Sam Rayburn Midday Update Day 3
Cold front challenges the top 10
Same lake, totally different look. Day three of the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division event presented by YETI on Sam Rayburn saw anglers contending with stiff winds and significantly lower temperatures than the previous two days. A cold front that pushed through late in the afternoon yesterday dropped the water temperature from the high 60’s to the upper 50s, while the t-shirt weather gave way to morning temps in the low 40s — about 17 degrees lower than days one and two.
While some of the top-10 struggled during the first half of the day, others fared well. Ray Hanselman and Todd Castledine, who started the day in eighth and ninth place, respectively, both had solid limits by late morning. Look for both of these anglers to move up in today’s final standings.
Top five patterns from day two
Day two leader Jason Bonds boated a chunky 4-pounder on a Strike King Popping Perch within the first few minutes on his opening spot. He’s combining bed fishing tactics with “fishing” — trolling the bank and throwing a mix of reaction baits at likely targets. We watched him work a bed fish for about 15 minutes, but throw in the towel after three missed bites.
Second-place pro Andrew Upshaw, who led day one, reached the final round by sight fishing; but started day three intending to target prespawn fish with Rat-L-Traps. He had a slow start to his day and ended up running new water. He had a few keepers in the box — including at least one bed fish — by 11.
It’ll be interesting to see how much the leaderboard shuffles today. Today’s bright sunshine will help recover some of the lost water temperature, while facilitating the sight-fishing game.
The final weigh-in starts at 3 p.m. at the Umphrey Family Pavilion or flwfishing.com