takes to win and my hat's off to chris though he uh braved it out there and that's bigger stuff than i like to be in and i was actually fishing out on the lake and it was fantastic smallmouth fishing some of the best i've ever been associated with other than big bait enough hey you made a top 10 at st lawrence river in past years so you know what it takes and for those guys hey if you're canadian you have to fish in that because you don't have that long of a season to fish in you have to fish in those waves he's used to it and chris johnson paid off with a win there the next week we went down the road about an hour and a half away to lake champlain where a new yorker transplanted to arkansas but found his roots back in new york at champlain jamie hartman yeah you know and jamie's always consistent in new york yeah i think it's consistent all over but uh excellent tournament up there we had a great time i'm just getting i'm impressed with champlain's smallmouth population it was really impressive this year we saw that turn day one day two seemed like you had to have largemouth in your bag and then when we hit day three day four it was like all small mouth guys started to dominate and brandon pollinik he just wanted a chance and it was crazy final day we see him idling out and he was the most confident of anyone in the field and he was fifth place leaving the dock came back from his deficit to win there we took about two weeks off went up to lake saint claire where we got uh a third of the playing field no canada waters in play but it's still produced it was the best event of the season weight-wise for the cut oh you know even even with canada out of the picture this is one of the the best places to fish for smallmouth and one of my favorite fisheries it's just a lot of different ways to catch the smallmouth and they're all basically 17 feet of shadow we got to see some canadians factor in that one as well chris and corey both made the cut for the final day corey coming up just short because a guy from alabama who would have thunk it a guy from florida leads three days of the event a guy from alabama takes the lead on the final day and wins came from eighth place 22-13 on the final day we said the first guy to catch two five pounders was gonna win that event and bill weidler after we said that went ahead and caught two five pounders and made it easy on us from a guy who had a very tough start to the season low in the angler of the year points big time win proving that he's here and he deserves to be oh yeah that's off the bill you know i know he's had a rough time this year but uh one tournament would definitely make a break for you now he can call himself forever bassmaster elite series champion bill weidler and that's how we've gotten here five elite series events under our belt plus the classic we got to see hank cherry we didn't mention that in the elite series recap but hank cherry won the classic in march at guntersville we will now restart our season after another couple weeks off uh in just a few weeks late september we'll be back at lake guntersville it'll be different what do you expect from guntersville santee in chickamauga back to back to back weeks to kick off the second half of the year uh i think you're going to see a lot of changes in the points i think you know gunnersville and chickamauga i think will be the most consistent fish catching um for me boy you know santee it's gonna be hit or miss i've never fished it it's fantastic phenomenal fishery in the springtime but i don't really know what to expect uh this this time of year and uh without a lot of you know there's not a lot of milfoil hydrilla out there so that's going to be the i think the wild card in these next three fans are going to be able to learn a lot about fall fishing it's going to be unique you're going to be able to see a lot of things transpire that you wouldn't if they would have been in march and april obviously you guys love big bass they're going to be there but you're going to have to teach a lot of people how to hey combat tough fishing and that's what we've learned today we've learned this week that hey even in mid-september at sam rayburn with water temps in the high 80s you can still catch big bags and we've seen three different anglers catch 27 pounds in a single day this is one of them he started the week off with the lead 27 pounds 10 ounces on day one masayuki met sushita yes started quick today in the catch a three pounder and then he went for a little bit of a lull stayed on his spot he didn't jump around like a lot of other people and then he caught this six pounder we thought okay he's got some good quality a three and a six if he can put together a limit that'll be ideal and he just has not been able to do that since then since this fish brian just one spotted bass you know that's the roller coaster ride we live in anglers you just you know you start out that way in your day and you think it's gonna be all downhill from there and then things just don't pan out and that's one of the things you just have to uh keep your head down fish all eight hours like it was the beginning of the the first hour you don't want to get a false clue that three pounder is great but it could have told him to stay when he should have left and he would have maybe had a better day you never know darryl gleason hey he wanted to lock a jig a three-quarter ounce b m football jig in his hand all day long did not get the opportunity to do that it was slow go so he picked up a drop shot filled his limit you can see right there when it was going on it was fast and furious for him and his co-angler he filled that limit with a drop shot and then he said okay now time to pick up the jig and roll with him the rest of the day and he's only got one call since that game right you know that's just the thing you know when you had those biggest those big stringers from the previous days they were all basically on the football jig and and uh unfortunately that that happens a lot of times you know especially as the pressure mounts on the lake and it's the weekend what's incredible is you can see a 27-pound bag for him yesterday all five on a jig day one three of them on a jeep 17 pounds today one of them on a jig nine pounds that shows you to this week and today how the jig has produced better quality than the drop shot and some other baits but a guy who we knew hey i'm not gonna see a spin around am i gonna see a drop shot in his hand not with you keith comes is gonna lock a football jig and like a crankbait in his hand and he's gonna go to work on all of his uh history and all this stuff all of his efforts to put in work and practice find the brush piles and the offshore spots he needed and it went well for him early but he still hasn't gotten over that hump he needs he just needs that six or seven pounder one good bite you know and don't count him out yet it's still got time still has time you know and uh if there's anyone that knows that lake it's it's keith so uh we know you're not safe with keith combs in on a lake in texas until the clock says zero and even then you're not safe until he weighs him in he's got to weigh him in for you to know if you're safe or not you could you could be losing the whole time keith combs one is a two-time elite series champion close he was a runner-up and angler of the year and he is one that we have kept our eyes on all day long and a guy who started hey third place about a pound and a half pound and three quarters behind with a good shot to win this event josh douglas and boy did he get started exactly like daryl gleason drop shot small fish to fill his limits and the difference here is he was the one that captured the big ones the seven and a half the four and uh you know that just i think their strategies are both very similar and one thing that is different about it you can say okay drop shot maybe it's just the spot the location but it's the lure selection he's picked up a drop shot and other guys have picked up a drop shot in a jig he switched to a swim bait when he wanted to do it oh boy some of those shallower brush piles those swim bait uh this they will bite a swim bait much more than those deeper ones and this seven and a half pounder really put him ahead of the field early on in this day well you know and then that the confidence and then he calmed down yes and the great thing about a swim bait it's up above the brush it's not down in it very much and one good thing is he has a five fish limit two of them on a drop shot because he has cold three out with swim bait fish and that's going to be the deal how many have you had how many do you have in your bag that are drop shot fish this is his latest coal that we got to see small either like you said going with something switching up a little bit and then sticking with that at certain times he has not been afraid to pick up a drop shot no he definitely hasn't i think that probably is when he worked the brush for a little bit josh douglas sitting on top of the leaderboard masayuki matsushita i promised i was going to get it completely by the end of the day but i feel like i'm getting worse at it as the day goes on that's just fatigue you've got a long morning you've had to do some babysitting today i want you you've been you've been a guy who's been on the elite series since its inception and uh you're one of the original elite series anglers back then it was just a few guys you know kota kiriyama takahiro mori for the guys who came over from japan and really like set it on fire for that sport there were some other guys who preceded them as well and marie's oshimizu can't leave him out talk to me about takuito bassmaster elite series rookie second in points leading rookie of the year and then you have guys like matsushitu matsushita and uh and some other japanese anglers really competing on the opens level trying to make the elites yeah they're just very impressive they love the sport uh they love to fish and uh you can see the you know just with everything they do they're worth that work ethic is uh second to none and then the attention to detail doesn't matter if it's in the lures they manufacture everything they do you know is um always exact precise and they pay attention to the details i think we have i think if i'm correct uh tanabe one he won a big event um i think he won at kentucky lake and then we've had ben matsubu has done well some of those uh asian anglers that have really set that fire for these anglers to come and pursue it at the last event after two days daisuke aiuki was in the top uh top 10 after two days and then he fell out but he obviously was doing well it is to me it is impressive we can iobi he was on the elite series for a little while it still does great in the opens they do have a big learning curve because they don't they don't have some of the types of fisheries we have taku ido had never fished for smallmouth until this year and he gets three top tens on small mouth it isn't is it is well you got to realize that uh in japan they use a lot of those techniques those finesse techniques that are perfect for the smallmouth fishing up north and uh you know there's that's the reason why those guys shine so much when it gets tough they are able to catch those fish when no one else can make them buy it and they these guys have heavy intense tournaments in japan from the bank they have a lot of bank fishing tournaments and they so they you have to love it to pursue it in the united states and come over here and make it and they've been doing uh fantastic with that i can't i i'm just more impressed every time i see some of these anglers and what they already know and what they'll learn just with i can't wait to see how taku takes the southern swing i know he did great up north he qualified through the central opens which included smith lake grand lake things like that i want to see i want to see the gunnersvilles of the chickamauga those when three bites a day is good how how they go for him and the point maybe number five and i think that you know they'll fail where real well the tougher the fishing becomes because they're able to adapt so to the nest techs neatly the finesse techniques and they're not afraid to use those techniques where a lot of times someone like myself we're going to stick with a bigger rod a bigger line what brought you there the history maybe they don't have history on some of these places so they have to fish for free it's all new yeah i did get an update from this guy's cameraman jake leton dress was with is with keith combs and they said that he upgraded with a three pounder uh his camera was down so i've got a feeling he might not have a big bag but he's got his smallest fish has to be close to three pounds now he might have three three pounders and he's getting close to the 17. he's getting close to that mark yes and he was only about i want to say he started the day and he started the day in fifth but he was a pound and four ounces behind douglas and douglas was then you know uh two pounds and five ounces out of the lead you know so that's kind of the deal he's going to have to have at least a pound and a half more than douglas to be able to overcome that deficit appreciate the cameramen facilitating that obviously cell coverage as they head south get to work because the city's except until you get all the way down at the bottom where jasper texas is our host of this week is 14 inches it's just been so impressive though to watch these guys you know this is the first time i got got the opportunity to come down here and do this with you guys and uh to see some of the the things they do and how patient they are with even though uh you know sometimes i guess i force things a little too quickly you know i would have broke off earlier and we watched josh land one of those fish so yeah pretty cool pretty cool to watch these guys you're getting a little bit of a scouting report i know you've had probably 14 scouting reports with rookie classes coming into the elites in the past years but this one this is a good chance to see them in action you don't just see their name on paper and see the results you get to see how they fish and and get together we're going to have some stiff competition coming this way adding 12 from the opens if they all accept invites one from the bass nation i'll keep though it makes fun come out and this is our second time we've ever had live coverage on the final day of an open we didn't have it at the one in florida at the beginning of the year in january it was it was immediately after new year and uh the call from the anglers of we would love to see the opens live we got to see a compelling arkansas river out of muskogee oklahoma and the central opens to kick off live coverage and then we have rayburn this week and then we'll have hartwell in about a week and a half 10 days before the start date should be good and like i mentioned yes the arkansas river out of muskogee oklahoma those pools there um the one pool above muskogee and then the pool below muskogee which is the curve pool we got to see some guys really do battle close quarters fishing dale hightower one of the anglers exactly you got a he's one of those river rats that is from oklahoma and knows how to just knows how to fish those types of fisheries one thing that was interesting to me with with the come on of of beaver baits and those types of uh soft plastics every guy seemingly was flipping like a big ribbon it was going old school on some of these tough river systems the old school baits seemed to always come back and for some reason they like that big 10 inch worm there you throw it on the lay downs and stuff i don't know what they think it is but they uh definitely like it on the arkansas freaking monster and then john garrett yes we had a compelling storyline here john garrett she was sitting here he was flipping a rage bug and throwing a square bill had a fantastic day young college stud fish the classic from the college series was one of those anglers that excelled has a chance to win this event gets caught up in the moment gets it caught up in a flurry does not realize he had six fish in the live well and uh had a two pound penalty ends up losing that event by just a few ounces and uh i would have won it if he would have known how many fish were in his live well he had just a squeaker that was keeper number one that that he miscounted that was when he forgot he called on live with chris bose and and broke it down right there and it was uh very brutal to watch that happen but you know when things like that happen just like with brandon polonic when he was a young angler you're going to grow from it you're going to get better you're going to learn it's going to make you a more well-rounded angler you're not going to leave anything early he will definitely not do that again but you know for him that the arkansas river's water is awful dirty so sometimes when you fill that up in the library that's small hard to see in there so you know it can happen well we've got our top 10 unofficial leaderboard there we've got three guys that didn't register bash track catchers at the bottom logan latusso albert college and jason christie so watch for the weigh-in we're going to watch those guys weigh in first because that's where they started uh the day 12th 11th and 10th place we will watch them all weigh in and see who will win the basspro.com bassmaster central open at sam rayburn someone's gonna maybe get a classic berth uh people are gonna inch closer to elite series qualification hey shoot somebody's gonna go home and be able to uh have a good payday payday we've already doled out checks from 13th place to 40th on the pro and co side and all these guys are fighting for uh more money in their pocket some creds to their name and look at that leaderboard right there josh douglas on top chris wilson keith combs and brian uh shot second third and fifth didn't fish the other opens they will only give a classic birth back to the elite series if they win if josh douglas wins or daryl gleason wins they either way it's going to be fireworks will a guy like keith combs last stop of the day 15 minutes left to fish right now they check in 2 45 central time 3 45 eastern time will this seven and a half pounder will this four pounder for josh douglas be the fish i told you i got it it gets him what he's always dreamed of yeah an opens win a classic berth make sure you join us hey chad morgan taylor shout out to you chad brian snowden shout out to you thank you for joining us as a color analyst make sure you tune in to weigh in see who wins this event 3 45 eastern time bassmaster.com watch it all unfold [Music] you

Channel: Bassmaster

Views: 119,674

Rating: 4.4909091 out of 5

Keywords: BASS, B.A.S.S., Fishing, bass fishing, Bassmaster, Sam Rayburn, Texas, Outdoors, sports

Id: 4wXv_0rS0Iw

Length: 225min 18sec (13518 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020