Day: April 12, 2019

Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

UNBELIEVABLE 100 POUNDS, HEAVY HITTERS ADVANCE TO KNOCKOUT ROUND ON CHICKAMAUGA

Post author By jcarrigan
Post date April 12, 2019
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DAYTON, Tenn. (April 12, 2019) – At the end of four rounds of competition in the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Econo Lodge Stage Four Presented by Winn Grips, we’re all done asking “Just how good is Lake Chickamauga?” The answer is best expressed in numbers: 105-6; 11 over 80; 748; 1,400. Zack Birge ended Elimination Round 2 on Friday with 105 pounds, 6 ounces of combined weight from his two rounds, a new Bass Pro Tour record. Eleven anglers competing today in Group B had two-day totals over 80 pounds. And the 40-man field put 748 bass on SCORETRACKER™ for 1,400 pounds.

Birge Blisters the Elimination Record Birge became the first competitor in Bass Pro Tour history to break the 100-pound mark in Elimination Round competition, connecting with 28 Tennessee River largemouth for 54-2 on the day, building his two-day Shotgun/Elimination total to a record 105-6. The Oklahoma pro maintained a steady pace with a vibrating jig with a Googan Baits Krackin Craw trailer from the moment lines went in, weighing nine fish in Period 1, six in Period 2, and then adding 13 fish for 22-2 in the final period. “Once I got to where I thought 100 pounds was attainable, I really wanted to break that 100-pound mark,” Birge admitted. “I’m excited to go right back out and fish again, I feel like I can go catch a bunch of them. I haven’t even gone to a dozen places I found in practice that set up the same way as what I fished today.”

Top 11 All Over 80 Pounds Local pro Andy Morgan was matter-of-fact about his 31-pound performance in the Shotgun Round, which brought him into competition on Friday in 21st place (“Middle-of-the-road at best,” Morgan said). But Morgan was one of the anglers who got busy early on Chickamauga, putting 18 fish on SCORETRACKER™ for 47-14 in the first two periods and finishing with 56-13 to bring his two-day total to 88-5. Davis, Powroznik and Roumbanis did even better. Davis piled up 64-15 on the day, Powroznik added 60-14 on 32 fish, and Roumbanis boosted his two-day total with 58-11. Those three were part of an 11-angler group that finished the Elimination Round with 80-plus pounds. “This is by far the best day I’ve had on the Bass Pro Tour,” Roumbanis said. “I’m starting to get the confidence of running around and fishing the entire day instead of period to period. That has helped me to fish more free and not get locked in on one certain deal. I probably had 15 rods on my deck today and moved through a bunch of them with confidence.”

**MLF Pro Fred Roumbanis finished the Group B Elimination Round in the No. 2 spot with 94-12; his 58-11 weight**
**today was anchored by this 5-12 largemouth.**

Weights Back to Zero for Knockout Round One thing that we’ve learned this week on Lake Chickamauga is that any standard that was set in the previous three stages of the 2019 Bass Pro Tour season is moot. It took 49 pounds to win the Knockout Rounds at both Kissimmee (Florida) and Raleigh (North Carolina), and 38 pounds for Boyd Duckett to claim the top knockout spot on Lake Conroe (Texas). So far, there have been 15 single-day weights of 49 pounds or better recorded on SCORETRACKER this week on Chickamauga, and the two-day Shotgun/Elimination weight record has been broken two days in a row. “I keep waiting for the weights to fall off at some point, but we just keep catching them better and better,” said Fletcher Shryock, who racked up 86-7 in two rounds. “We’re catching the numbers, but what this fishery hasn’t showcased yet is the big ones. We’re catching this much weight and we’re still not seeing the 8s, 9s and 10s. I guess that’s the quote of the day: Lake Chickamauga is fishing really good, but could be ever better. And that’s insane.”

When, Where & How to Watch Competition 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 and analysis provided by Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone and Natalie Dillon until lines out at 3:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show – hosted by Steven “Lurch” Scott – will start at 5 p.m. daily.

MLF BIG-5

UPSHAW HOLDS LEAD AT FLW TOUR ON CHEROKEE LAKE PRESENTED BY LOWRANCE

Post author By jcarrigan
Post date April 12, 2019
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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (April 12, 2019) – Pro Andrew Upshaw of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is still on top at the FLW Tour at the Cherokee Lake presented by Lowrance after catching five bass weighing 17 pounds, 14 ounces. Upshaw’s two-day total of 36-4 will lead the final 30 pros into the third day of the event, with pro Dylan Hays of El Dorado, Arkansas, in second with 34-8 and Lowrance pro Austin Felix of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, right on his heels in third with 34-5. With weights this close together, there is sure to be some movement on the leaderboard heading into Championship Sunday, when the final 10 pros will take the water with their sights set on the top award of up to $125,000.

“I actually started right where I caught my last big one yesterday. I went through the exact same spot and I caught a 4½- and a 2¾-pounder,” said Upshaw, who is fishing in his eighth season on the FLW Tour. “There was enough boats around me that I figured I better stay in there and catch my limit, so I went ahead and caught a limit of 2½-pounders and the one big one.

“After that I just started running new water – places where I’d had bites in practice,” continued Upshaw. “The first place I pulled up to I caught a 3, and then the next spot I caught a 3½, a 3 and a 3¼ – it was a day. I hit two new places today and I still have about 15 other spots I haven’t even touched.”

Upshaw said he caught more keepers Friday than he did Thursday, and again brought all smallmouth to the weigh-in stage.

“I wasn’t sure I could catch what I caught today. I was pretty certain I could catch 16 [pounds] and I got lucky with that big one this morning,” said Upshaw. “A 4½-pounder is a big deal here. These guys are catching 3-pounders and a lot of them, but catching a 4-pounder is really hard, and today I was just fortunate enough to do it.”

Heading into the weekend, Upshaw said he has a couple of options for catching fish.

“I did figure out something late in the day today. I just started practicing – trying to figure out a way I could catch them completely different than what I have been doing and I was able to catch about 14 pounds doing that,” said Upshaw. “I could run around and catch them – and not spawners – which was nice. But, I’m not really worried about that for tomorrow. That’s more of a day four kind of thing. Overall, I can’t complain about today – it was a great day.”

The top 30 pros that made the cut and will fish Saturday on Cherokee Lake are:

1^st: Andrew Upshaw, Tulsa, Okla., 10 bass, 36-4

2^nd: Dylan Hays, El Dorado, Ark., 10 bass, 34-8

3^rd: Lowrance pro Austin Felix, Eden Prairie, Minn., 10 bass, 34-5

4^th: Grae Buck, Harleysville, Pa., 10 bass, 34-0

5^th: Tim Frederick, Leesburg, Fla., 10 bass, 33-9

6^th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 10 bass, 33-9

7^th: Lowrance pro Kurt Mitchell, Milford, Del., 10 bass, 33-7

8^th: Yamamoto baits pro Tom Monsoor, La Crosse, Wis., 10 bass, 33-4

9^th: Derrick Snavely, Piney Flats, Tenn., 10 bass, 32-14

10^th: Berkley pro Joey Cifuentes, Clinton, Ark., 10 bass, 32-7

11^th: Andy Young, Isle, Minn., 10 bass, 32-3

12^th: Scott Martin, Clewiston, Fla., 10 bass, 32-3

13^th: Kerry Milner, Bono, Ark., 10 bass, 32-2

14^th: J. Todd Tucker, Moultrie, Ga., 10 bass, 31-12

15^th: Polaris pro David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 10 bass, 31-11

16^th: Jason Reyes, Huffman, Texas, 10 bass, 31-10

17^th: Johnny McCombs, Morris, Ala., 10 bass, 31-5

18^th: Jon Englund, Farwell, Minn., 10 bass, 31-3

19^th: Matt Becker, Finleyville, Pa., 10 bass, 31-2

20^th: Tim Cales, Sandstone, W. Va., 10 bass, 31-2

21^st: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 10 bass, 30-14

22^nd: Dakota Ebare, Denham Springs, La., 10 bass, 30-12

23^rd: Brandon McMillan, Clewiston, Fla., 10 bass, 30-12

24^th: Josh Douglas, Isle, Minn., 10 bass, 30-11

25^th: Evan Barnes, Hot Springs, Ark., 10 bass, 30-11

26^th: A.J. Slegona, Pine Bush, N.Y., 10 bass, 30-4

27^th: Matthew Stefan, Junction City, Wis., 10 bass, 30-3

28^th: Alex Davis, Albertville, Ala., 10 bass, 30-2

29^th: Jason Meninger, Saint Augustine, Fla., 10 bass, 29-14

30^th: Yamamoto Baits pro Larry Nixon, Quitman, Ark., 10 bass, 29-12

For a full list of results visit FLWFishing.com.

Hensley Powell of Whitwell, Tennessee, earned the $500 Big Bass award Friday after bringing a bass to the scale weighing 5 pounds even – the heaviest fish of the day.

Overall there were 786 bass weighing 2,120 pounds, 13 ounces, caught by 162 pros Friday. The catch included 147 five-bass limits.

In FLW Tour competition, the full field of 164 pro anglers competed in the two-day opening round on Thursday and Friday. The top 30 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight now 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.

The total purse for the FLW Tour at Cherokee Lake presented by Lowrance is more than $860,000. The tournament is hosted by the Economic Development Alliance, Jefferson County.

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.

Anglers will take off at 7 a.m. EST Saturday and Sunday from the TVA Dam Boat Launch, located at 2805 N. Highway 92, in Jefferson City. Saturday and Sunday’s weigh-ins will be held near the launch beginning at 4 p.m.

In conjunction with the weigh-ins, FLW will host a free Family Fishing Expo at the TVA Dam Boat Launch from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. 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, 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 1^st and 2^nd 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 Saturday and Sunday, 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.

BASSMASTER Elite Series/Opens

LONG RUN PRODUCES LEAD FOR LOWEN AT BASSMASTER ELITE AT WINYAH BAY

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Post date April 12, 2019
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April 12, 2019 – GEORGETOWN, S.C. — Photo courtesy of BASS

Self-proclaimed river rat Bill Lowen found himself right at home in the Cooper River Friday and leveraged his current-born insights to catch a limit of bass weighing 13 pounds, 15 ounces and take the lead on Day 2 of the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Elite at Winyah Bay. After catching 13-4 during Thursday’s opening round, Lowen has a two-day weight of 27-3.

Lowen, who grew up fishing the Ohio River, made a nearly 100-mile run south and avoided the broad rice fields that have seen significant traffic this week. Instead, he targeted a 3/4-mile stretch where he focused on creek channels with marsh drains and current that helped optimize his bite.

“Yesterday, they were on the deep channel swings; today they were on the shallow swings,” Lowen said. “It’s either going to be one or the other. You just have to figure it out fast enough which one they’re on. And tidal fish are notorious for — if that’s what they’re doing — every single one of them is doing it.

“It seems like those two hours before the low tide is the real deal. I saw a lot of 2 1/2-pounders in practice, and I haven’t seen very many of those in the tournament, so they’re still hiding in there somewhere.”

With the tide falling upon his arrival, Lowen started catching fish almost immediately. His fortune shifted significantly around 11 a.m. ET when he caught a 5-pounder.

A spinnerbait produced all of his bites. Lowen said presentation speed and covering just the right amounts of water were the keys to his success.

“You have to fish thorough, but you have to fish fast to cover water in that four-hour timeframe (available fishing time after accounting for round-trip travel and fuel stop),” he said. “Some of the guys in the area, I feel, are fishing too fast. They want my spinnerbait up high in the water column and they want it slow.

“If I burn it along, I won’t get a bite. But if I just fish it slow and float it around that grass, they’ll flush it like a toilet bowl. After making that long run, you get over there and for the first hour you almost have to make yourself slow down because you’re going so fast. As soon as I started slowing down is when I started catching them.”

Notably, Lowen cut his day short to allow for the long return and any complications from the increasingly windy weather. The time cushion proved beneficial for Lowen and his Xpress Boats teammate Harvey Horne, who ran out of gas and needed a ride to the weigh-in.

Horne had bounced back from a dismal opening round — one bass for just 1-16 — by catching 15-10 Friday and desperately needed to weigh his fish and gain valuable points in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.

“He was telling me to go on and go, but I wasn’t going to leave him,” Lowen said. “I put him and his fish in my boat and we came in early.”

In second place, Oklahoma angler Luke Palmer added 12-6 to his Day 1 bag of 14-2 and gained one spot with his total weight of 26-8. He ran to the Cooper River and returned to the same spot he fished on Day 1.

Again, slow presentations with soft plastics produced his bites.

“The spot is in a canal and it’s just a ridge with hydrilla that has 4 feet of water on one side and 7 on the other,” Palmer said. “I’m still trying to figure if fish I’m on are coming or going.

“This may be a spot they’re hitting on their way out of the creek. We still have fish spawning because I caught one off a bed today. Hopefully, that ridge will reload and I can get one more day out of it. If I can get lucky and catch 12 pounds out of it, I’d be tickled to death. I’d lay up and go fish another area on the final day, but I’m going to swing on them tomorrow.”

In third place, Lee Livesay made a big move from 44th place on Day 1 by catching 17-3 and pushing his two-day weight to 24-14. The Texas angler ran to the Cooper River and targeted alligator grass and hyacinth inside the hydrilla lines — a scenario many were overlooking.

Two different reaction baits produced his fish.

“There are some guys catching them out of hydrilla, but the bigger ones are suspended under the mats of gator grass and hyacinth,” Livesay said. “There might be 8 to 9 feet of depth where the mats are, and the bass are 6 inches underneath them. The winning fish are in there because I’m seeing them every day.

“I had a bunch of big ones miss my bait (Thursday). I should have had 20 pounds, but they were missing it. Today, I had three big ones eat it.”

Rounding out the Top 5 are Jason Williamson with 24-6 and Jesse Tacoronte with 24-5.

Florida angler Koby Kreiger leads the $1,500 Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award competition with a 6-8 largemouth.

Daily takeoffs will occur at 7 a.m. ET out of Carroll Ashmore Campbell Marine Complex, and weigh-ins are scheduled at the same location beginning at 3:15 p.m. ET each day.

Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Martens Pours it On; Lucas, Wiggins, Elam Escape Elimination on Lake Chickamauga

Post author By jcarrigan
Post date April 12, 2019
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DAYTON, Tenn. (April 11, 2019) – As has become the standard for the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Elimination Rounds, you didn’t have to look far to find a multitude of storylines on Day 3 of the Econo Lodge Stage Four Presented by Evinrude.

Aaron Martens gave notice that he’s onto a strong pattern on Lake Chickamauga, and is going to be a handful for the rest of the competition as he finished atop the 40 Group A anglers who competed in today’s Elimination Round. And joining him in the 20 moving on to Saturday’s Knockout Round are three anglers – Justin Lucas, Jesse Wiggins and James Elam – who had not previously advanced past an Elimination Round.

The way Chickamauga is producing scorable bass this week, all Group A and Group B Elimination Rounds’ survivors are likely to find squeezing into the Top 20 at the end of Knockout may be harder than it ever has been.

Martens Makes the Most of His Day

Martens picked up where he left off in the Shotgun Round, weighing in 13-5 in the first hour of competition, and connecting with a 7-pound, 6-ouncer. That fish was the anchor of his 36-13 weight for the day, and helped Martens to 94-0 overall in the Shotgun and Elimination Rounds.

That weight surpassed the previous Elimination weight record of 93-4 set by Kelly Jordon at the Stage Three event in Raleigh, North Carolina, and gave the Alabama pro enough of a security blanket that he could mix up his patterns, and survey some of his best spots ahead of the Knockout Round.

“I had some time to check my best spot today, and there are some big ones there,” Martens admitted. “I don’t know if any of the guys in the other round have fished it, but I’ve had it to myself the whole time I’ve fished it. It’s just one of the few areas I’m fishing that really has something to it. It’s a good spot, I hope nobody else finds it.”

Lucas, Wiggins, Elam Advance

Coming into Stage Four, Lucas, Wiggins and Elam had not made it out of the Elimination Rounds. Lucas was the last man out in his Elimination day on Texas’ Lake Conroe, but all three anglers had found themselves outside the Top 40 in the three previous Bass Pro Tour events leading up to Stage Four.

In the Thursday fishing though, all three finished well above the Elimination Line: Lucas weighed in 36-13 for a combined weight of 87-10 (fifth), Wiggins added 37-7 to boost his two-day total to 84-4 (ninth), and Elam caught 28-13 for a total Elimination weight of 75-3 (14th).

“Chickamauga fishes a lot like Guntersville this time of year, so it’s familiar to me from living in northern Alabama and fishing Guntersville the past several years,” Lucas said. “I just feel comfortable. I’ve caught almost everything this week on a spinning rod. Those first couple of events were out of my element a little bit: shallow pre-spawn largemouth just isn’t my thing.

“That’s always kinda been an Achilles heel of my fishing, but when I get out of that phase and can throw swimbaits and topwaters and fish with a spinning rod, that’s what I like to do.”

The Second Elimination Battle Begins

With the first half of the Knockout Round now set, the 40 anglers from Group B get their next shot at Chickamauga Friday for the second Elimination Round of Stage Four. They can expect some weather: The National Weather Service is calling for sustained winds of 20 mph and rain on Thursday night, and possible thunderstorms throughout competition.

That’s likely of little consequence to Cliff Crochet, who posted 69-9 in his Shotgun Round, spent the final two periods of that day running new water, and barring an epic meltdown, is probably comfortably safe from elimination. Ditto the five other anglers (Edwin Evers, Zack Birge, Fletcher Shryock, Michael Neal and Gary Klein) who weighed 47 pounds or more on Day 1.

Neal, for one, is nonplussed about more rain.

“I don’t know if it’ll really matter much,” said the Chickamauga veteran. “More rain isn’t going to change the conditions much more than it did the last day of practice, things should mostly stay the same. It’s not going to affect what I’m doing”

Expect the anxiety to be much higher in the middle of SCORETRACKER™, where the battle to escape elimination is tightly bunched as usual. But unlike previous elimination days, where big movement has been the norm in the first three events, Chickamauga’s prolific productivity may make it tougher to climb up from the bottom of the 40-man standings.

“We had so much movement inside the Top 20 (on Wednesday), but even after all that, we only had one guy fall out and one guy sneak in,” said MLF NOW! analyst Marty Stone. “If you think you can just duplicate your day from the Shotgun Round and be safe, guess again – you’re going to get left behind. If you’re below Jacob Wheeler (in 20th), you’ll probably need to have a great day to get inside that Elimination Line.”

Looking Ahead to Knockout Saturday

The Top 20 anglers from each of the two Elimination groups will advance to a 40-angler Knockout Round on Saturday – weights will be zeroed, making the Knockout a one-day scramble. The Top 10 anglers in the Knockout Round will advance to the Championship Round on Sunday, April 14.

When, Where & How to Watch

Competition begins daily 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 and analysis provided by Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone and Natalie Dillon until lines out at 3:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show – hosted by Steven “Lurch” Scott – will start at 5 p.m. daily.