Month: February 2019

Categories
Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

JUST ANNOUNCED! – MLF Bass Pro Tour Names Stage Six Stop

TULSA, Oklahoma (Feb. 27, 2019) – Major League Fishing® (MLF) announced today that Missouri’s majestic Table Rock Lake, located in the heart of the Ozarks at the city of Branson, will be hosting the 2019 MLF Bass Pro Tour’s Stage Six event, May 17-22, 2019. The popular tourist destination community and the big 67-square-miles reservoir are both well known for their angler hospitality and serving up a quality bass tournament experience for participants and spectators alike. Most of the 80 pros in the event have fished on Table Rock before, but this will be their first time as competitors in the newly formed Bass Pro Tour and as the first bass anglers to achieve professional status in the sport’s league that requires no tournament entry fee for competitions. “Major League Fishing is showing professional competitive fishing in the same manner that Americans see other sport organizations, such as the NFL, MLB, PGA, NASCAR, etc.,” said Jeff Seifried, President/CEO, Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and CVB. “Branson is excited to host these great anglers on our pristine lake.” “Table Rock Lake has it all – largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass – and some of the most beautiful scenery in America,” said Michael Mulone, Senior Director of Events & Partnerships for Major League Fishing. “Branson is a fantastic destination known for reeling in tourists and we are looking forward to highlighting “The Rock” to a national audience.”


Nestled in the Ozarks and close to nearby Branson, Table Rock Lake attracts thousands of visitors every year. 

The region’s extreme geography also calls for league officials to manage where anglers can fish due to MLF’s stringent connectivity requirements because MLF NOW! live stream and SCORETRACKER™ are critical components of the event’s execution and coverage. Anglers’ catches are immediately weighed, recorded and released back into the water, with the information being shared real-time via SCORETRACKER™ devices on every boat so that all competitors know where they stand and for the league to be able to keep the viewing public informed. Bass Pro Tour events feature seven hours of live-stream coverage on MLF NOW! during each competition day, with free access available at www.majorleaguefishing.com. Table Rock Lake in Missouri’s Ozark Mountains is also the birthplace of the event’s title sponsor, Bass Pro Shops, with its flagship National Headquarters store located in nearby Springfield, Missouri. Bass Pro Shops also operates Big Cedar Lodge, located on the banks of Table Rock Lake. Additional activities are planned for both locations as part of the event, with more details to follow in the coming weeks. “Competing in the backyard of a major sponsor will allow interaction with employees, anglers, and the fans,” Mulone added. The Table Rock tour event will result in a two-hour television show that will air on Discovery Channel in the fourth quarter of 2019. It will repeat on Sportsman Channel in first and second quarters 2020. MLF also has programming on Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network and Discovery Channel, and all episodes are available on-demand on My Outdoor TV (MOTV).  For more information about MLF and its anglers, rules and sponsors, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Categories
MLF BIG-5

THIRD FLW TOUR EVENT OF SEASON SET FOR LAKE SEMINOLE

February 25, 2019  by FLW Communications – Photo courtesy of FLW

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. – Fishing League Worldwide (FLW), the world’s largest tournament fishing organization, is set to continue the 2019 FLW Tour season – the 24th season of the competitive Tour – next week, March 7-10, with the FLW Tour at Lake Seminole presented by Costa. Hosted by the Bainbridge Convention and Visitors Bureau, the tournament will feature 170 of the world’s best bass-fishing professionals competing for a top award of up to $125,000 and valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2019 FLW Cup – the world championship of bass fishing.

The FLW Tour has visited Lake Seminole just once prior in FLW’s 24-year history. When the Tour visited the Georgia reservoir in 1996, Mississippi pro Jeff Magee averaged just over 15½ pounds a day to win just the fourth event in FLW Tour history. The 2019 event will mark the 213th tournament in FLW Tour history. The total purse for the FLW Tour at Lake Seminole presented by Costa is more than $860,000, including $9,000 through 65th place in the Pro Division.

“Hurricane Michael really changed the lake, 180-degrees,” said local FLW Tour angler J. Todd Tucker of Moultrie, Georgia. “It has opened up some new areas that haven’t been open for years. It’s scattered the grass and completely changed the grasslines. But, overall, Lake Seminole has been fishing pretty good and it’s going to be a very fun tournament.

“The fish are going to be shallow,” Tucker continued. “There should be quite a bit of spawning going on, and we’re going to see bass caught in all three phases – prespawn, spawn and postspawn. The key to winning this event will be to find the staging fish – areas with both prespawn and postspawn bass moving in and going out.”

Tucker said that fans following the action should expect to see a strong crankbait bite, along with lipless crankbaits, Carolina rigs, topwater baits and vibrating jigs all playing a role.

“A lot of guys are going to be fishing the lily pad stems and hydrilla up shallow, but the sand bars have always been a big player at Seminole,” Tucker said. “Guys are going to be able to catch them in a lot of different ways and we’re going to see some big fish.

“I think to make the top-30 cut to fish on the weekend, it’s going to take 31 pounds,” Tucker went on to say. “I predict the four-day winner will have right around 88 pounds. We should see quite a few 25- to 28-pound limits. If the tournament hits the lake at just the right time, the potential is definitely there for 33- to 34-pound bags.”

Anglers will take off at 7 a.m. CST Thursday through Saturday and 7:45 a.m. Sunday from the Bainbridge Earle May Boat Basin, located at 100 Boat Basin Circle, in Bainbridge. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins, March 7-8, will be held at the boat basin beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s weigh-ins, March 9-10, will also be held at the boat basin, but will begin at 4 p.m.

Prior to the weigh-ins, FLW will host a free Family Fishing Expo at the Bainbridge Earle May Boat Basin from 2 to 6 p.m. each day. The Expo is a chance for fishing fans to meet their favorite anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by FLW sponsors, and learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities.

Also for youth, the FLW Foundation’s Unified Fishing Derby will be held at the boat basin on Saturday, March 9 from Noon-2 p.m. The event is hosted by FLW Foundation pro Cody Kelley along with other FLW Tour anglers, and is free and open to anyone under the age of 18 and Special Olympics athletes. Rods and reels are available for use, but youth are encouraged to bring their own if they own one. The 1st and 2nd place anglers that catch the biggest fish will be recognized Saturday on the FLW Tour stage, just prior to the pros weighing in.

As part of the FLW Tour’s community outreach initiative, FLW Tour anglers will visit students, guests and staff at the Hutto Middle School, located at 1201 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in Bainbridge on Wednesday, March 6 from 8:30-10 a.m. to introduce students to fishing and outdoor activities in their community. During the presentations the pro anglers will reinforce how science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) relate to outdoor activities and the life as a professional angler as well as discussing different career paths within the outdoor industry.

Television coverage of the FLW Tour at Lake Seminole presented by Costa will premiere in 2019. The Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show airs each Saturday night at 7 p.m. EST and is broadcast to more than 63 million cable, satellite and telecommunications households in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean on the World Fishing Network (WFN), the leading entertainment destination and digital resource for anglers throughout North America. FLW television is also distributed internationally to FLW partner countries, including Canada, China, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and South Africa.

The popular FLW Live on-the-water program will air on Days Three and Four of the event, featuring live action from the boats of the tournament’s top pros each day. New for 2019, host Travis Moran will be joined by veteran FLW Tour pro Todd Hollowell to break down the extended action each day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. On-the-water broadcasts will be live streamed on FLWFishing.com, the FLW YouTube channel and the FLW Facebook page.

In FLW Tour competition, the full field of 170 pro anglers compete in the two-day opening round on Thursday and Friday. The top 30 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advance to Saturday. Only the top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition.

Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2019 FLW Cup, the world championship of professional bass fishing. The 2019 FLW Cup will be on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Aug. 9-11 and is hosted by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism and Visit Hot Springs.

Categories
Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

MAJOR LEAGUE FISHING STAGE 5 SET FOR THIS SOUTHERN FISHERY

Alabama – Cullman and Smith Lake – The Destination for MLF  Bass Pro Tour Stage FiveTULSA, Okla. (Feb. 20, 2019) – Major League Fishing® (MLF) announced today that Cullman, Alabama, and nearby popular bass fishery Lewis Smith Lake will serve as the setting for Stage Five of the 2019 MLF Bass Pro Tour, April 30 – May 5.  “We are extremely excited to announce this new partnership and adventure with Major League Fishing,” said Woody Jacobs, Mayor of the City of Cullman. “By bringing the 2019 MLF Bass Pro Tour to our community this spring, we will be opening new avenues to sports tourism that were not always an option.  “I want to thank those involved with our Cullman Parks, Recreation, & Sports Tourism, along with Cullman Economic Development Agency for recruiting and securing the event; and also the Cullman County Commission and County Parks and Recreation for providing resources for this all to work. MLF consists of the top bass anglers in the world, and Smith Lake offers one of the best spotted bass fisheries in the entire United States. All of these factors, along with the tourism benefits and the prime coverage will help to make this a successful and fun event.” Neither the state nor Cullman are strangers to the bass fishing scene. Sixteen of the Bass Pro Tour’s 80-angler field call Alabama home, and Jesse Wiggins, Matt Lee and Jordan Lee are from Cullman. Jordan Lee won the inaugural Bass Pro Tour opener in Kissimmee, Florida, and he’s the reigning Bassmaster Classic champion with back-to-back Classic titles – winning in 2017 and 2018.


Jordan Lee is one of three MLF anglers from Cullman, Ala., and among the 16 who reside in the state from the 80-man field that will be competing in the MLF Bass Pro Tour Stage Five event at Alabama’s  Lewis Smith Lake, April 30 – May 5. Lee won the Bass Pro Tour inaugural competition on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Florida.(Photo by Garrick Dixon) 

The north Alabama reservoir is located on the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River. It is about 21,000 acres in size and reaches depths of more than 250 feet near its dam. The lake’s diversity in depth and structure caters to literally every bass fishing technique imaginable, from topwater to drop shotting, meaning every angler should be able to fish to his liking.   The Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) recently reopened the public boat landing that will serve as the Stage Five launch site. The renovated facility includes a 90-foot-wide, six-lane launching slab and a paved parking lot with room for 113 tow vehicles with boat trailers, and 10 cars.   Other improvements include security lighting, a paved overflow parking lot for another 70 truck and trailer rigs, a 45-foot stationary aluminum pier, two large floating aluminum piers and a fixed aluminum pedestrian bridge that connects the overflow and main parking areas. The launch site is located on the northeast side of Ryan Creek and accessed free of charge through Smith Lake Park at 403 County Rd. 386 in Cullman.     The project was funded by the Sport Fish Restoration Program, which is supported through excise taxes on the sale of outboard motor fuel, fishing equipment, and the sale of state fishing licenses. For more information about this and other WFF public boating access areas, visit http://boatramps.dcnr.alabama.gov/.  As for Smith’s quality fishing, anglers often find themselves challenged in deciding whether to focus on the lake’s generous population of spotted bass, target the bigger largemouth bass or rely on both. Making it even more interesting is the fact that the MLF Bass Pro Tour uses a unique catch-weigh-and-immediate-release format in which all “scorable” bass caught do count in an angler’s score. That means Smith Lake’s big schools of healthy spotted bass could be game changers throughout the competition. “It’s going to be highly exciting to watch our MLF hammers compete in the heart of the Yellowhammer State,” said Michael Mulone, MLF’s Senior Director of Events & Partnerships. “MLF’s format will really show off how good this fishery is because bass within Smith Lake’s 13-to-15-inch slot limit will count in our competition once they satisfy the one-pound minimum rule and since MLF fish are released immediately back into the water after being caught and weighed … they don’t go into livewells.  “The Cullman folks are already working hard to make Stage Five something special and I can assure all MLF fans that this will definitely be a must-attend festival.” As in all Bass Pro Tour events, the Cullman visit will feature seven hours of live coverage on each competition day with access to the MLF NOW! free live stream found on the league’s website, www.majorleaguefishing.com. The Smith Lake event will also result in a two-hour television show that will air on Discovery Channel in the fourth quarter of 2019, and repeat on Sportsman Channel in first and second quarters of 2020. MLF programming also airs on Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network and Discovery Channel, and all episodes are available on-demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV).

Cover Photo –
Alabama’s Lewis Smith Lake has it all – beauty, docks, bridges, bass … and now MLF’s Bass Pro Tour. The popular bass fishing destination will serve as host to the league’s Stage Five destination in the 2019 season, April 30-May 5. (Photo courtesy Cullman Economic Development Agency) 

Categories
BASSMASTER Elite Series/Opens

Connecticut’s Paul Mueller Wins Spotted Bass Slugfest At Lake Lanier, Georgia

February 18, 2019 GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Photo courtesy of Jeff DeRoche

Former B.A.S.S. Nation Champion Paul Mueller proved he belongs in the big leagues of professional fishing by winning a spotted bass shootout in Georgia today. Last-minute heroics earned Mueller $100,000 for first place in the Toyota Bassmaster Elite at Lake Lanier.

Desperate to fill out his five-bass limit with bigger spotted bass, Mueller returned to a deep ridge that had produced most of his big spotted bass on previous days. There, he managed to dredge up two big spotted bass that pushed him ahead of Texas angler Chris Zaldain by less than a pound.

“I struggled today,” Mueller said. “I had run out of options, so I went back to my primary spot and caught a 5 1/4 (pounder) and then a 4. Without those two fish, I don’t win.”

Mueller had 18 pounds, 8 ounces for the day, giving him a four-day total of 69-0. It could have been even more. “There were still fish on that spot when I left,” he added. “At the end of the day, I lost a couple of big ones. I could have had a 20-something bag today.”

He described the structure as a large, underwater ridge with two shallower areas on top and very deep water on each side. He caught most of his spotted bass the first day on a Reins Bubbling Shad on a Do It Molds Freestyle Jighead, but the big producer the rest of the time was a 3 1/4-ounce Reins Fat Rockvibe Shad Swimbait on a 1/2-ounce herring head underspin jighead with the spinner removed.

“Who would have thought you could win this tournament — a blueback herring tournament — off of one spot?” he said. In fisheries where the nomadic herring are a main staple of bass diet, spotted bass are notorious for leaving their holding areas unexpectedly and en masse.

That happened to Zaldain, who also had to contend with a wind shift today that moved his schools of bass. A sudden drop of temperatures into the low 40s didn’t help.

“I fished long, sloping points all week and had to switch to western banks today because of the east wind,” he said.

Zaldain was the leader with 51-9 going into Championship Sunday, when only the Top 10 finalists competed, but he fell short with a 16-9 limit today that included two smaller bass. He alternated between a 3-inch Megabass Spark Shad swimbait on a 3/8-ounce jighead and a 3/8-ounce drop shot with a 3-inch Megabass Hazedong Shad.

Unlike Mueller and Zaldain, the others in the Top 5, and most of those in the Top 10, fished crankbaits in shallow to medium depths, especially on shorelines and points in 38,000-acre Lake Lanier.

Keith Combs of Texas finished third with 66-1, earning a $20,000 payday that pushed him into the Millionaire’s Club of B.A.S.S. His career earnings now stand at $1,001,635. He alternated between Strike King crankbaits and a 6-inch shaky head worm and followed a “run-and-gun” pattern to try numerous spots during the day. “I didn’t stay anywhere long,” he said.

Second-round leader David Mullins of Tennessee dropped to fourth with 65-14 after his bigger fish in the backs of pockets deserted him, and Todd Auten of South Carolina moved up into fifth with 63-6.

The 75 pro anglers had high praise for the quality of fishing on Lake Lanier, which had never hosted an Elite Series event before. Several spotted bass heavier than 5 pounds were weighed in, but it was a 6-14 largemouth that earned Bill Lowen of Indiana the $1,500 Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award.

The 917 bass caught in the four-day tournament averaged more than 2 3/4 pounds, an amazing average for a spotted bass fishery. Also impressive, all 917 were released alive and returned to Lake Lanier.

Chris Johnston, a newcomer to the Elites from Canada, claimed the lead in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race after two events and earned $1,000. He finished 10th at Lanier and was second behind winner Rick Clunn in the Power-Pole Bassmaster Elite at the St. Johns River, Florida, last week.

Lee Livesay of Texas now leads the DICK’S Sporting Goods Rookie of the Year race, earning $500. The highest-scoring rookie at the end of the 10-event Elite season will collect the $10,000 ROY prize.

Categories
Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Evers Wraps up Dominating Win of Bass Pro Tour Stage Two on Lake Conroe


Edwin Evers flipped his way to victory on Lake Conroe.(Photo by Garrick Dixon) CONROE, Texas (Feb. 17, 2019) – In the immediate aftermath of the first Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour event in Kissimmee, Florida two weeks ago, Edwin Evers’ dissatisfaction with finishing second was palpable. Ever the professional, Evers complimented his fellow competitors and smiled for photos at the Berkley Postgame Show, but no talk of Cup points could bring the Oklahoma pro comfort.
Sunday afternoon on Lake Conroe, Evers made sure that the only postgame talk would be of how he earned his first-ever MLF Bass Pro Tour trophy.
Evers racked up 51 pounds, 12 ounces to outdistance Jeff Sprague, (40-8), Boyd Duckett (35-15), Brent Ehrler (34-13) and David Walker (34-7) and claim the win at the Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two presented by Favorite Fishing. The Oklahoma pro caught 24 scorable fish on the day, including an exclamation point with 9 minutes left in the competition: an 8-1 that hit a drop-shot Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper.
“You can’t imagine how good it feels to catch a fish like that,” Evers admitted. “I knew there were big fish in there because I shook some big ones off the second day of the event. The big females just hadn’t gotten there yet, but they’re coming.”


Evers’ winning area


Edwin Evers flipped his way to victory on Lake Conroe.(Photo by Garrick Dixon)

Evers’ pattern was to flip his way down the bank with a Black Blue Berkley Havoc Pit Boss, 
picking out small indentations and grassy, undercut banks and flipping his bait as close to the bank as he could. He also caught some fish on a vibrating jig.
The area that Evers fished – a canal that he found during the Elimination Round – was shallow at the entrance, but fell off into slightly deeper water the further back he went.
“I feel like I know this lake as well as any lake I fish, but I’d never been in that canal before,” Evers admitted. “It looked right when I looked at it on the map, and I had it all to myself – I assume because it was probably pretty muddy in practice. The water was just a little warmer and a little bit cleaner on a couple of those key stretches.”

Holding off a midday charge
Evers looked like he might run away with the day almost from the opening gun, racking up over 26 pounds in the first period flipping a Berkley Havoc Pit Boss and winding a vibrating jig. Evers accounted for 13 of the 47 fish recorded during the period. 

He eventually hit a lull midway through the second period, going nearly 90 minutes without a scorable fish. Sprague, meanwhile, went on a run, putting 8-9 on the scales to pull within 4 pounds of Evers just before the period break.
The Texas pro was haunted by a couple of near-misses on fish that he estimated to be in the 7-pound range.
“I had the chances, but I couldn’t execute on a couple of pretty key bites,” Sprague said. “I can’t complain too much, I had a great week, but I’d like to have a couple of those bites back.”
Evers stomped on the gas in the final period, adding seven fish for 21-5 in the final two-and-a-half hours after deciding to stay in his key area instead of moving.


Finishing out the Top 10
Jordan Lee finished sixth with 27-8, followed by Randall Tharp (17-3), Wesley Strader (9-11), Gary Klein (7-0) and Stephen Browning (6-2).


Next up for the MLF Bass Pro Tour
The 80-man Bass Pro Tour field will get a three-week break before heading to Raleigh, North Carolina March 26-31 for Stage Three on Jordan Lake, Falls Lake, and Shearon Harris Reservoir.
For more information on the Major League Fishing schedule, anglers and rules, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Categories
Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Duckett Leads Top 10 Anglers into Championship Round of Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two Conroe presented by Favorite Fishing

CONROE, Texas (Feb. 16, 2019) – For the better part of the past year, Boyd Duckett has been “Mr. MLF” as he worked endlessly to establish the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour. But for the seven hours of competition in the Knockout Round of MLF Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two Conroe presented by Favorite Fishing, Duckett was “Mr. Consistency”.

Duckett caught his first scorable bass 22 minutes into the competition at Lake Conroe and then steadily added fish to SCORETRACKER® throughout the morning and early afternoon, swimming a small worm. By the time Period 3 got underway, Duckett had already weighed 31 pounds, 14 ounces, and owned a 9-plus-pound lead on the field.

The Alabama pro would eventually finish the day with 38-5 on 21 fish, followed by Gary Klein (30-1), Edwin Evers (29-2), Brent Ehrler (28-12) and Jordan Lee (28-12).

“I’ve always been decent at compartmentalizing my fishing and my work, but I just couldn’t make fishing the most important thing at Toho,” Duckett admitted, referring to the MLF Bass Pro Tour’s inaugural event in Florida two weeks ago. “Coming into this one, I told everybody that I was going to concentrate on my fishing. It’s been nice to just be an angler at this event.”

And Duckett the angler has been consistently stout on Conroe from Day 1. He recorded 46 fish in his first three rounds, despite spending the majority of each competition day either looking for new water, or guarding what he considers his best area.
“I like that this fishery is tough,” Duckett said. “I’ve traditionally done well in events that are difficult to fish. You really have to figure out how to catch these fish, you can dial something in that’s just a little bit different than what the other guys are doing.”
Surviving the battle for the Championship 10
Randall Tharp (27-13), David Walker (27-10), Wesley Strader (27-5), Jeff Sprague (26-6) and Stephen Browning (25-13) filled out the Top 10 and will compete in the Championship. And while all five anglers endured their moments of stress, Browning had to work especially hard for his spot in the finals.
Entering the last 10 minutes of competition, Browning, Shin Fukae, Keith Poche, Andy Montgomery and Jonathan VanDam all sat within 14 ounces of each other in the race to make the 10 cut.
Poche hooked a fish with under 2 minutes to go – at the time trailing Fukae by just 3 ounces – but the fish was unscorable at 14 ounces. As it turned out, Browning was the angler who would ultimately experience the thrill of victory.
The Arkansas pro hooked a 3-4 with 30 seconds left in the round, pushing him from 12th place to 10th. And that meant that Fukae suffered the agony of defeat as he fell to 11th, 2-9 behind Browning.
“I’m still shaking,” Browning said at the Berkley Postgame Show. “You go through the most emotional highs and lows in this format, and that’s what makes it all so exciting.”
Championship Round reset
The Championship 10 will head back out onto Lake Conroe on Sunday with weights zeroed, turning the battle for the championship trophy into a one-day dogfight. Strader, Lee and Evers have been the most consistent this week, recording the highest combined weights in their three competition rounds.

How, where & when to watch

Official live scoring updates are available via SCORETRACKER from the start of competition at 7:30 a.m. CT. The MLF NOW! Championship Sunday live stream begins at 10 a.m. CT, with on-the-water coverage following the action until the end of competition at 3:30 p.m. The MLF Berkley Postgame Show begins at 5 p.m.

Categories
Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Knockout Round is Set as 20 More Anglers Advance   out of Elimination on Lake Conroe

MLF pro Edwin Evers piled 28 pounds, 12 ounces on SCORETRACKER in Elimination Round 2 to advance to the Knockout Round (Photo by Josh Gassmann.)

CONROE, Texas (Feb. 15, 2019) – Elimination Round 2 at the Major League Fishing®
(MLF) Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two Conroe presented by Favorite Fishing ended with some familiar names on top of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard: Jordan Lee, Edwin Evers and Andy Montgomery.

Lee and Montgomery entered the day 1-2, and Evers made a move early in the day to put himself well inside the Elimination Line. But while the three enjoyed relatively stress-free days with totals of 47 pounds, 10 ounces, 39-15 and 39-9, respectively, roughly a dozen anglers fighting for their competitive lives around the Elimination Line had exactly the opposite experience.

Among the latter group were Brett Hite, Randall Tharp, Zack Birge and Justin Lucas.

Hite landed a 2-4 on his last cast of the day to leap from 21st to 19th and into his first MLF Knockout Round.
“I’m going to take a breather on that one,” Hite said as he flopped on his front deck immediately after the “lines out” call from his official. Hite covered his face with his hat and took a minute to catch his breath, and then went into celebration mode when it was confirmed that he was indeed in the Knockout Round.
“That was probably the most stressful last couple of hours of fishing in my life,” Hite said once he was upright again. “I kept my head down the whole time, and I knew I’d get a bite sooner or later. I cast up under a boat dock, cranked three times and that fish just KOd it.
Tharp, who started the morning in fifth place, tapped a 4-1 just 20 minutes into the morning, and then didn’t add another fish to SCORETRACKER until there was 40 minutes left in the final period. That second bite, though, was the right one: a 4-4 that cemented Tharp at 17th.
“It was extremely tough today,” Tharp admitted. “I caught that 4-pounder first thing in the morning, and thought ‘Man, what a great start, let’s build on this’. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m in first place now with the weights zeroing. I know I’m catching the right ones, and I’m having fun fishing the way I love to fish.”
Birge started the day in 20th place, and spent the majority of the first two periods ping-ponging between 17th and 20th, battling Justin Lucas, Stephen Browning, Gary Klein, Mike McClelland and James Elam to stay above the Elimination Line. Birge put together a four-fish flurry over the first 20 minutes of the final period to add 12-8 to his total. Birge finished the day in seventh place.
“I fished that area first thing in the morning, and then left it for four or five hours,” Birge said. “I went back there hoping that some fish had moved in, and they had.”
Lucas jumped into the Top 20 with 13-9 in the first period, but then slowed down in the second period, and finally stalled over the last half of the day. The Alabama pro didn’t put a scorable fish on the scale over the final 3 ½ hours of competition and fell to the dreaded 21st spot with 26-11 (7 ounces behind Gary Klein, who earned the final spot in the Knockout Round).
“I was catching them good the first two periods, never caught a keeper in the third period, and have no idea why,” Lucas admitted. “It feels terrible. I hope everybody finishes 21st at some point. They need to know what that feels like. It’s not fun.”
Knockout Round need-to-know
Weights zero out tomorrow for the Knockout Round, which pits the Top 20 anglers from both A and B groups in a one-day battle for the Top 10 weights of the day. Those 10 anglers will compete in the Championship Round on Sunday.
How/where to watch

Official live scoring updates are available via SCORETRACKER from the start of competition at 7:30 a.m. CT. The MLF NOW! live stream begins at 10 a.m. CT, with on-the-water coverage following the action until the end of competition at 3:30 p.m. The MLF Berkley Postgame Show begins at 5 p.m.

Categories
Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Knockout Round is Set as 20 More Anglers Advance   out of Elimination on Lake Conroe

MLF pro Edwin Evers piled 28 pounds, 12 ounces on SCORETRACKER in Elimination Round 2 to advance to the Knockout Round (Photo by Josh Gassmann.)

CONROE, Texas (Feb. 15, 2019) – Elimination Round 2 at the Major League Fishing®
(MLF) Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two Conroe presented by Favorite Fishing ended with some familiar names on top of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard: Jordan Lee, Edwin Evers and Andy Montgomery.

Lee and Montgomery entered the day 1-2, and Evers made a move early in the day to put himself well inside the Elimination Line. But while the three enjoyed relatively stress-free days with totals of 47 pounds, 10 ounces, 39-15 and 39-9, respectively, roughly a dozen anglers fighting for their competitive lives around the Elimination Line had exactly the opposite experience.

Among the latter group were Brett Hite, Randall Tharp, Zack Birge and Justin Lucas.

Hite landed a 2-4 on his last cast of the day to leap from 21st to 19th and into his first MLF Knockout Round.
“I’m going to take a breather on that one,” Hite said as he flopped on his front deck immediately after the “lines out” call from his official. Hite covered his face with his hat and took a minute to catch his breath, and then went into celebration mode when it was confirmed that he was indeed in the Knockout Round.
“That was probably the most stressful last couple of hours of fishing in my life,” Hite said once he was upright again. “I kept my head down the whole time, and I knew I’d get a bite sooner or later. I cast up under a boat dock, cranked three times and that fish just KOd it.
Tharp, who started the morning in fifth place, tapped a 4-1 just 20 minutes into the morning, and then didn’t add another fish to SCORETRACKER until there was 40 minutes left in the final period. That second bite, though, was the right one: a 4-4 that cemented Tharp at 17th.
“It was extremely tough today,” Tharp admitted. “I caught that 4-pounder first thing in the morning, and thought ‘Man, what a great start, let’s build on this’. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m in first place now with the weights zeroing. I know I’m catching the right ones, and I’m having fun fishing the way I love to fish.”
Birge started the day in 20th place, and spent the majority of the first two periods ping-ponging between 17th and 20th, battling Justin Lucas, Stephen Browning, Gary Klein, Mike McClelland and James Elam to stay above the Elimination Line. Birge put together a four-fish flurry over the first 20 minutes of the final period to add 12-8 to his total. Birge finished the day in seventh place.
“I fished that area first thing in the morning, and then left it for four or five hours,” Birge said. “I went back there hoping that some fish had moved in, and they had.”
Lucas jumped into the Top 20 with 13-9 in the first period, but then slowed down in the second period, and finally stalled over the last half of the day. The Alabama pro didn’t put a scorable fish on the scale over the final 3 ½ hours of competition and fell to the dreaded 21st spot with 26-11 (7 ounces behind Gary Klein, who earned the final spot in the Knockout Round).
“I was catching them good the first two periods, never caught a keeper in the third period, and have no idea why,” Lucas admitted. “It feels terrible. I hope everybody finishes 21st at some point. They need to know what that feels like. It’s not fun.”
Knockout Round need-to-know
Weights zero out tomorrow for the Knockout Round, which pits the Top 20 anglers from both A and B groups in a one-day battle for the Top 10 weights of the day. Those 10 anglers will compete in the Championship Round on Sunday.
How/where to watch

Official live scoring updates are available via SCORETRACKER from the start of competition at 7:30 a.m. CT. The MLF NOW! live stream begins at 10 a.m. CT, with on-the-water coverage following the action until the end of competition at 3:30 p.m. The MLF Berkley Postgame Show begins at 5 p.m.

Categories
BASSMASTER Elite Series/Opens

Mullins Remains Consistent, Grabs Lead At Toyota Bassmaster Elite At Lake Lanier

February 15, 2019 – Photo courtesy of BASS
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. —

With each day that passes, Tennessee angler David Mullins sounds more and more confident about his current situation.

He’s learning Lake Lanier’s spotted bass, and it shows in the standings.

After catching 17 pounds, 12 ounces during Thursday’s opening round, Mullins topped that mark Friday with 19-6 and now leads the Toyota Bassmaster Elite at Lake Lanier with a two-day total of 37-2.

While some anglers have struggled to stay on top of the fishery’s nomadic spotted bass, Mullins has remained consistent — and he still believes he can do better.

“For a while today, I felt like I was ledge fishing,” said Mullins, who had numerous stretches Friday when he caught bass one after another for several minutes. “This is the first day that I’ve caught multiple fish off a spot.

“It seemed like they grouped up better today.”

Blueback herring are one of the main forage species on Lake Lanier — and as they move around the lake in large schools, the predatory spotted bass move with them. That means an angler can often catch bass on a spot one day and find they’ve disappeared the next.

But evidence emerged late Friday that Mullins may have developed a more distinct and reliable pattern than many of the other 74 anglers in the field. Around 2 p.m., he caught a 4-pound bass in the same place he caught a 4-pounder the previous day.

He was confident enough what he was doing that he only used one bait all day long.

“I’ve got a rotation now,” he said. “I think I’ve got a clue of what’s going on. The one bait that I’m using is something I have confidence in.

“It’s the one I’m gonna ride or die with.”

Mullins is one of many anglers who have compared Lanier’s hefty spotted bass to smallmouth bass. He’s accustomed to chasing smallmouth on Tennessee fisheries like Cherokee Lake, while Connecticut’s Paul Mueller has spent his life catching them on northern fisheries — sometimes even through the ice.

After landing 16-11 Thursday, Mueller added 18-4 Friday and moved into second place with 34-15. He said the key right now is keeping an open mind.

“I had a game plan for what I was going to do today — similar to what I did yesterday — and that didn’t work out,” Mueller said. He reverted to techniques and patterns that had paid off for him in practice sessions earlier in the week, “and it started happening.

“These fish are different. You’ll catch them one day, and they’ll just change. You can’t be set on what you’re going to do, or you’ll be disappointed.”

Mueller said his Garmin Panoptix (sonar) with Livescope allowed him to see how the bass are reacting to the baits he’s using. With Livescope, he said, he can “see” the fish in real time and even gauge their “mood.”

“I think these bass get a lot of pressure,” Mueller said. “So when I say the Livescope allows me to tell their ‘mood,’ I’m being 100 percent serious.

“These fish are boat-shy. It’s an incredible advantage to see how they react to certain baits, whether they come up to the bait or whether they spook.”

Texas angler Keith Combs — one of the most noted power-fishing largemouth specialists in the sport — is in third place with 33-5. He caught 16-15 Friday and came in lamenting what might have been after losing a spotted bass he estimated was in the 5- to 6-pound range.

“It was like a 20-second fight,” Combs said. “I can see it in my head because it was swimming so slow at the top of the water, just whipped. It was a fish that never in a million years should have come off, but it did.

“That probably burned me for 2 1/2 pounds today. It was like losing a 10-pound largemouth.”

Chris Zaldain of Fort Worth, Texas is tied with Combs for third with 33-5.

Indiana angler Bill Lowen kept his lead in the race for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the week with the 6-14 largemouth he caught Thursday. Friday’s biggest fish was a 5-6 spotted bass caught by Arkansas pro Stetson Blaylock.

The Top 35 remaining anglers will fish again Saturday, with takeoff scheduled for 6:45 a.m. ET from Laurel Park. The weigh-in, which was held at Laurel Park the previous two days, will move Saturday and Sunday to Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, Ga., at 4 p.m.

After Saturday’s round, only the Top 10 anglers will advance to Championship Sunday with a chance to compete for the $100,000 first-place prize.

Categories
Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Strader Finishes on top of Elimination Round 1 at Conroe

Photo courtesy of Garret Dixon

CONROE, Texas (Feb. 14, 2019) – With the first Elimination Round of the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two presented by Favorite Fishing officially in the books, Wesley Strader can take a quick breath of relief and rest up for Saturday’s Knockout Round.

Even more importantly, he can let his best water rest, too.
After adding 23 pounds to to his Shotgun Round total of 33-0 – bringing his two-day total to 56-0 – Strader heads into the semi-final round on top of the 40-man Group A, exactly 1 pound ahead of Bobby Lane (55-0). But Strader is quick to acknowledge that the competition has now become as much a game of strategy as of picking apart the water at Lake Conroe.

The East Tennessee pro summed it up best right after he put his last fish of Period 2 – a 4-4 – on SCORETRACKER®: “I don’t care who passes me, I’m out of here,” Strader said as he Power-Poled up and backed his way out of the narrow creek he had been fishing to go scout new water.
Strader would eventually add another three fish to his total in Period 3 to claim the top spot in the group, but used the entire period as a scouting exercise, hoping to find “the juice” for Saturday, when the weights zero.
“I looked around more than I fished today,” Strader admitted. “I have a real specific (condition) I’m looking for – when I see it, I catch one about 75 percent of the time. But this thing I’m looking for is really hard to find, and I have to cover a lot of water on the trolling motor to find it. I feel like I can go behind guys and catch them, though, because I have areal specific bait that they really like. Hopefully I can make that work again on Saturday.”
The majority of the Top 10 – most of whom were in good shape on SCORETRACKER when competition began, anyway – followed Strader’s lead.
Brent Ehrler, Adrian Avena, Jason Christie and Bradley Roy all spent a good portion of their Elimination Round sniffing around Conroe in search of conditions and spots that they could exploit in the Knockout and Championship Rounds.
Surviving the Elimination Line
The handful of anglers battling for survival around the Elimination Line, though, had no such flexibility. Skeet Reese powered his way into the semi-final with a 25-pound day to finish 17th while Kevin VanDam clawed his way to 7-1 to stay just inside the Top 20 at 18th.
Greg Hackney and Dean Rojas claimed the final two spots in the Knockout Round, pushing Mike Iaconelli, Aaron Martens and Gerald Swindle out of the competition.
Elimination Round 2 set to be a brawl
The 40 anglers from Group B now get their second shot at Conroe for Elimination Round 2. This group – led by Jordan Lee, Andy Montgomery, David Walker, Jared Lintner and Randall Tharp – will see much milder weather conditions than Group A, with daytime highs hitting the 80-degree mark.
That means that bigger fish will likely be moving in. And with a tight grouping around the 20th spot – anglers 14 through 25 are separated by roughly 5 pounds – this race will likely see plenty of movement in the middle of the 40-man field.
“There are so many great anglers stacked up close together – with (the MLF) format and the ability to catch as many fish as you can, it’s going to be a battle,” said Randy Howell (18th with 11-4).