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We'll be back shortly. The Auburn University graduate caught three 6-pound or better largemouth during the tournament, two on the first day that lifted him to a daily total of and one on the second day that anchored his Day 2 total.
Those two bags propelled him over second-place Blaine Bunney by 6 pounds. Both days I happened to catch 6-pounders. With the win, Clarke is the first angler to clinch their spot in the Bassmaster Classic, given he competes in the final three tournaments in Division I. Clarke was in contention to win an Open at Leech Lake last year, but fell short with a third-place finish.
As he drove to the boat ramp this morning, those same feelings he felt the final morning at Leech came flooding back to him. I will always cherish this. Several curveballs were thrown at the Opens competitors this week, starting with frigid temperatures and a winter storm that pushed through the area Tuesday. The snowfall from that storm forced the postponement of Day 1 scheduled for Thursday and shortened the event to two days. Each morning, Clarke started by fishing ditches on the Georgia side of the lake before moving to the South Carolina side in the afternoons.
In the mornings, he saw the bass suspended 10 feet under the surface over 35 feet of water, while one of his 6-pounders came in the back of a ditch where the bottom was in 10 feet of water. As the day wore on, brushpiles became his main target. And the brush had to have blueback herring around it.
