Ronnie Moore just pointed out on Bassmaster LIVE that the top 5 anglers after Day 2 are all either Elite Series rookies or sophomores. Which is an astonishing stat itself. But you can add to that this, Kyoya Fujita (1st) and Bryant Smith (3rd) are in position to claim the 4th blue trophy of the season for the rookie class. Joey Cifuentes III won on both Seminole and St Clair, with Will Davis Jr claiming the victory on his home waters of Lay Lake.
If a rookie wins this the 8th stop of the Elites, exactly half the Elite tournaments this year will have been won by a first-year Elite angler. I don’t even have to fact-check the stats to know that is wildly usual. Not to discredit these achievements at all, but it is another sign of the times when it comes to forward-facing sonar.
Experience used to mean so much on the Elites. Nothing could compete with experience on the water, and with the national circuits visiting a lot of the same waters year after year, the guys that had been out there for a decade had such an advantage over the newcomers. Not anymore. Technology, if nothing else, has completely leveled the playing field in this regard. Local knowledge was the difference maker for Davis on Lay. But both of the wins for Ciffuentes came on the shoulders of sonar. And, if one of these rookies wins this week, it will be looking at his graph. Again, not taking anything away from these guys. This is the way the game is played now, and they are the best at it.
