JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — A game time adjustment paid off in a big way for Luke Davis and Kaden Raichel on Day 1 of the Strike King Bassmaster College National Championship at Cherokee Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops.
The University of Montevallo duo caught a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 7 ounces to take the Day 1 lead at the east Tennessee reservoir, anchoring their bag with a largemouth weighing around 5 pounds.
Davis and Raichel hold a 9-ounce advantage over University of North Alabama’s Bryce Dimauro and Tripp Berlinsky, who caught 18-14 to land in second. Hunter King and Calup Williams from Blue Mountain Christian University are third with 17-5.
“We switched our game plan late last night,” Davis said. “We had been set on doing something different, but we were talking about it and decided to switch it up. I guess it was the perfect little tweak that put us on the right spot at the right time.
“There aren’t words to describe how this morning went.”
The grumblings about how tough Cherokee Lake was fishing weren’t particularly quiet during Wednesday’s registration day, but the 154 teams managed to land a total of 70 limits and only five teams failed to catch a bass during Thursday’s opening round. If the cut had been made today, a team would have needed 14-2 to advance to the final day.
After brutally hot temperatures during practice, a weather system produced overnight showers and clouds lingered for most of the morning. Those conditions helped many teams achieve early limits, including Davis and Raichel.
“We had most of our weight in 10 minutes. It was insane. At 8:30 a.m., we were completely done,” Raichel said. “At the mouth of the river I could definitely tell there was more current, and I think that got them positioned better.”
While they found bass shallow and deep, Davis and Raichel primarily focused on bass suspending under schools of threadfin shad in 20 to 30 feet of water. One presentation was key during the morning madness. As they went along the rest of the day, they found a few more baits that could produce key bites later in the tournament.
They finished Day 1 with four largemouth and one smallmouth that weighed over 3 pounds. Although they can only keep two 18-inch smallmouth a day per Tennessee regulations, Davis said they spent a lot of time looking for areas that could provide that better-than-average smallmouth, but the one they caught on Day 1 was by far their best thus far.
“That one was a healthy one,” Davis said. “We caught some 20- and 21-inch smallmouth in practice, but they were only 3 pounds. A lot of the fish are skinny, but today we pulled up on a place with fat ones.”
A couple of things could make life a little more difficult on Raichel and Davis on Day 2. For one, they will launch in a later flight. Raichel also knows of at least one team who also fished their primary area and believes they might be sharing the spot tomorrow.
Dimauro and Berlinsky, meanwhile, finished the day with all largemouth in their 18-14 limit. Considering the smallmouth regulations, the UNA duo went all in on finding largemouth and found the right quality on Day 1.
“Our practice was very slow,” Dimauro said. “We knew we saw some good ones, but we never thought we would be able to catch almost 19 pounds.”
While the day started slow, Berlinsky said they started seeing big ones as the day progressed. One particular spot produced three key bites, including a 5-pounder and two 4-pounders that anchored their day. Berlinsky estimated using between 15 or 20 rods throughout Day 1.
“We’ve really been junk fishing around structure,” Berlinsky said. “Any can hold them out here it seems like. We haven’t even been looking for big fish, we are just trying to get a bite, and it just so happened that those bass were big.”
King and Williams, meanwhile, didn’t know where they would start Day 1 until they got in the truck Thursday morning. They chose correctly and landed their limit within the first two hours of the day and finished the day with four largies and a brown fish.
“It was pretty surprising. We only caught one keeper in practice,” Williams said. “To then catch five fish by 8 a.m. is crazy.”
The majority of their bites came in 8 feet of water or less with four or five baits generating the best strikes.
Cole Hadlock and Jackson Kulijof of Murray State University currently hold Big Bass of the Tournament honors with their 4-3 largemouth.
The full field of 154 boats will launch from the TVA Cherokee Dam Launch beginning at 6 a.m. and will return for weigh-in at 2 p.m. The Top 12 anglers after Friday’s weigh-in will advance to Championship Saturday where the winner will earn a spot in the Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s.
The final Bracket spot will be awarded to the overall Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops Team of the Year, which will be announced during weigh-in on Saturday.
Visit Jefferson County, Tennessee is hosting the tournament.
