We made a big run all the way to the dam to find Masayuki Matsushita. He’s been in Top 3 in the Opens AOY standings throughout the year until he had a bad tournament on the St. Lawrence River in New York that dropped him out of Top 3. After weighing 15-3 on Day 1, he is right back in the game to punch his ticket to the Bassmaster Elite Series, which is a longtime dream of his.
He said he has three fish that weigh about eight pounds in his livewell. Matsushita feels a lot of pressure because he knows that catching a limit today is the way to qualify for the Elite Series but he still needs two more fish to do that. When he caught his first fish this morning his hands were shaking, he said. The rest of the day he’ll be searching for number four and number five.