Time to dig into the BassTrakk data from Day 3. Here are the catches per hour reported by the 47 anglers that went out on Semifinal Saturday. There were 413 bass logged into BassTrakk in all.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | |
| 7 a.m. – 8 a.m | 66 | 40 | 25 |
| 8 a.m. – 9 a.m. | 131 | 105 | 77 |
| 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. | 100 | 100 | 62 |
| 10. a.m. – 11 a.m. | 141 | 91 | 74 |
| 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. | 113 | 56 | 81 |
| 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. | 67 | 53 | 42 |
| 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. | 56 | 53 | 26 |
| 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. | 34 | 50 | 19 |
| 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. | 15 | 16 | 7 |
| 4 p.m. – 5 p.m. | 4 | 6 | n/a |
| Totals | 727 | 570 | 413 |
When the full field went out on Days 1 and 2, we saw 727 and 570 fish reported respectively. With a little more than half the field fishing on Day 3, we saw some strong production with way over half as many fish caught compared to the other two days, at 413. The bite was strong and steady from 8 AM all the way through noon, which is very similar to what we saw on Day 1.
As we’ve done the previous two days, let’s look at the same breakdown on fish over 4-pounds to see when the best big bite came. There were 146 fish over 4-pounds in all.
| Over 4-pounds | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 |
| 7 a.m. – 8 a.m | 12 | 12 | 8 |
| 8 a.m. – 9 a.m. | 29 | 33 | 20 |
| 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. | 26 | 21 | 16 |
| 10. a.m. – 11 a.m. | 45 | 22 | 25 |
| 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. | 41 | 18 | 33 |
| 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. | 23 | 26 | 24 |
| 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. | 22 | 26 | 11 |
| 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. | 13 | 24 | 8 |
| 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. | 9 | 13 | 1 |
| 4 p.m. – 5 p.m. | 1 | 3 | n/a |
| Totals | 221 | 198 | 146 |
It looks like the best big fish bite shifted a bit compared to the overall bite, with the best-extended window coming between 10 AM and 1 PM, and another quick big bite around 8 AM as most of the anglers settled into their starting spots.
Since there were far fewer anglers on the water on Day 3 compared to the first two days (47 to 90), let’s look at the average number of 4-pound plus fish per angler per day.
Day 1: 2.45/angler
Day 2: 2.20/angler
Day 3: 3.10/angler
Day 3, by the BassTrakk numbers, was the best day we’ve seen so far for big bass production. Now we have to take into account here that the top 47 anglers of our 90-boat field were the ones to go out on Day 3, so it stands to reason that the number of good fish per angler should have gone up a little. But it’s also safe to say the fishing definitely didn’t fall off at all., though the action may have seemed a little slower at times.
With only 10 anglers competing here on Championship Sunday, we’ll very likely see every angler bring in 20-pounds, which is ridiculous to think of. After all, they’ve each averaged over 23-pounds a day so far and the lake is wide open once again thanks to calm weather. Should be a fantastic final day of this event.
