By B.A.S.S. Communications Staff
MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. — Boat problems are a regular annoyance for Bassmaster Elite Series anglers, but had Luke Palmer not suffered mechanical issues during practice for the event at Lake St. Clair, he might have driven past the spot that has yielded over 22 pounds each of the past three days.
The Coalgate, Okla., pro landed 22 pounds, 11 ounces on Saturday to take the lead with a three-day total weighing 68-07. He leads Arkansas' Joey Cifuentes by 12 ounces and Japan’s Taku Ito by 13 ounces.
“It's weird for me to be leading a smallmouth deal,” Palmer said. “I’ve done well at Champlain. This place, we came here for the 2019 AOY Championship and I sucked. We came here in 2020 and I ended up 60th. I didn’t understand it. I was just doing stupid stuff.”
During practice, Palmer was running across the lake and suffered a motor issue that forced him to head back in to visit the service crew. After that quick pit stop, Palmer started fishing and landed two smallies over 5 pounds and a 4-pounder.
“I've stayed here close every day and it's working out,” he said. “I don’t want to jinx it, but it may have been a blessing in disguise.”
The tournament is setting up eerily similar to Palmer’s Elite Series victory at the Santee Cooper Lakes in April, where he made his way from 10th on Day 1 to the top spot on Day 3. At St. Clair, Palmer started in 12th with 22-00 on Day 1 before catching 23-12 to move into third place.
“I’m happy just to be in contention to win this one,” he said. “I had a super-good practice, which is normally a bad sign. But this one, this is a reverse role on it and it's working out.”
Palmer has started each day moving around a massive flat not far from takeoff, a flat that has been pressured by much of the field this week. Once the sun gets up, he's moved to what he feels is his best area and has been able to make key culls each day.
The bass on this particular spot have moved every day and it takes a little time for Palmer to relocate them.
“I’m not catching a ton of fish, but when you do catch one, they're normally better than average,” Palmer said. “They're just roaming. The area has some short sand grass and some taller cabbage. That might be what's keeping them there, but the perch are in there big time.”
The first two days, a drop hot was responsible for most of his bites, but he struggled to generate strikes with it on Day 3.
A couple of hours in, Palmer switched to a Great Lakes Finesse Drop Minnow on a 3/16-ounce jighead and landed two 4-pounders on back-to-back casts before 10 a.m. When the wind kicked up, he moved to his best spot and filled his limit.
“I got there and whack, I caught one around 5 pounds and I went a little further and caught another 5,” Palmer said. “And then I put the bait down and picked up a drop shot and kept having fish follow my stuff down. I got back to where a group of fish was and kept trying to find the right drifts. I picked up that bait again (and caught more).”
Strong winds and cloud cover followed early morning storms and lingered for much of the morning. But calmer, sunnier conditions are expected on Championship Sunday, which would play right into Palmer’s hands with the minnow presentation.
“If it gets slick calm, you boys might want to watch out,” Palmer said. “I figured them out in practice on that and when you get in the right area and find them, it can get wild in a hurry.”
The wind made life difficult for Cifuentes, who caught 21-01 to improve his total to 67-11. During the first two days, he used his forward-facing sonar to catch 22-10 and 24-00.
Throughout the week, he's been targeting smallies living in 18 feet of water in Canada.
“I was fortunate to catch a 5-pounder pretty quickly,” he said. “I caught some fish but didn’t get the quality. I had one more 4-pounder and everything else was 3 1/2. It was much tougher. The waves were so bad I couldn’t effectively use my LiveScope. But I was all-in on the spot.”
A brown back-colored Berkley MaxScent Flat Worm rigged on a dropshot has caught most of his bass this week. To get above the grass in his area, he's used a 2-foot leader. The first two days, Cifuentes used a 1/4-ounce weight. But with the conditions, he needed a 1/2-ounce weight.
After landing 21-12 on Day 1 and then the heaviest bag of the tournament at 25-08 on Day 2, Ito added 20-06 on Semifinal Saturday to land in third with a total of 67-10. Conditions also made it difficult for Ito, who preferred the calmness of Day 2.
“I tried to find the big school of Disneyland bass, but strong wind was very hard on me. I couldn’t see them very well,” Ito said. “The morning wasn’t rough water, so I caught a couple of big ones. But strong winds in the afternoon ... no good. Very bad.”
Ito landed his biggest bass of the day during the calmer morning hours, a 5-pounder which he nicknamed “Zona Bass” after longtime Bassmaster LIVE host Mark Zona.
“Zona has muscles and a big body, and that bass was big with muscles,” he laughed. “So, I called it Zona Bass.”
Ito used basically the same techniques he used the first two days, mixing in a dropshot and a Neko rig. With the hefty breeze, he had to up his weight sizes on both in order to get a proper presentation.
“On Day 3, I fished the same spot as Day 2,” he said. “Today there was too much wind, so I used a 1/2-ounce weight on the dropshot and the Neko rig was a 3/16-ounce. Yesterday I used a 1/8- or 1/16-ounce Neko rig.”
The Top 10 remaining pros will launch from Brandenburg Park beginning at 7 a.m. ET on Sunday and will return for weigh-in beginning at 3 p.m. The winner will hoist the blue trophy and earn the top prize of $100,000.
Day 3 Standings
1. Luke Palmer -- Coalgate, OK -- 15, 68-07 -- 104
Day 1: 5, 22-00 -- Day 2: 5, 23-12 -- Day 3: 5, 22-11
2. Joey Cifuentes III -- Clinton, AR -- 15, 67-11 -- 103
Day 1: 5, 22-10 -- Day 2: 5, 24-00 -- Day 3: 5, 21-01
3. Taku Ito -- Chiba, JAPAN -- 15, 67-10 -- 102
Day 1: 5, 21-12 -- Day 2: 5, 25-08 -- Day 3: 5, 20-06
4. Bryan Schmitt -- Deale, MD -- 15, 67-02 -- 101
Day 1: 5, 23-03 -- Day 2: 5, 20-12 -- Day 3: 5, 23-03
5. Cooper Gallant -- Bowmanville, ON -- 15, 66-13 -- 100
Day 1: 5, 22-14 -- Day 2: 5, 21-14 -- Day 3: 5, 22-01
6. Brandon Lester -- Fayetteville, TN -- 15, 66-03 -- 99
Day 1: 5, 22-09 -- Day 2: 5, 22-13 -- Day 3: 5, 20-13
7. Jacob Foutz -- Charleston, TN -- 15, 65-15 -- 98
Day 1: 5, 22-00 -- Day 2: 5, 20-04 -- Day 3: 5, 23-11
8. Kyoya Fujita -- Minamitsuru, JAPAN -- 15, 65-11 -- 97
Day 1: 5, 21-11 -- Day 2: 5, 22-15 -- Day 3: 5, 21-01
9. Greg Hackney -- Gonzales, LA -- 15, 65-06 -- 96
Day 1: 5, 21-02 -- Day 2: 5, 22-10 -- Day 3: 5, 21-10
10. Frank Talley -- Temple, TX -- 15, 65-04 -- 95
Day 1: 5, 22-08 -- Day 2: 5, 21-11 -- Day 3: 5, 21-01
The following anglers did not make the cut and will not fish on Day 3
11. Jay Przekurat -- Stevens Point, WI -- 15, 65-00 -- 94 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-07 -- Day 2: 5, 22-04 -- Day 3: 5, 22-05
12. Brandon Card -- Salisbury, NC -- 15, 64-11 -- 93 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 22-09 -- Day 2: 5, 21-14 -- Day 3: 5, 20-04
13. Ed Loughran III -- Richmond, VA -- 15, 64-07 -- 92 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 22-03 -- Day 2: 5, 21-14 -- Day 3: 5, 20-06
14. Shane LeHew -- Catawba, NC -- 15, 64-05 -- 91 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 24-03 -- Day 2: 5, 18-14 -- Day 3: 5, 21-04
15. David Mullins -- Mt Carmel, TN -- 15, 63-14 -- 90 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-02 -- Day 2: 5, 23-13 -- Day 3: 5, 20-15
16. Clark Wendlandt -- Leander, TX -- 15, 63-09 -- 89 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-07 -- Day 2: 5, 22-02 -- Day 3: 5, 21-00
17. Justin Hamner -- Northport, AL -- 15, 63-09 -- 88 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 21-00 -- Day 2: 5, 21-05 -- Day 3: 5, 21-04
18. Stetson Blaylock -- Benton, AR -- 15, 63-03 -- 87 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 21-00 -- Day 2: 5, 20-12 -- Day 3: 5, 21-07
19. Bryan New -- Saluda, SC -- 15, 63-02 -- 86 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-06 -- Day 2: 5, 23-12 -- Day 3: 5, 19-00
20. Cody Huff -- Ava, MO -- 15, 62-09 -- 85 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-10 -- Day 2: 5, 21-02 -- Day 3: 5, 21-13
21. Jason Christie -- Dry Creek, OK -- 15, 62-03 -- 84 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 23-14 -- Day 2: 5, 19-09 -- Day 3: 5, 18-12
22. Gerald Swindle -- Guntersville, AL -- 15, 62-02 -- 83 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 21-01 -- Day 2: 5, 21-11 -- Day 3: 5, 19-06
23. Cole Sands -- Calhoun, TN -- 15, 61-15 -- 82 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 21-04 -- Day 2: 5, 20-03 -- Day 3: 5, 20-08
24. Jonathan Kelley -- Old Forge, PA -- 15, 61-13 -- 81 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-10 -- Day 2: 5, 22-03 -- Day 3: 5, 20-00
25. Cory Johnston -- Cavan, ON -- 15, 61-12 -- 80 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 17-15 -- Day 2: 5, 21-00 -- Day 3: 5, 22-13
26. Chris Johnston -- Otonabee, ON -- 15. 61-09 -- 79 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 18-10 -- Day 2: 5, 22-12 -- Day 3: 5, 20-03
27. Patrick Walters -- Eutawville, SC -- 15, 61-08 -- 78 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-14 -- Day 2: 5, 21-06 -- Day 3: 5, 19-04
28. Paul Mueller -- Naugatuck, CT -- 15, 61-06 -- 77 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 18-14 -- Day 2: 5, 21-05 -- Day 3: 5, 21-03
29. Alex Redwine -- Blue Ash, OH -- 15, 61-02 -- 76 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 22-05 -- Day 2: 5, 22-04 -- Day 3: 5, 16-09
30. Drew Benton -- Panama City, FL -- 15, 60-13 -- 75 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 18-05 -- Day 2: 5, 22-03 -- Day 3: 5, 20-05
31. Brandon Cobb -- Greenwood, SC -- 15, 60-13 -- 74 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-08 -- Day 2: 5, 21-12 -- Day 3: 5, 18-09
32. Drew Cook -- Cairo, GA -- 15, 60-13 -- 73 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-15 -- Day 2: 5, 21-05 -- Day 3: 5, 19-09
33. Bill Lowen -- Brookville, IN -- 15, 60-01 -- 72 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 22-02 -- Day 2: 5, 19-10 -- Day 3: 5, 18-05
34. Bob Downey -- Detroit Lakes, MN -- 15, 59-14 -- 71 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-14 -- Day 2: 5, 19-14 -- Day 3: 5, 19-02
35. Kyle Norsetter -- Cottage Grove, WI -- 15, 59-07 -- 70 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-07 -- Day 2: 5, 20-08 -- Day 3: 5, 18-08
36. Hank Cherry Jr -- Lincolnton, NC -- 15, 59-06 -- 69 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-04 -- Day 2: 5, 20-00 -- Day 3: 5, 19-02
37. John Crews Jr -- Salem, VA -- 15, 59-01 -- 68 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-04 -- Day 2: 5, 22-12 -- Day 3: 5, 17-01
38. Hunter Shryock -- Ooltewah, TN -- 15, 58-14 -- 67 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-14 -- Day 2: 5, 21-07 -- Day 3: 5, 17-09
39. Scott Martin -- Clewiston, FL -- 15, 58-08 -- 66 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 18-08 -- Day 2: 5, 19-15 -- Day 3: 5, 20-01
40. Tyler Rivet -- Raceland, LA -- 15, 58-07 -- 65 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 18-11 -- Day 2: 5, 22-07 -- Day 3: 5, 17-05
41. Matt Herren -- Ashville, AL -- 15, 58-01 -- 64 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 18-15 -- Day 2: 5, 21-06 -- Day 3: 5, 17-12
42. Lee Livesay -- Longview, TX -- 15, 57-14 -- 63 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-06 -- Day 2: 5, 20-01 -- Day 3: 5, 17-07
43. Skylar Hamilton -- Jefferson, TN -- 15, 57-10 -- 62 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 15-14 -- Day 2: 5, 23-04 -- Day 3: 5, 18-08
44. Kyle Welcher -- Opelika, AL -- 15, 57-07 -- 61 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-12 -- Day 2: 5, 18-14 -- Day 3: 5, 18-13
45. Caleb Sumrall -- New Iberia, LA -- 15, 57-05 -- 60 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-11 -- Day 2: 5, 19-05 -- Day 3: 5, 17-05
46. Brandon Palaniuk -- Rathdrum, ID -- 15, 57-01 -- 59 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-14 -- Day 2: 5, 19-07 -- Day 3: 5, 17-12
47. Clifford Pirch -- Payson, AZ -- 15, 56-13 -- 58 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-04 -- Day 2: 5, 20-14 -- Day 3: 5, 16-11
48. Larry Nixon -- Bee Branch, AR -- 15, 56-04 -- 57 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 19-01 -- Day 2: 5, 21-11 -- Day 3: 5, 15-08
49. Marc Frazier -- Newnan, GA -- 15, 56-01 -- 56 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 20-08 -- Day 2: 5, 18-05 -- Day 3: 5, 17-04
50. Matt Arey -- Shelby, NC -- 15, 55-07 -- 55 -- $10,000
Day 1: 5, 18-03 -- Day 2: 5, 20-09 -- Day 3: 5, 16-11
