03-08-2019, 03:31 PM
Hey Lynn, I want to guess too... I'd say it's going to be really hard to beat the guys that have time to get out often... Therefore, I think you and John are towards the tops of my list of who could do it again... As far as size goes, as many fish over 30" that John pulled in, now I don't know if he kept or released them, but if he put them back, I'd say he has a good chance of breaking the 33" contest record by bottomwatcher... There was a good bunch of big fish there in the lower Bear last year, so I'd suspect the North's biggest fish will come from there... I don't expect many will catch fish over 32", but I do think it is possible and I bet that the big one will come from a relatively unknown catter out for a once or twice a year trip... Just my guess... but seems like lightning strikes the unexpected... I think most of us will have a hard time breaking the 30" mark as usual but hopefully a few more of us will reach that level this year... I was happy to see Derek do it last year... I keep hoping to get one of those during the contest period myself... I think that really big class of 12"ers in Cutler last year will hopefully be big enough to get ahold of the hook this year, so there will be less frustration with missed hits, but expect they won't be over 16" so probably not good cookie cutters yet, but starting to get interesting... And last of all I hear rumors of Cutler being drained this fall, so those that fish Cutler will need to make plans for that in the tail end of the contest... Later Jeff
[signature]
[signature]