Monroe is running out of time to find out whether anything larger than 2-pounders live in the area he’s fished for 3 days, but he’s not willing to give up on it yet.

“I just can’t get a big one,” he said after coming in an ounce shy of 10 pounds. “It’s the same deal. I actually had more bites today. I don’t think there are big ones that live there. Something’s telling me there is, but something’s telling me that there’s not. It’s hard to leave a good opportunity to catch 10 pounds again.

“There is still a ton of fish in there because I missed a bunch. I’ve watched them come up on a frog and I don’t catch them, but I know they’re still there. I’m going to change up and throw something a little different tomorrow just to see what happens.”

Coming off an 85th-place finish at the Lewis Smith Lake FLW Tour last week, he’s thrilled to have a chance to fish on the final day tomorrow with a shot at the win. He’s already started working through the what-if scenarios in his mind.

“If I catch 10 pounds again, I’ll probably be in the Top 5 tomorrow and a Top-5 finish in an Elite Series event is good,” he said. “If I catch 10 pounds again and Rojas struggles or something happens, anything can happen in this game. Say I do get a big bite and he struggles. There are a lot of things, being this close, who knows. I’m just fishing and having fun.”