Day 1 begins

Here we go, the final tournament of the year is now underway in the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at the Mississippi River.

A lot going down this week. By the end of this one, we’ll have crowned our Progressive Angler of the Year and Falcon Rods Rookie of the Year, awarded most of the 2023 Classic berths and paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in winnings for this event, as well as final positions in the AOY race.

The fishing will be almost as hard to keep up with. Three pools on the Mississippi River are open to competition, thousands of acres of super shallow backwaters hold tons of largemouth, smallmouth are scattered along current breaks throughout miles of river run, and then there are barges and locks to contend with.

One wild card we were worried about this week, the fog at least didn’t show up on Day 1. All through practice, dense fog greeted anglers in the morning. On Day 1, we had a timely takeoff and all 90 anglers are either already fishing, or on their way to their starting spots.

Going to be a fun day and a great event to cap off the season.