Hays, Montgomery Pace KO Round With 50-Plus

Saturday, June 29, 2024

Photo: MLF/Garrick Dixon

Dylan Hays had a 5 3/4-pounder among his 22 scoreable fish in the Knockout Round on the James River.

By MLF Communications Staff

RICHMOND, Va. – The James River has produced bass in bunches during the MLF Bass Pro Tour event, with anglers routinely catching 20-plus fish in a day. While the rate at which bass hit the scales flagged a bit during Saturday’s Knockout Round, Dylan Hays made up for it with some serious quality on his way to topping ScoreTracker.

Hays totaled 53-13 on 22 scoreable bass, which put him 3-6 ahead of Andy Montgomery. Four of the Arkansas pro’s fish weighed at least 4 pounds, including the Berkley Big Bass — a 5-12 that earned him an extra $1,000. His five biggest catches combined to weigh nearly 22 pounds.

Hays’ total marked the third-best day for any angler during the event, and he said it could have been even better, noting that he lost another big one that likely would have topped 5 pounds at the boat. Still, after weights zero overnight, he predicted the Championship Round will be “anyone’s game.”

The tidal nature of the James has made for some pronounced bite windows this week. While that remained the case for Hays Saturday, with most of his weight coming during three distinct flurries, he didn’t only capitalize on low tide, when the bite has been best.

Even though high tide had just passed, Hays started the morning strong, boating five scoreable bass in the first hour. He wound up totaling 13-1 during the first period. That marked a welcome change after he struggled during each of his first two mornings on the water. Hays knows finding a way to add to his total outside of the low-tide bite will be pivotal to his chances of earning his first Bass Pro Tour win.

“The biggest factor for me is trying to not have big slow periods on high tide,” he said. “That’s been so hard all week long, in practice and everything. I feel like I could have had a lot more weight today if I wanted to, but a big key to that was I caught like 13 pounds in the first couple hours.”

While his pair of 50-pound days might not suggest it, Hays said the James has tested his patience. Forcing himself not to run back to his low-tide juice when the tide is high and the bite is tough has been important. He’ll need to maintain that discipline Sunday, with low tide not forecast to arrive at the mouth of the Chickahominy River until around 3 p.m.

“One big key is not getting in a hurry and fishing the tide when it’s wrong, not fishing a good spot when the tide’s not right,” he said. “Because I haven’t caught a big one on a high-tide situation yet. Zero all week.”

Once low tide arrived, Hays took advantage. In a span of a little more than 30 minutes during the second period, he caught six fish for 15-12. That included a pair of 4-pounders one minute apart.

Running a pattern on a roughly 10-mile stretch of the Chickahominy Rover, Hays would continue to pick up a scoreable bass here and there throughout the afternoon. With about 1 hour, 20 minutes left in the competition day, he knew his spot in the Championship Round field had been secured, so he decided to check on a spot he hadn’t visited since practice. There, he surprised himself by catching the aforementioned 5-12. He then ran to a brand new spot and promptly caught a 4-14. He's hopeful those spots can produce for him again during the Championship Round.

“I was like, you know what, I need to go just check some stuff, and I pulled up there and I caught the 5-12 like third cast,” Hays said. “I’m like, dang, I need to get off this. So, I was like, how about those over there? So, went over there, and something just looked good. Just trying to fish free — that’s something I’ve done a lot this week. And like third cast, catch another almost-5-pounder.”

Of the 14 bass of 4-plus pounds caught by the 20-angler Knockout Round field, Hays accounted for four of them. He admitted he’s not sure what, exactly, was the key to generating such big bites, but he attributed some credit to his bait choice. All of Hays’ fish ate a white 1/2-ounce bladed jig from Brazalo Custom Lures with a Zoom Z-Craw as the trailer. He tossed it on a 7-foot-3 Kistler Helium rod with a 7.3:1 Kistler Chromium reel spooled with 15-pound TUF-LINE fluorocarbon.

Between the fluctuating tide and fishing pressure, the bite has been different each day on the James. Add in the fact that just about every angler in the Top 10 has already experienced at least one day in which he’s topped 45 pounds, and Hays knows the competition will be wide open. Predicting it will take upwards of 60 pounds to win, he’s optimistic about his chances of lifting his first trophy on a national tour.

“Man, it’s anybody’s game,” he said. “There's a lot of guys that have caught a lot of weight this week. We’ll see what’s going on tomorrow, but I’m pumped to be able to go back.”

Anglers launch at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from Osborne Landing, located at 9530 Osborne Turnpike in Richmond. Due to long boat runs, tides and high temperatures, MLF has enacted the Trailering Policy for the entirety of the event, meaning pros can trailer their boats and drive them to any ramp on the fishery closer to where they plan to start fishing. Pros taking advantage of the trailering policy will leave Osborne Landing at 6:45 a.m. ET daily and will begin fishing at 8 a.m. with the full field.

Takeouts are held at the landing, beginning at 4 p.m.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney break down the extended action live from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.

Knockout Round

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish for the round)

1. Dylan Hays -- 53-13 (22) -- 5-12

2. Andy Montgomery -- 50-07 (23) -- 3-09

3. Skeet Reese -- 48-13 (23) -- 3-04

4. Gerald Spohrer -- 44-12 (18) -- 5-05

5. Bryan Thrift -- 44-08 (19) -- 4-10

6. Michael Neal -- 39-14 (18) -- 5-07

7. Jonathon VanDam -- 34-12 (13) -- 5-03

8. Jeff Sprague -- 34-08 (16) -- 3-01

9. Nick LeBrun -- 34-01 (16) -- 3-04

10. Spencer Shuffield -- 32-15 (14) -- 4-02