Coming into his first Bassmaster Elite season, Wisconsin’s Jay Przekurat expected the first two-thirds of the schedule to be his more challenging period, before heading into much more familiar territory with the final stretch known as The Northern Swing.
Comprising this week’s St. Lawrence River competition, South Dakota’s Lake Oahe (Aug. 18-21) and the season-ender at La Crosse, Wisc. on the Upper Mississippi River (Aug. 26-29), these events certainly set up well for his personal experience.
“The end of the season was what I was looking forward to,” Przekurat said. “I said that if I was in contention for (a Bassmaster Classic qualification) and Rookie of the Year after the first six tournaments, I could try to put the nail in the coffin and finish both of those goals.”
Starting strong, Przekurat took the ROY lead at the season-opener on the St. Johns River and held it through the next four events, before slipping to third after the Pickwick Lake tournament. At that event, Joseph Webster would take over the top spot, with Jacob Foutz in second.
Interestingly, Przekurat placed second at Thursday’s St. Lawrence weigh-in, a pound and 12 ounces off the Day-1 lead, held by Foutz. Przekurat took an early lead with 26-13, only to relinquish the top spot to Foutz who later followed with 27-15.
With two and a half days of competition remaining, it’s way too early for predictions, but the second round’s early goings have favored Przekurat. As of 10:40 a.m., he’s leading the field with an unofficial limit of 22-8 and sits nearly 2 pounds ahead of Canadian Cory Johnston. Meanwhile, Foutz has a limit of 18-1, which put him 3-5 behind Przekurat. (All weights unofficial until weigh-ins.)
Notably, Foutz had his Day-1 weight by about 9:30, so he’s significantly behind schedule. As reported earlier, Foutz released a 5-pounder to avoid a potential rules violation.
Plenty of fishing time remaining and, on Day 1, Foutz mentioned finding additional areas later in the day. Perhaps some of his afternoon targets will get him back to where he needs to be.
The only certainty is that the ROY race will provide an intriguing storyline.
