Month: February 2020

LEESBURG, Fla. (Feb. 23, 2020) – Pro Laramy Strickland of Bushnell, Florida, brought five bass to the scale weighing 15 pounds, 4 ounces, to win the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit at the Harris Chain of Lakes presented by Bad Boy Mowers Sunday. Strickland’s three-day total of 15 bass totaling 61 pounds, 4 ounces gave him the win by a 4-pound, 6-ounce margin over second place angler Jimmy Washam of Covington, Tennessee. For his victory, Strickland took home a top prize of $100,000.

The tournament, originally scheduled for four days, was shortened to three after strong winds forced a postponement of competition on Friday. The full field of 154 anglers competed on Thursday and Saturday and only the top 30 anglers advanced to Championship Sunday.

“This is unbelievable – just as awesome as I always dreamed it was going to be,” said Strickland, a former FLW/TBF High School Fishing Florida State Champion fishing in just his second event as a professional on the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit. “If I was going to win just one, ever, in my whole career, I would have wanted it to be right here. There was so much family and friends here, the crowd was humongous. This still doesn’t even feel real.”

Strickland caught his fish this week fishing an area in Lake Griffin called the marsh. He described the marsh as “a 500- to 600-acre duck marsh, with hydrilla everywhere and full of cattails and hyacinth mats.” As a local angler he knew that big fish had been in there for months, and when he went there during the official practice period the big fish were still there.

“I caught them this week flipping mats with a Reaction Innovations Spicy Beaver (Tramp Stamp), but also added two big ones on a (Reaction Innovations) Machete Worm,” Strickland said. “Those were the only two baits I used all week – just flipped and threw that worm. I caught 12 fish on the first day. On the second day, I caught 8. Today I caught around 8 as well – they were just the right bites.”

Strickland said he threw the Spicy Beaver on a 7-foot, 6-inch Fitzgerald Rods hydrilla rod with a Shimano reel and 70-pound-test Fitzgerald Vursa braided line. He threw the worm on a new all-purpose 7-foot, 6-inch medium-heavy Fitzgerald rod, with 17-pound-test Fitzgerald Vursa fluorocarbon line and pegged with a 1/16-ounce weight.

“I fished fairly clean all week. I lost a couple that I really thought were going to haunt me, but my fish held up,” Strickland said. “I just kind of stuck in that area and luckily I had it all to myself this week.

“Two years ago, when the Pro Circuit was here, the boat that I won out of today was sitting in the parking lot as the demo boat for Ranger,” Strickland went on to say. “I bought that boat and here we are two years later. I’m on the big stage, and I won. I don’t even know what else to say. This has been surreal.”

The top 10 pros on the Harris Chain of Lakes finished:                                                                                                             

1^st:       Laramy Strickland of Bushnell, Fla., 15 bass, 61-4, $100,000
2^nd:      Jimmy Washam of Covington, Tenn., 15 bass, 56-14, $30,000
3^rd:       Hunter Freeman of Monroe, La., 13 bass, 54-6, $25,000
4^th:       Kyle Gelles of Pingree, Idaho, 14 bass, 52-11, $20,000
5^th:       Matthew Stefan of Junction City, Wis., 15 bass, 51-15, $19,000
6^th:       Miles Burghoff of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., 15 bass, 51-5, $18,000
7^th:       Jared McMillan of Belle Glade, Fla., 15 bass, 50-5, $17,000
8^th:       Chad Warren of Sand Springs, Okla., 15 bass, 50-0, $16,000
9^th:       Casey Scanlon of Lake Ozark, Mo., 15 bass, 49-7, $15,000
10^th:     Brandon McMillan of Clewiston, Fla., 15 bass, 49-7, $14,000

Complete results for the entire field can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Overall there were 145 bass weighing 366 pounds, 9 ounces, caught by the pros Sunday. Of the final 30 pros, 27 of them were able to bring a five-bass limit to the scale.

Television coverage of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit at the Harris Chain of Lakes will premiere in 2020. The 2020 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit will have 156 two-hour airings on network television, including 26 consecutive weeks of Friday night primetime airing on Outdoor Channel and 130 airings on Sportsman Channel for a total of 312 hours of Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit programming.

The Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit at the Harris Chain of Lakes presented by Bad Boy Mowers was hosted by Lake County, Florida. The next event for Pro Circuit anglers will be the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit at Lake Martin, March 19-22, in Alexander City, Alabama. The tournament will be hosted by the Alexander City Chamber.

In normal Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit competition, the full field of 154 pro anglers competed in the two-day opening round on Thursday and Friday. The top 30 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advanced 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. After Friday’s weather postponement the format was changed to a three-day event, the full field fished the first two days of competition (Thursday and Saturday) and the top 30 pros advanced to Sunday, the final day of competition.

Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2020 FLW TITLE, the Pro Circuit Championship. The 2020 FLW TITLE will be on the St. Lawrence River in Massena, New York, Aug. 8-13 and is hosted by the Town of Massena.

Third-Largest Limit Ever and Largest Margin of Victory in Bass Fishing League History, Largest Limit Ever at Sam Rayburn in FLW Competition

BROOKELAND, Texas (Feb. 17, 2020) – Boater Anthony Sharp of Village Mills, Texas, had a day Saturday that most bass fishing tournament anglers only dream about. Sharp brought a five-bass limit to the scale weighing 40 pounds, 6 ounces to win the 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine event at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Brookeland, Texas. For his victory, Sharp earned a total of $7,000.

The tournament was the second of five events in the Cowboy Division presented by A.R.E. Truck Caps.

Sharp’s massive five-bass limit broke multiple Phoenix Bass Fishing League records. His 21-pound, 5-ounce margin of victory was the largest in Bass Fishing League history. His limit was the third-largest limit ever weighed in Bass Fishing League competition – topped only by Rogne Brown in 2011 (Lake Chickamauga, 40 pounds, 14 ounces) and Casey Martin in 2015 (Lake Guntersville, 40 pounds, 11 ounces). His five bass were also the heaviest limit ever weighed in FLW history – across all circuits – at Sam Rayburn.

“I’ll be honest, when he [the tournament director] sat the sack up there I was praying that I had maybe mid-30s,” said Sharp. “I’ve caught a couple 30-pound limits up here, but never in a tournament. When he said 40 pounds, I couldn’t hardly answer his questions. I kind of got flushed.” 

The spot Sharp found was a pretty classic offshore area – a flat section topping out in about 20 feet, with a drop that went down to about 40 feet. It turned out that was all he’d need to find to have the tournament day of a lifetime. 

“Friday, when we started practice, I ran right there and idled over the spot, and there was a lot of fish,” said Sharp. “I idled over them four or five different times, just to make sure I was seeing fish, because they were stuck to the bottom. So, I backed off them and started easing up to them on the trolling motor, and I was still 100 yards from my waypoint and on my very first cast I caught an 8-pounder.” 

 On tournament morning, Sharp ran right to his honey hole. 

“We blasted off at about 7:15, and I made a 15-minute run up the lake,” said Sharp. “At 8:35, I called Mr. Callahan [the tournament director] and asked if I could use my co-angler’s livewell because I couldn’t fit all my fish in one livewell. So, in about an hour I was done.” 

Deciding not to idle over his fish to check on them, Sharp simply eased up to where he thought they would be and tossed a Carolina rig with a 1-ounce weight and a Zoom Baby Brush Hog in green pumpkin magic with the tails dyed chartreuse.

“On my second cast I caught one that I told my co-angler was about 6 pounds,” said Sharp. “Then I fished a little while, and my next fish was about 5 pounds. I got a bite about every 10 or 12 minutes for the first three fish, and I was fan-casting around the bow of my boat, kind of in the middle of the flat spot.”

After catching a short and then another 6-pounder, Sharp picked up a Strike King 8XD in chartreuse and blue. 

“I probably threw it 15 or 20 minutes, and I caught one that was probably 8 pounds, and I caught one over 9. I put my rod down and told my co-angler, ‘That’s it. I think I’ve got high 20s right there.’

“I don’t know what I was even thinking,” continued Sharp. “After I sat about 10 minutes in the boat, letting him fish the area, I thought it would really be cool if I could cull that 5-pounder. I made three more casts with that crankbait and caught my biggest fish, and that was all before 8:45.” 

And that was it. Though Sharp hung around the spot to try to give his co-angler a shot at some, neither caught anything else. Throughout the rest of the day, when Sharp ran around for his co-angler, he said he only made about 50 casts. He knew he’d done something special already, even if it’d take the scale to tell him exactly how special it was. 

“It’s incredibly special. I can’t even describe it,” Sharp went on to say. “I was just praying I could catch one or two fish like that. I really had no idea that was going to happen.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament as follows:

            1^st:       Anthony Sharp of Village Mills, Texas, five bass, 40-6, $7,000

            2^nd:      Randy Deaver of Blanchard, La., five bass, 19-1, $3,200

            3^rd:       Kyle Dragulski of Lufkin, Texas, five bass, 17-8, $2,000

            4^th:       Kevin Lasyone of Dry Prong, La., five bass, 17-4, $1,400

            5^th:       Shaine Campbell of Brookeland, Texas, five bass, 16-9, $1,200

            6^th:       Mathew Dorcz of Huffman, Texas, five bass, 16-1, $1,100

            7^th:       Cole Moore of Anacoco, La., five bass, 15-15, $1,500

            8^th:       Aaron Johnson of Shreveport, La., five bass, 15-11, $900

            9^th:       Todd Castledine of Nacogdoches, Texas, five bass, 15-5, $800

            10^th:     Bart Doty of Kilgore, Texas, five bass, 15-4, $700

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Sharp also earned the day’s $1,000 Boater Big Bass award with his largest fish, a 9-pound, 14-ounce kicker bass.

Moore took home an extra $500 as the highest finishing FLW PHOENIX BONUS member. Boaters are eligible to win up to an extra $7,000 per event in each Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine tournament if all requirements are met. More information on the FLW PHOENIX BONUS contingency program can be found at PhoenixBassBoats.com.

Wyatt Stout of Altura, Minnesota, and Doug Rush of Midlothian, Texas, tied for the win in the Co-angler Division Saturday after both catching a five-bass limit weighing 15 pounds, 7 ounces. Each angler brought home $2,250 for their wins.

The top 10 co-anglers finished as follows:

            1^st:       Wyatt Stout of Altura, Minn., five bass, 15-7, $2,250

            1^st:       Doug Rush of Midlothian, Texas, five bass, 15-7, $2,250

            3^rd:       Sieg Kilby of Kilgore, Texas, five bass, 14-15, $1,150

            4^th:       Michael McCollum of Wimberley, Texas, four bass, 14-4, $700

            5^th:       Logan Slaughter of Dallas, Texas, five bass, 13-4, $600

            6^th:       Mitchel Martin of Washington, La., four bass, 13-2, $1,050

            7^th:       Cade Nelson of Long Branch, Texas, five bass, 12-9, $500

            8^th:       Cody Brown of Saratoga, Texas, five bass, 12-6, $450

            9^th:       Nick Morris of Princeton, Mo., five bass, 12-5, $400

            10^th:     Justin Shelton of Kemp, Texas, five bass, 12-4, $350

Martin caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $500.

The 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine on Sam Rayburn Reservoir was hosted by the Jasper County Development District.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the Cowboy Division presented by A.R.E. based on point standings, along with the five winners of each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 22-24 Bass Fishing League Regional Championship on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, hosted by Explore Branson. Boaters will compete for a $60,000 prize package, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new 18-foot Phoenix bass boat with a 200-horsepower outboard.

The 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American.

The 2020 Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American will be held April 30 through May 2 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina and is hosted by Visit Anderson. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers plus tournament winners from each Phoenix Bass Fishing League division earn priority entry into the FLW Series, the pathway to the FLW Pro Circuit and ultimately the MLF Bass Pro Tour, where top pros compete with no entry fees.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: PALATKA, Fla. (Feb. 16, 2020) – Pro Trevor Fitzgerald of Belleview, Florida, brought a 19-pound, 8-ounce limit to the weigh-in scale Saturday to reclaim the top spot on the leaderboard and win the three-day Toyota Series at the St. Johns River. Fitzgerald’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 57-12 gave him the win by a 6-pound margin and earned him a payout of $38,048 in the Toyota Series Southern Division 2020 opener.

“I’ve been wanting this one for a while,” said Fitzgerald, who earned his first career Toyota Series victory after five previous top-10 finishes. “I seem to do okay in one-day tournaments, but I excel in these multi-day tournaments because I don’t typically go out and catch a giant bag. I usually find stuff that is more consistent.”

The first day, Fitzgerald caught multiple sight fish on a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver, fished on a Fitzgerald Stunner 7-foot, 3-inch medium-heavy and Stunner reel.

“On day two I didn’t have any spawners left, so I went to running the bank and found a little depression that I’d known about, but I came to realize there was a lot more fish sitting in it than I realized.”

What Fitzgerald was fishing was basically a long sand bar at the far south end of Lake George, which served as a staging area for fish coming to the bank to spawn. No one else seemed to find it, potentially due to how shallow it was.

“It’s just a depression surrounded by super-shallow water. I used to put in at that boat ramp right there when I was a kid, so I was kind of familiar with the way the bottom lays out.”

Fitzgerald caught his fish on a shaky-head rig tipped with a Reaction Innovations Pocket Rocket in black and blue, which he threw on a Fitzgerald Stunner spinning rod and spinning reel and 12-pound-test Fitzgerald Vursa fluorocarbon. Prior to that, he was mostly dragging a black and blue Reaction Innovations Machete on a 7-foot, 3-inch, medium-heavy Fitzgerald Stunner casting rod paired with a Fitzgerald Stunner casting reel (7:1) and 17-pound-test Fitzgerald Vursa fluorocarbon.

“I grew up about 20 minutes from the south end of Lake George, and I’ve been fishing here my whole life,” Fitzgerald went on to say. “I love fishing the St. Johns River and it is awesome to win here.”

The top 10 pros on the St. Johns River finished:

            1^st:       Trevor Fitzgerald of Belleview, Fla., 15 bass, 57-12, $38,048

            2^nd:      Jason Blair of West Palm Beach, Fla., 15 bass, 51-12, $14,550

            3^rd:       Steven Hatala of Harrison Township, Mich., 13 bass, 50-6, $11,265

            4^th:       Rodney Marks of Apopka, Fla., 15 bass, 45-0, $9,387

            5^th:       Keith Carson of DeBary, Fla., 15 bass, 43-6, $8,833

            6^th:       Jacopo Gallelli, Florence, Italy, 12 bass, 38-8, $8,510

            7^th:       Jonathan Kelley of Old Forge, Pa., 12 bass, 37-12, $6,571

            8^th:       Frank Kitchens III of Oxford, Ga., 11 bass, 37-8, $5,632

            9^th:       Jason Meninger of St. Augustine, Fla., 12 bass, 36-3, $4,694

            10^th:     Chris Hensley of Marbury, Ala., 10 bass, 33-11, $3,755

A complete list of results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Carson brought a 9-pound largemouth bass to the scale Friday – the largest fish weighed by a boater in the event – to earn the day’s Big Bass award of $135.

Gallelli took home an extra $1,000 as the highest finishing FLW PHOENIX BONUS member. Boaters are eligible to win up to an extra $35,000 per event in each Toyota Series tournament if all requirements are met. More information on the FLW PHOENIX BONUS contingency program can be found at PhoenixBassBoats.com.

Edwin Bartlett of Casco, Maine, won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 12 bass weighing 29 pounds, 12 ounces. For his win, Bartlett took home the top prize package of a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor, worth $33,500.

The top 10 co-anglers on the St. Johns River finished:

            1^st:       Edwin Bartlett of Casco, Maine, 12 bass, 29-12, $33,500

            2^nd:      Cole Hewett of Orlando, Fla., 14 bass, 28-8, $4,929

            3^rd:       Blaine Bucy of Weirton, W. Va., eight bass, 25-13, $3,783

            4^th:       Roger Hughes of Bartlesville, Okla., eight bass, 25-12, $3,400

            5^th:       David Wareham of Port St. Lucie, Fla., 12 bass, 25-11, $2,837

            6^th:       Chris Holland of Vero Beach, Fla., 11 bass, 22-1, $2,364

            7^th:       Andy Niles of Ocean Springs, Miss., 11 bass, 20-9, $1,891

            8^th:       Kevin Thomas of Miramar, Fla., eight bass, 19-11, $1,655

            9^th:       Early Whitaker of Iron City, Ga., 11 bass, 18-13, $1,419

            10^th:     Michael Harrelson of Conway, S.C., nine bass, 18-5, $1,182

Alan Carver of East Point, Georgia caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Thursday, a fish weighing 9 pounds, 8 ounces. He earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $90.

The Toyota Series at the St. Johns River was hosted by the Putnam County Tourist Development Council. It was the first of three regular-season tournaments in 2020 for Southern Division anglers. The next tournament for Toyota Series anglers will be the Central Division opener – the Toyota Series at Lake Chickamauga, held Feb. 27-29 in Dayton, Tennessee. For a complete schedule, visit FLWFishing.com.

The Toyota Series consists of eight divisions – Central, Eastern, Northern, Plains, Southeastern, Southern, Southwestern and Western – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International division. Anglers who fish all three qualifiers in any of the eight divisions and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning $200,000 cash, plus lucrative contingency bonuses. The winning co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard. The 2020 Toyota Series Championship is being held Nov. 5-7 on Lake Cumberland in Burnside, Kentucky, and is hosted by the Somerset Tourist & Convention Commission and the Burnside Tourism Commission.