Chris Zaldain is making a run up the leaderboard, he just added a 4-0 to cull up to 16-8 on the day and jump up into 6th place.
There’s been a lot of big bait vs little bait going on here this week, with anglers like Greg DiPalma catching most of his weight all week on a drop shot, and then guys like Brandon Palaniuk leaning heavily on the big spoon.
Zaldain is great with both big and small baits. We don’t know for sure which way he’s gone here this week, but chances are he’s mixing in a little of both. All these guys near the top of the leaderboard are well-rounded and good with a wide variety of baits. Even John Cox who’s fishing shallow has done much of his damage with a spinning rod, showcasing that finesse is important up shallow as well and it’s not always just pitching and flipping with a big stick.
Leader Brandon Lester has shown versatility here this week as well, rotating through a big squarebill and jig to catch most of his fish on days 1 and 2, but smartly downsizing to a Neko rig this morning after an unproductive start. That move put 16-pounds in the boat for him pretty quick.
As the week wears on, it looks like the fish are getting finickier and it’ll be interesting to see if the guys that are willing to downsize will outpace the big bait guys by the end of this one.
