Orange, TX – After leading the first day of the Bassmaster Elite Series stop on the Sabine River, Arizona’s Dean Rojas dropped to 2nd place on Friday as Todd Faircloth took over the top spot on the leaderboard. On Saturday, Rojas regained his position at the top in front of an impressive crowd gathered to watch the weigh-in in Orange, Texas.
With a limit weighing 11-14, Rojas pushed his three day total weight to 38-6, and will enter championship Sunday with a lead of 3 pounds, 9 ounces over Todd Faircloth, who dropped to 2nd after only managing four keepers on Saturday weighing 7-14 for a total weight of 34-13.
Eight of the 50 remaining anglers blanked on Saturday, including Cliff Crochet, who entered the day in 3rd place. Not a single angler was able to break the 12-pound mark even though 16 anglers crossed the stage with a five bass limit. Read Complete Story
Just when they thought the fishing couldn’t get much tougher, the Sabine River system clamped down a little tighter today, giving up just five stringers of more than 10 pounds.
Dean Rojas was among that select group as he caught an 11-14 bag (tied for the heaviest of the day) that propelled him back into the lead with 1 day remaining in the Elite Series season opener. His 38-06 total is a shade over 2 1/2 pounds better than Todd Faircloth, the day-2 leader whose four fish today weighed 7-14 and gave him 34-13.
Rojas is chasing his third career Elite Series win while Faircloth is after his fourth victory.
Ish Monroe, who also owns two Elite Series trophies, continued his steady surge up the standings as he jumped from 6th to 3rd with a 9-15 effort that ran his weight to 31-11. Terry Scroggins caught 7-01 (three fish) and held onto 4th with 31-06 while Jeff Kriet jumped into the Top 5 with a 9-pound limit that gave him 30-06 Read Complete Story
Arizona’s Dean Rojas Takes Back The Bassmaster Elite Series Lead In Texas
Photo: B.A.S.S. / Seigo Saito ORANGE, Texas — Saturday morning, Dean Rojas felt like his game was dying, that perhaps his chance of victory in the Sabine River Challenge presented by STARK Cultural Venues was slipping through his fingers.
He had zero fish for the first hour of competition. He finally boated three keepers. Then three long hours passed without another bite.
How do you spell relief? With only about 35 minutes to go in his fishing day, he boated his fourth keeper, a 3-pounder, then his final bass 15 minutes later
Armed with a five-fish limit, crucial in this event, “I got out of there,” said the Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Lake Havasu City, Ariz. Read More
What were your expectations heading into the day?
“Just to catch five keepers. Based on practice, I felt like today was going to be a grind, but I also felt like catching a limit was doable. As it turned out, the keepers came a little bit quicker than I had expected.”
How would you summarize your day as a whole?
“I made a long run and was able to get to where I needed to go. I also was able to execute my bites and I didn’t lose any quality fish today and everything turned out really well. I caught my fifth keeper at around 11:15 and I only had four or five short fish in the mix. I got in a total of about six hours of fishing time today.” Read Complete Story
12th: Better Day for Rojas
> Day 2: 5, 15-07 (10, 28-07) Very little changed in how Dean Rojas fished today, but the results were much different.
“I didn’t change anything,” he said. “The big ones just bit today.”
He looked at day 1 as a step back from practice, but feels like he has some momentum going into the final day as he looks to collect a fourth career Top-10 finish in the Classic.
“They’re where they were at in practice,” he said. “They should bite tomorrow.”
