Day: March 29, 2019, The National Angler

FLW TOUR HEADS TO CHEROKEE LAKE FOR FIFTH EVENT OF SEASON

March 28, 2019 by FLW Communications Photo courtesy of FLW Fishing

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Fishing League Worldwide (FLW), the world’s largest tournament fishing organization, is heading to Jefferson City to take on Cherokee Lake, April 11-14, for the FLW Tour at Cherokee Lake presented by Lowrance. Hosted by the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, the tournament will feature four days of bass-fishing action from 165 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.

Although Cherokee Lake has hosted multiple T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) events over the years, this event will mark the first time the FLW Tour has ever visited the fishery. The total purse for the FLW Tour at Cherokee Lake presented by Lowrance – the 215th event in FLW Tour history – is more than $860,000.

“Everybody knows you can go up the river to catch largemouth on Cherokee Lake. It’s got a decent population of largemouth, but I don’t think it can withstand the fishing pressure of a tournament of our size over four days,” said pro Jason Abram of Piney Flats, Tennessee, a 10-year FLW Tour veteran. “I think it’s going to take a mixed bag – largemouth and smallmouth – to win.

“The smallmouth population in Cherokee Lake is pretty strong still,” Abram continued. “It’s very possible that they could be bedding, although the TVA started dropping the water last week and that could hold them off. In my opinion, the majority of the anglers in the top 50 will likely be fishing for smallmouth.”

With both species of bass in play, it will be a crucial decision for tournament competitors. Abram said that smallmouth would likely be heavily targeted in staging areas – points and chunk rock – before moving in to spawn on pea-gravel banks. Abram expects the largemouth to also play a big role for anglers and predicted that the majority would be caught up the Holston River.

“These guys are used to running around flipping bushes and docks, but in East Tennessee, when the water is low, we don’t have that, Abram said. “We’re going to have to decipher what kind of rock and what depth of rock they are on.

“Someone is going to figure out how to catch a largemouth first thing, and then catch some smallmouth to fill out a limit. Or, they’re going to catch a limit of smallmouth and then go flipping or shallow-cranking for largemouth and catch that 4- or 5-pounder that puts them where they need to be,” Abram went on to say. “We’re just going to have to figure them out when we get there.”

The Tennessee pro estimated that a four-day cumulative weight of 58 pounds should be enough to earn the victory on Championship Sunday.

Anglers will take off at 7 a.m. EST each day from the TVA Dam Boat Launch, located at 2805 N. Highway 92, in Jefferson City. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins, April 11-12, will be held near the launch beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s weigh-ins, April 13-14, will also be held near the launch, but will begin at 4 p.m.

Prior to weigh-in each day, FLW will host a free Family Fishing Expo at the TVA Dam Boat Launch from 2 to 6 p.m. The Expo is a chance for fishing fans to meet their favorite anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by FLW sponsors, as well as 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 TVA Dam Boat Launch on Saturday, April 13, 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 most fish will be recognized Saturday on the FLW Tour stage, just prior to the pros weighing in.

Television coverage of the FLW Tour at Cherokee Lake presented by Lowrance will premiere in 2019. The exact air-date will be announced soon. 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. 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 165 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.

KNOCKOUT ROUND FIELD SET AS GROUP B’S TOP 20 ADVANCE AT MLF BASS PRO TOUR STAGE THREE

RALEIGH, N.C. (March 28, 2019) – When you take a quick look down the standings of Elimination Round 2 of the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Favorite Fishing Stage Three Raleigh presented by Evinrude, three names should stand out: Brandon Palaniuk, Russ Lane and Jeff Sprague. While only one of the three finished in the Top 5 – Palaniuk was fourth, Lane was sixth, Sprague was 10th – the numbers to pay the closest attention to are their SCORETRACKER™ catches for the day on Falls Lake: Palaniuk piled up 42 pounds, 5 ounces on 16 fish, Lane weighed in 36-15 and Sprague finished with 33-7. Strong numbers, to be sure, but especially notable because those three anglers started the morning in the bottom 10 in the standings after their Shotgun Round and executed the kind of dramatic turnarounds that would lead a betting soul to believe that they’ve figured something special out on Falls.

Brandon Palaniuk’s 6-1 helped him to 42-5 in Elimination Round competition on Falls Lake.

“I learned that I’m way better on Falls Lake than I am on Jordan Lake,” Palaniuk joked. “The amount of cover in Jordan is crazy – Falls really doesn’t have that much cover, so you’ve really got to search hard to find it in certain spots. That’s what I felt like I stumbled onto today, and it worked out well. I just hope it holds up – I’m glad that we’re going back to Falls tomorrow and not going back to Jordan, because I never got to the right area in Jordan. I feel like if it holds out, I feel like I have Falls dialed in way better than I did Jordan.”

Squeaking above the Elimination Line The competition around the Elimination Line came down to a battle of less than 2 pounds among Jeff Kriet, Dave Lefebre and Marty Robinson. Kriet scraped together 12-10 to finish the day with 33-10, and then hung on to the final spot as Robinson climbed to within 1-7. “I was 48 years old when I started the day, and now I’m 72,” Kriet joked, referring to the stress of the final hour of competition.

What about Jordon, Walker, etc.? Saturday’s X-factor is the group of anglers in both Groups A and B whose Shotgun Round weights offered them the luxury of spending most of their Elimination days practicing and becoming more familiar with the nooks and crannies of Falls. David Walker, for example, weighed in only four fish for 9 pounds on the day; Casey Ashley weighed just one fish … but it was a 7-6 hawg. “There’s no part of this lake I haven’t seen now, so I do have a good feel for it,” Walker admitted. “Some of the guys have been laying off (their fish) for sure, but I still feel like I’m searching for a good answer to it. It can be so maddening to figure that out, and honest to God, one cast can clue you in to what you should be doing. It can be just that simple. But I feel like I’m still going to be scrambling a little bit.”

The last shot at Falls Weights will be zeroed for Saturday’s Knockout Round at Falls, so it’s a fresh start for all who have advanced. Many of the anglers fishing the previous two days of Elimination Round competition expressed some anxiety about leaving behind the big-fish bonanza that occurred on Jordan Lake in the Shotgun Rounds. And who could blame them: Kelly Jordon racked up a Bass Pro Tour-record weight of 82-4 during Day 1 of Shotgun Round action on Jordan Lake, and several anglers experienced near-record days on that fishery. But after a full day on Falls, most of the remaining 40 anglers have now settled into areas and patterns that they’re more comfortable with in the one-day “shootout” format of the Knockout Round. “I got to Falls and was actually impressed with how warm the water had gotten,” Sprague said. “I really thought these fish would be progressing a little further, similar to what they were doing at Jordan, so after the first period I decided to make a change. I figured I’m either going to go home with the four fish I have on the SCORETRACKER or fish and go catch them. We ran up to an area where I had practiced, I’d only had one bite in practice but it was right, just the fish hadn’t set-up there yet, and today they were there. The warm weather has allowed them to funnel in and hopefully tonight, more of them will funnel in there and we’ll thrash them tomorrow.”

The Day’s Results To see all results from today’s Elimination Round, who is competing in the Knockout Round and to keep up with cumulative results throughout the week, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com and click “Results.”

How, When & Where to Watch Knockout Round Competition among the final 40 anglers begins Saturday at 7:30 a.m. ET, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! live stream starts at 10 a.m. ET, with live, on-the-water coverage continuing until lines out at 3:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show live stream will start at approximately 5 p.m. daily.