The pros always make it look easier than it really is, but Day 1 of the Wild West Bass Trail (WWBT) Pro-Am demonstrated, once again, why Lake Shasta is truly a world class bass fishery.  

Nearly 300 anglers in 150 tournament bass boats attacked Shasta early Friday. The vast majority of pros and their amateur draw partners weighed 5-fish limits. The average bag of mostly spotted bass was up this year, so far. Clearlake pro, Mark Crutcher sits in 74th place with 10-pounds even, typically a nice bag on Shasta.  Waves of pros walked off the weigh stage seemingly disappointed with 10 and 11-pound limits. Wow!

The co-angler leaderboard was 10-pounds down to 28th place. Robert Couts leads the Am side with 12 pounds even.  

Pro Alex Niapas from the Motherlode region brought in a huge sack that weighed 20.92 pounds to lead the event. He and team partner, Jason Remmers won the recent WWBT team event a few weeks ago, so he’s on to something special. Well-known local pro and one of the favorites, Greg Gutierrez sits second with 15.29. The top-ten rounded out with 12.52s from Ron Tobey and Kirk Bain. There are plenty of familiar names, like Jeff Michels and Gary Dobyns (who help get this circuit started), lurking not too far off the pace.

Saturday is “moving day,” as the anglers like to say. Some will make moves into the top-10 and some will fall out. Only the top 10 pros and co-anglers will fish for big money on Championship Sunday.

We will do our best to keep you posted.