Day: February 16, 2019

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.