>Photo BASS - Garrick Dixon Day 1: 5, 22-02 Ish Monroe, who’s coming off a 20th-place finish at the Beaver Lake FLW Tour last week, capitalized on some, but not all, of his opportunities today.

“I lost two that would’ve put me well over 30,” he said. “It’s not like I’m not getting the bites. It’s hooking them and then they came off.”

He had 8- to 10-pound class fish throw his frog and lost a 7-pounder as he tried to swing it over a dock. He said he ran more than 90 minutes to get to where he fished today and had to stop for gas to make the run back to the ramp.

“Where I’m fishing, there’s literally 40 pounds swimming around two times over,” he said. “They’re not on beds. They’re just swimming around so if I put them in the boat, it’s game over.”

With the weather expected to stay hot, he thinks it favors his frogging and flipping strategies, but he’s not getting too caught up in overanalyzing his decisions.

“I’m not really thinking too much about it,” he said. “I’m using the Andy Morgan philosophy – I just fish what’s in front of me. He doesn’t win a lot of tournaments, but he wins AOYs and is in the Top 10 consistently and is always catching good fish. I want to mix that with my killer instinct and I think I’ll be okay.” Read More