Sumrall shows no rust over first two days of Bassmaster Elite tournament

Published 6:30 am Friday, June 12, 2020

EUFAULA, Alabama — Caleb Sumrall’s first two days of the DeWalt Bassmaster Elite at Lake Eufaula showed he is right at home away from home fishing shallow like he does near his hometown of New Iberia.

Sumrall culled to solid five-bass limits Wednesday, the first day of the tournament, and Thursday on the lake that borders Georgia and Alabama. His 18-pound, 13-ounce bag on Wednesday, followed by a 16-pound, 15-ounce bag Thursday, gave him a two-day total of 35 pounds, 12 ounces.

Sumrall was in 23rd, comfortably inside the Top 40, to qualify for today’s semifinal round. In all probability, he’ll pluck most of his keeper bass from 2- to 4-foot depths while fishing from his Xpress X21 Pro Series aluminum bass boat. He is hopeful of boating enough heavy bass to catapult him into the Top 10 and the opportunity to fish in the championship round on Saturday.

Before the tournament began Wednesday, Sumrall said on bassmaster.com he realized Lake Eufaula offers good to great bassin’ deep and shallow, even in early June, because of the amount of shoreline vegetation. It’s a lot like fishing his home waters in the Atchafalaya Basin, he said.

“I’m definitely confident around shallow vegetation. I’ve got 11 Kistler rods on the front deck, and nine of ’em are rigged for shallow vegetation,” he confided to bassmaster.com columnist Alan McGuckin. “Look, I’m not ruling out the deep bite for a minute. I spent a ton of time the past two days marking waypoints out deep, so I for sure have that in my back pocket. But I’ll probably spend 90 percent of my day fishing shallow with everything from buzzbaits to punch-weight Texas rigs.”

Sumrall’s expertise in the shallows made him a favorite in the eyes of accomplished veteran Chris Zaldain of Fort Worth Texas, who said the New Iberian is one of the 86 Elites fans should have their eye on at Lake Eufaula. That advice came from the Texan who was capitalizing on a post-spawn deep river ledge bite was cruised into today’s semis in 10th place with 39 pounds, 9 ounces.

Sumrall said, “I absolutely believe the guy who wins this tournament Saturday will have to mix the deep bite with a few good fish from the shallows.”

The Top 40 anglers started fishing today at 5:25 a.m. from Lakefront State Park with the weigh-in at the park scheduled for 2 p.m. Sumrall and the others can be seen on Bassmaster LIVE at bassmaster.com and on ESPN 2 from 7-10 a.m. and 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Thirty-nine Elites are chasing Shelby, North Carolina, bass pro Matt Arey, who owns the two-day lead with 43 pounds, 5 ounces. Arey had 20 pounds, 6 ounces, Wednesday and came back stronger with 22 pounds, 15 ounces, Thursday.

Sumrall’s second-day limit got a big boost at midday when he hooked and landed a bass reported on BASSTrakk at 4 pounds, 4 ounces. After an early morning flurry that gave him a limit of smaller keepers before 8 a.m., he culled the smallest at 8:22 a.m. with a 3-pound, 12-ounce, bass.

He didn’t get a keeper big enough to cull for more than four hours after that but it was a key fish — 4 pounds, 4 ounces — at 12:55 p.m. Then he culled another small bass with a 2-pound, 4-ounces, bass at 1:36 p.m.

Sumrall, fishing his first major tournament since the Bassmaster Classic on March 6-8 at Lake Guntersville in Alabama, and his first Elite tournament since the regular-season opener February 8-10 on the St. Johns River in Florida, showed hardly any sign of rustiness on Wednesday. The Bassmaster tournament series was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent postponements.

The Westgate High School graduate reached his five-bass limit around 8:30 a.m., then made a major cull with a 3-pound, 4-ounce bass at 10:48 a.m. He added a 4-pounder before noon and got his hands on a 5-pound class bass to round out his day and charged into Thursday in 22nd place with 18 pounds, 13 ounces.

Arey said he has forged his lead by fishing shallow and deep. Thursday’s heavy bag included a 6-pound, 5-ounce “hawg” that bit in super shallow water in flooded grass.

“I’ve started shallow both days, but I’m bouncing back and forth between the two. That works for me. I’ve never really had a ‘strength,’ so to speak. When I started fishing professionally, I wanted to learn a little bit of everything,” Arey told Bassmaster editor Bryan Brasher after the scale closed on the second day.

The North Carolina bass pro said seven of his 10 bass that hit the scale the first two days bit in shallow water. The 6-5 catch on Thursday was one for a highlight reel.

“I rolled into a spot and I saw some bream instantly, and I saw this bass cruising. I couldn’t tell how big it was because it was pretty far down the bank. But I threw my (plastic) frog in there and it got hung up on a piece of grass,” Arey said. “The bass turned immediately when it heard the frog touch the water. It grabbed the actual legs of the frog, pulled it down and just sucked it right in. If I hadn’t been able to see the fish, I would have jerked when the frog disappeared and probably missed it.”