Month: August 2021

Jimmy Washam Wins MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE Presented by Mercury on the Mississippi River

Post author By jcarrigan
Post date August 23, 2021
No Comments on Jimmy Washam Wins MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE Presented by Mercury on the Mississippi River

LA CROSSE, Wis. (Aug. 22, 2021) – Pro Jimmy Washam of Covington, Tennessee brought a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces to the stage on Sunday to win $200,000 and the TITLE belt at the second annual Major League Fishing (MLF) Tackle Warehouse TITLE Presented by Mercury – the Pro Circuit Championship, Presented by Bad Boy Mowers – on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Washam won by a 1-pound, 3-ounce margin over Berkley pro Bobby Lane of Lakeland, Florida who weighed a limit of 17-15, good for second place and $50,000. Favorite Fishing pro Zack Birge of Blanchard, Oklahoma rounded out the top three, weighing a five-bass limit of 15-6 and taking home $30,000.

Sunday’s final day of competition marked the finale of the six-day Tackle Warehouse TITLE, which featured the top 48 pros in the 2021 Pro Circuit standings, along with last year’s reigning TITLE champion and reigning Angler of the Year – all competing for a purse of nearly $900,000.

The MLF Tackle Warehouse TITLE Presented by Mercury – the Pro Circuit Championship, Presented by Bad Boy Mowers was hosted by Explore La Crosse.

Washam said he began fishing MLF tournaments in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League in 2012, before moving up to the Toyota Series in 2017. He qualified for the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers through the Toyota Series Central Division in 2019 and has made TITLE appearances in both ’20 and ’21. When he’s not fishing, Washam is a deputy sheriff sergeant in Tennessee

“All the glory goes to God,” Washam said of the win. “This is so amazing, but it’s His work above, I promise you. Five years ago, I bought my first fiberglass boat and decided I’d fish the [Phoenix Bass Fishing League] as a boater. Now I’m standing here with a TITLE belt on my shoulder.”

Moving up through the ranks hasn’t been easy for Washam, who took a big financial risk in 2020 and again in 2021 to follow his passion.

“I’m 34 years old and I didn’t start as young as I wish I would have, but I had to earn a living and work, so it was a slow progression to step up to this level,” said Washam. “After last year I knew that I could hang, and this year has been an absolutely incredible year. It’s humbling to know the group of anglers I just joined.”

Washam said he was contemplating going back to the Black River on the final day, having found a few places where he could pull up and catch a limit in a few casts, but he decided to make a change.

“I got to thinking, it’s Sunday and there are a lot of guys out fishing,” said Washam. “I’ve got a place that likely has the winning bag on it. Why in the world would I not go there first? Literally, as I pulled up, there was a guy in a Jon boat that was slinging a topwater and he was only half a cast away from my fish. I don’t think he knew what was there, but he was really close to finding out.

“He was a total class act,” Washam continued. “I pulled up and said, ‘Good morning.’ Of course, I was going to ask him as politely as I could if he minded giving me a little space for a couple hours, but I didn’t even have to ask. He picked up the trolling motor and left, then came back later as a spectator. Turns out he works at the sheriff’s office in La Crosse.”

Nerves didn’t seem to be a factor for Washam going into the Championship Round, even with $200,000 on the line.

“I was confident going into the final day,” said Washam. “Any time you find something like that and you’re able to leave it for Championship Sunday it’s great. But I’ve played this game long enough to know that there are so many variables. When I made the first cast and didn’t get a bite the wheels started turning. Then, when I made the second cast and caught a 3-pounder I was pumped.”

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The top 10 pros at the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE on the Mississippi River are:
1^st:           Jimmy Washam, Covington, Tenn., five bass, 17-15, $200,000
2^nd:          Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., five bass, 16-12, $50,000
3^rd:          Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., five bass, 15-6, $30,000
4^th:           Mitch Crane, Columbus, Miss., five bass, 13-5, $25,000
5^th:           Skeet Reese, Auburn, Calif., five bass, 13-2, $19,000
6^th:           Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., five bass, 13-2, $18,000
7^th:           Miles Burghoff, Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., five bass, 12-8, $17,000
8^th:           Jimmy Reese, Witter Springs, Calif., five bass, 11-14, $16,000
9^th:           Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., five bass, 11-3, $15,000
10^th:       Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., five bass, 11-1, $14,000
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 50 bass weighing 136 pounds, 4 ounces caught by the 10 pros on Saturday with 10 five-bass limits.

The MLF Tackle Warehouse TITLE Presented by Mercury – the Pro Circuit Championship, Presented by Bad Boy Mowers featured a hybrid tournament format. All 50 anglers were seeded into two groups of 25 – Group A & Group B, based on points earned in 2021 qualifying events – where they competed in Qualifying Rounds over the first four days of the tournament. The top 10 anglers in each group moved on to the Knockout Round on Day 5, with zeroed weights, to compete for the chance to fish on the final day. The top 10 anglers from the Knockout Round then advanced to Championship Sunday, where weights were again zeroed as anglers competed for the $235,000 prize. Winners were determined by the heaviest five-bass limit of each round.

Television coverage of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE Presented by Mercury event will be showcased across six two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, Oct. 10 on the Outdoor Channel. Episodes premiere Sunday mornings on the Outdoor Channel, with additional re-airings on the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel. Each two-hour long episode goes in-depth to break down each day of competition. Episodes will run through Nov. 14.

The 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers featured a field of 163 of the top professional anglers in the world competing at six regular-season events around the country. The top 50 anglers in the Angler of the Year (AOY) standings after the six events qualified to compete in the Tackle Warehouse TITLE Presented by Mercury, the Pro Circuit Championship, Presented by Bad Boy Mowers.

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Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events Uncategorized

Wheeler Wins Again! Tennessee Angler Wins Third Event of Season at MLF Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Aug. 10, 2021) – It’s getting hard to contextualize just how good Academy Sports + Outdoors pro Jacob Wheeler of Harrison, Tennessee, has been this season. Wheeler caught 27 scorable smallmouth bass Tuesday weighing 88 pounds, 2 ounces to win the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits in Plattsburgh, New York, and earn another top payout of $100,000.

Wheeler’s margin-of-victory in the event was 30 pounds, 13 ounces – the largest margin in Bass Pro Tour history. Also winning late June’s Bass Pro Tour stop at the St. Lawrence River, Wheeler now becomes the first angler to ever win back-to-back Stages on the Bass Pro Tour, and the first angler to ever win three in one season. His fifth career victory this week at Lake Champlain broke his own record for the most Bass Pro Tour victories all-time, and he has finished first or second in four of the last five Bass Pro Tour events.

And he’s only 31 years old.

“It’s crazy to think – three wins this year. Absolutely crazy,” Wheeler said. “It’s been an unbelievable year. I just try to have that mindset – don’t ever give up, don’t ever give in. Just constantly working and preparing for the next one. There is so much hard work that goes into these events. And it still takes a lot of things to go right to come out on top against this group of guys.

“It takes so much time out here on the water,” Wheeler continued. “I just love this sport. I love competing. I love preparing for events. I love competing against this group of guys. These guys right here that I’m fishing against are the best in the world, hands down. The absolute toughest group of guys to beat. You have to bring your “A” game, day in and day out. Fishing against the best pushes me to become better. I’ve been truly blessed coming up here this season – New York has been pretty dang good to us.”

Wheeler mainly targeted smallmouth throughout the week, using just two baits.

“It was just typical smallmouth stuff,” he said. “Most of them came on a drop-shot rig, and some on a Ned rig. It came down to several different Ned style baits. I threw a (Googan Baits) Rattlin’ Ned and caught 3 or 4 key fish on it today. I also caught them this week on some fluke-style baits. It seemed like profile and color really mattered. Sometimes I had to go translucent. Sometimes I had to go lighter line. Sometimes I could get away with heavier line. It was really just trial and error each day.

“It’s really just been a progression of figuring it out this week, slowly but surely. It wasn’t fast and furious, but little clues gave me hints to certain things and I kind of dialed it in as the week went on. You have to keep an open mind and that’s been the biggest thing for me this year – fishing stuff that I think looks good, develop the pattern and figure it out throughout the week and it gets better and better.”

Despite Wheeler’s already incredible season, he still has one goal left for the year – the Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) title. Pro Ott DeFoe of Blaine, Tennessee, who finished the event in 3^rd place, has had an incredible season in his own right, and with one event remaining in the season he currently owns a 12-point lead over second-place Wheeler in the AOY race.

“I love Ott to death. He is unreal everywhere we go,” Wheeler went on to say. “It’s going to be battle. If either of us slip up one time, one day, it’s over. Whoever wins is going to have to make a top-10 at Stage Seven in Detroit, and we’ve got our work cut out for us. Realistically, I could have a phenomenal finish and still get beat. I’m just going to worry about winning another tournament and if it works out, it works out. I don’t have any AOY pressure – I’m going to prepare for that tournament to win it.”

Florence, Italy’s Jacopo Gallelli, who qualified to compete in this tournament after winning the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit event at the Potomac River in June, caught 21 bass totaling 57 pounds, 5 ounces to finish second and win $45,257.

“I tell you, with this situation I had this morning, this second place (finish) is like a win,” Gallelli said. “I lost 2 hours of fishing – 1½ hours because of mechanical issues and another half hour when we went idling back into the creek. So, I cannot be more happy about being second. Especially considering this field. This field is made of the 80 most skilled anglers in the world, and I proved it to myself and everybody that I can compete at this level.

“If somebody was thinking the Potomac River was just a fluke, I demonstrated to everybody that it was not, most of all to myself,” Gallelli went on to say. “I did my best, and dealt with a very bad situation, so I am very proud of myself and very happy.”

The top 10 at the Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain finished:

1^st:          Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 27 bass, 88-2, $100,257
2^nd:         Jacopo Gallelli, Florence, Italy, 21 bass, 57-5, $45,257
3^rd:         Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 18 bass, 50-6, $38,257
4^th:         Timmy Horton, Muscle Shoals, Ala., 16 bass, 43-9, $32,257
5^th:         Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 11 bass, 31-15, $30,257
9^th:         Matt Lee, Cullman, Ala., 11 bass, 30-15, $26,257
6^th:         Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 29-7, $23,257
7^th:         Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas, 11 bass, 29-6, $21,257
8^th:         Wesley Strader, Spring City, Ala., 10 bass, 27-15, $19,257
10^th:       Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., eight bass, 25-14, $16,257

JOIN THE MAJOR LEAGUE FISHING CONVERSATION NOW

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

Overall, there were 143 bass weighing 411 pounds, 2 ounces caught by the final 10 pros on Tuesday.

Wheeler also won Tuesday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award, weighing a 4-pound, 15-ounce smallmouth on a drop-shot rig in Period 2 to earn the prize. Shaw Grigsby and Takahiro Omori split the $3,000 Berkley Big Bass award for the largest bass of the event as each weighed in a 5-pound, 14-ounce largemouth on Days 2 and 3 of competition.

The Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits featured anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

The MLF Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits was hosted by the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau and the City of Plattsburgh. The six-day tournament featured the top professional anglers from around the world competing for a top cash prize of $100,000 to the winner.

Television coverage of the Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits will premiere at 7 a.m. ET, Nov. 6 on the Discovery Channel. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on the Discovery Channel, with additional re-airings on the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel. Each two-hour long reality-based episode goes in-depth to break down each day of competition.

The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 76 of the top professional anglers in the world – joined at each event by 4 pros that qualify from the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit – competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, competing for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2022 championship.

BASSMASTER Elite Series/Opens

Ike Beats The Buzzer For B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series Victory On Upper Chesapeake Bay

Post author By jcarrigan
Post date August 7, 2021
No Comments on Ike Beats The Buzzer For B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series Victory On Upper Chesapeake Bay

CECIL COUNTY, Md. — With one minute to spare before lines out, Michael “Ike” Iaconelli landed an 18.50-inch bass that lifted him to victory Saturday in the Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX at Upper Chesapeake Bay.

Iaconelli’s five biggest bass measured 88.25 inches, edging second-place Sterling Leach by just 1.75 inches.

It’s been a good couple of weeks for the popular New Jersey pro and 20-time Classic qualifier. His Kayak Series win comes on the heels of a fourth-place finish at the Basspro.com Bassmaster Northern Open at Oneida Lake, which lifted Iaconelli to second in the Northern Division points race.

“I’m proud of this one. I’ve been trying for three years to win a professional kayak event and I finally won one,” Iaconelli said. “It feels really, really good. It is a big moment for me. Kayak fishing has been great for me personally and a lot of the companies I work with are supporting me fishing on the kayak side as well.

“I launched an Ike-approved Hobie at ICAST this year. I’ve only fished out of it about six times. What a great way to break in a new kayak.”

The victory also gives Ike a win at every level of adult Bassmaster competition.

“I’ve won as an amateur, I’ve won as a Nation angler, I’ve won at the Open level, the Elite level, the Classic and Angler of the Year,” he said. (Iaconelli won the 2003 Bassmaster Classic at the Louisiana Delta and captured the Angler of the Year title in 2006.) “I talk to Brandon Palaniuk a lot and one of his goals is to win at every level of B.A.S.S. and the Classic is sort of the last thing he has left to win.

“But not now. If he wants to top my record he has to get a kayak and win a kayak event.”

Iaconelli’s winning fish engulfed his Berkley MaxScent Creature Hawg with just enough time for him to haul it into the boat, measure it and photograph it before the official lines out time of 2 p.m. ET.

“It’s funny how those things happen like that,” he said. “I was flipping and flipping and watching the time click. At 1:59 p.m., I pitched in a mat and it sank about a foot and the hydrilla shook. I saw my line jump and set the hook, cranked it in on 65-pound braid, swung it in, unhooked it and submitted the picture all within a minute. It was an incredible thing.

“It ranks up there as one of the most exciting fish catches I’ve ever had in my life.”

JOIN THE BEST BASSMASTER COMMUNITY & CONVERSATION

Throughout his years of tournament fishing, Iaconelli has accumulated hours of experience on the Upper Chesapeake Bay, a place he calls a “premier fishery” in the Northeast. This time of the year, however, is one of the more difficult seasons to generate bites.

“It is a special place, but it has this ugly stage which is early August through late September,” he said. “Today was one of those days. It was hard to get bites. Sometimes the grind tournaments, when you do well or win, mean even more than the easy ones.”

Iaconelli fished parts of a big grass flat, specifically targeting ditches that drained out of the flat as well as hard hydrilla edges that were pinned against deeper creeks that ran through the flat.

With all of his experience on the Upper Chesapeake, it was the first time he fished these specific areas of the flat.

“The quality that lives out there is what attracted me to that flat. It has a tremendous amount of 15- to 20-inch largemouth. The challenge was finding them. One of the reasons it gets so tough in August is that flat turns into a grassbed. It is mainly hydrilla, star grass, eelgrass and it is 5 square miles of it.”

Iaconelli landed five bass around the drains and ditches on a Texas-rigged black/blue flake Berkley PowerBait The General with a 1/16-ounce VMC nail weight on an Abu Garcia spinning rod. His two biggest bites came punching the hydrilla edge with a black/blue flake Berkley MaxScent Creature Hawg paired with a 1-ounce tungsten weight and a 4/0 VMC Flippin’ Hook.

He said the tide played a major role.

“The golden rule of tidal fishing is low water is always the best,” he said. “I had an early window of low water. This morning I caught four within the first hour and a half. When we started it was low but coming in.

“As the tide started to come in, the bite really shut off. I went a long time without a bite. I caught the 19.50 on the bad tide, a dead high tide, and that got me my limit.”

Leach used two different patterns to claim second place in his first-ever Kayak Series event. He also claimed Big Bass of the Tournament honors after winning the tiebreaker against Iaconelli with a 19.50 and a 19.00-inch bass.

After his two days of practice, Leach decided to fish the Sassafras River section of the Bay. After failing to get a buzzbait bite first thing in the morning, he switched to a Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait JackHammer and landed three of his five keepers around wood in deeper pockets in the river bends.

West Virginia angler Greg Harper finished third with 78 inches of smallmouth bass. Harper ventured up the Susquehanna River, an environment that matched the style of his home waters.

His bait of choice was a Lucky Craft squarebill crankbait and a 4-inch Yum Dinger rigged on a weighted wacky rig jighead around rock and wood targets.

“My day started out pretty slow. I didn’t catch my first fish until around 8 o’clock,” Harper said. “But after that, it was fast and furious. I caught a limit within an hour, and I caught a lot of fish all day long, just not a lot of size.”

The top four anglers from the event punched their tickets to the 2022 Kayak Series National Championship, which will be held in conjunction with the 2022 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk at Lake Hartwell.

Cecil County, Maryland hosted the event.

Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Matt Lee Dominates Opening Day at MLF Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits

Post author By jcarrigan
Post date August 5, 2021
No Comments on Matt Lee Dominates Opening Day at MLF Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Aug. 5, 2021) – Normally on the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour when an angler breaks the 100-pound mark in a single day of competition, it’s done with a large school or two of smallmouth bass. Thursday, at the Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits in Plattburgh, New York, pro Matt Lee did it with largemouth.

Lee dominated Day 1 of the Group A Qualifying Round, catching 40 bass totaling 103 pounds, 5 ounces to give him a massive 55-pound, 6-ounce lead in Group A – the largest Day 1 lead ever held in Bass Pro Tour history. The six-day event, hosted by the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau and the City of Plattsburgh, features the top professional anglers from around the world competing for a purse of $805,000, including a top cash prize of $100,000 to the winner.

Behind Lee, in second place, is Berkley pro John Cox of DeBary, Florida, who boated 18 bass totaling 47-15. Rounding out the top three was General Tire pro Britt Myers of Lake Wylie, South Carolina, who caught 18 bass for 45-12 to end the day in third.

The 34 anglers in Group A will now have the day off on Friday, while the 39 anglers in Group B will begin their first day of competition. Group A will resume competition on Saturday.

“We still have a lot of derby ahead of us, but today was sick,” Lee said in his post-game interview. “I have bass hand. Not even bass thumb – bass hand. It was unreal.”

Lee said that he tried to target smallmouth early in the day, but when that plan fizzled he tried some of his largemouth areas and ran into what looks like the potential motherlode.

“I hit like four smallmouth places this morning and I could see them, but I couldn’t get them to bite,” the Cullman, Alabama pro said. “I figured they had to be biting a topwater somewhere, so I ran around to a largemouth place that I had fished before and caught a 3-10, and when I was reeling it in there were like 10 with it. So, I sat right there in that 100- to 150-foot section of grass and flipped up 100 pounds worth of bass.”

Lee said that he used just two setups on the day – his first bass came on a Lucky Craft Gunfish, and the rest came on a Texas-rigged Yamamoto Senko.

“I stayed in that same 75-yard stretch for five hours,” Lee said. “I went through some worms. The color didn’t even matter. I was just flipping hydrilla in 12- to 15-feet, and it was juice money. I had so much fun. I’ve got one more day to go to win the round and I’m just going to put the hammer down and hopefully advance straight into the Championship Round.”

Third-place angler Britt Myers chose another route to catch his 18 bass, mainly targeting smallmouth, although he did catch four largemouth as well.

“To be honest, Champlain was a little bit tougher than I thought it was going to be,” Myers said. “I thought I’d have to catch 30 pounds just to be in the hunt for the Knockout Round, but I’ve almost solidified that today. If I can catch a few more fish on Saturday, I’m very confident that I’ll make it in.

“The Duckett Baits swimbait was the key for me today – the 3.5-inch Real Thing Shad. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use it and today when it was overcast, they really liked that swimbait. At the end of the day I also caught a few on a special little secret bait that I’ve got in my pocket for Day 2. So I’m looking forward to getting back out there.”

The top 20 pros in Group A after Day 1 on Lake Champlain are:

1^st:          Matt Lee, Cullman, Ala., 40 bass, 103-5
2^nd:         John Cox, DeBary, Fla., 18 bass, 47-15
3^rd:         Britt Myers, Lake Wylie, S.C., 18 bass, 45-12
4^th:         Scott Suggs, Alexander, Ark., 12 bass, 44-6
5^th:         Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 16 bass, 42-4
6^th:         Takahiro Omori, Tokyo, Japan, 14 bass, 40-8
7^th:         Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 13 bass, 39-15
8^th:         Shin Fukae, Osaka, Japan, 13 bass, 39-11
9^th:         Aaron Martens, Leeds, Ala., 14 bass, 38-10
10^th:       Dave Lefebre, Erie, Pa., 12 bass, 37-5
11^th:       James Elam, Tulsa, Okla., 12 bass, 36-12
12^th:       Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 10 bass, 31-14
13^th:       Jason Lambert, Michie, Tenn., 12 bass, 31-13
14^th:       Gerald Spohrer, Gonzales, La., 10 bass, 30-9
15^th:       Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., eight bass, 25-15
16^th:       Jacopo Gallelli, Florence, Italy, eight bass, 24-8
17^th:       Jared Lintner, Arroyo Grande, Calif., nine bass, 23-14
18^th:       Brent Chapman, Lake Quivira, Kan., seven bass, 22-4
19^th:       Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., eight bass, 22-0
20^th:       Cliff Pace, Petal, Miss., seven bass, 19-13

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

Overall, there were 308 bass weighing 884 pounds, 3 ounces caught by the 34 pros on Thursday.
DeFoe won Thursday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award, weighing in a 6-pound, 13-ounce largemouth bass on a worm during Period 1. Berkley will award $1,000 to the angler who weighs the biggest bass each day, and a $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the largest bass of the tournament.

The MLF Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits is hosted by the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau and the City of Plattsburgh.

MLF announced Wednesday that the normal 80-angler Bass Pro Tour field would be reduced to 73 for this event, as seven anglers withdrew from competition for undisclosed reasons. After consulting with the MLF Angler Advisory Board, a slight change was made to the Qualifying Round Toro Cut Lines due to the unbalanced angler groupings.

The 34 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day qualifying round on Lake Champlain on Thursday and Saturday – the 39 anglers in Group B on Friday and Sunday. After each two-day qualifying round is complete, the anglers that finish in 2nd through 17th place from Group A (50% of field) and 2nd through 20th place from Group B (50% of field) advance to Monday’s Knockout Round, while the winner of each group advances directly to Tuesday’s Championship Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed and the remaining 35 anglers compete to finish in the top 8 to advance to the Championship Round. In the final day Championship Round, weights are zeroed and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers will take off from the Plattsburgh City Marina, located at 2 Dock St., in Plattsburgh, at 8 a.m. ET each day of competition. Each day’s General Tire Takeout will also be held at the Launch Ramp, beginning at 5 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all takeoff and takeout ceremonies and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

MLF officials have divided the lake into two zones in which anglers will compete – Zone A (north end of lake) and Zone B (south end of lake – Ticonderoga area). Anglers choosing to fish in Zone B must go through the normal takeoff procedure at the Plattsburgh Boat Launch and then trailer to a public ramp within Zone B. Anglers will depart the Boat Launch at 8 a.m., and competition will start with “lines in” at 9 a.m.

The Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits features anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

The MLF NOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action on all six days of competition from 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. MLF NOW!® will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.

Major League Fishing - Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

Statement from MLF Executive Vice President Don Rucks

Post author By jcarrigan
Post date August 4, 2021
No Comments on Statement from MLF Executive Vice President Don Rucks

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Aug. 4, 2021) – The following statement was released today by Major League Fishing (MLF) Executive Vice President & General Manager Don Rucks regarding the Toyota Stage Six at Lake Champlain Presented by Googan Baits event that starts Thursday:

Good afternoon –

We have had some unique circumstances this week for our Bass Pro Tour Toyota Stage Six event at Lake Champlain.

At this time, the following anglers will not be participating in competition on Lake Champlain this week:

Luke Clausen
Dustin Connell
Mark Daniels Jr.
Anthony Gagliardi
Randy Howell
Chris Lane
Fletcher Shryock

Due to privacy protocols, we are unable to divulge the exact reasonings for each angler’s absence. We do look forward to welcoming all of them back for the upcoming Carparts.com Stage Seven at Lake St. Clair Presented by Covercraft next month, Sept. 10-15.

Because the angler starting groups were set going into Stage Five, and now flipped for Stage Six, we will not be changing the starting groups. If an angler is unable to fish, for any reason, that group will simply be smaller. All other rules will remain the same this week – the two group winners will advance directly to the Championship Round, while the top 19 from each group will compete in the Day 5 Knockout Round to determine who fishes in the final 10 on Championship Tuesday.

As a result of this situation, and after consulting with our Bass Pro Tour angler advisory board, MLF has made the decision to allow each angler to drop one (1) event from this year in the following manner:

We will finish the 2021 season with the current points system and crown our 2021 Angler of the Year (AOY).
After the 2021 season has ended and the AOY has been crowned, each angler will drop one (1) 2021 BPT event of his choosing.
After everyone has dropped the event of their choosing, a new 2021 points structure based on each angler’s remaining six (6) events will be used for angler requalification, REDCREST 2022 qualification, and the 2022 General Tire Heavy Hitters event qualification.

We believe this is ultimately the fairest solution for all of our Bass Pro Tour competitors across the board.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome back Bass Pro Tour angler Aaron Martens, who has made the trip to Plattsburgh, New York and will be competing on Lake Champlain this week. His ongoing health battles have been well-documented, and we are thrilled that Aaron is feeling well enough to compete this week. It truly shows his grit, toughness, and love for the sport that we all admire him for.

We look forward to a fantastic event on the water this week at Lake Champlain. Don’t forget to tune in to the MLF NOW! livestream each day from 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.

Sincerely,

Don Rucks
Executive Vice President & General Manager, MLF

MLF BIG-5

Virginia Rookie Cody Pike Claims Victory at Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Savage Arms Stop 6 Presented by Abu Garcia at St. Lawrence River

MASSENA, N.Y. (Aug. 1, 2021) – Rookie Cody Pike of Powhatan, Virginia brought a five-bass limit to the scale Sunday weighing 22 pounds, 3 ounces to win the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers, Savage Arms Stop 6 Presented by Abu Garcia at the St. Lawrence River. Pike’s four-day total of 20 bass weighing 82 pounds, 12 ounces earned him the win by a 1-pound, 12-ounce margin over pro Matthew Stefan of Junction City, Wisconsin, and the top prize of $135,000, including a lucrative $35,000 Phoenix MLF BIG5 Bonus.

“You don’t do this sport for the money, you do it because you love it,” said a very emotional Pike after earning the win. “This is awesome – it’s like a dream. I’ve tried to make it here for so many years.

“I qualified [for the Pro Circuit] through the Toyota Series last year,” continued Pike. “You aren’t guaranteed the opportunity to make it and fish these professional circuits every year, so I went ahead and jumped on the opportunity and I’m loving it.”

Pike said he came into the final qualifying event of the Pro Circuit with just the hope of qualifying for the 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE presented by Mercury, the Pro Circuit Championship, where anglers have the opportunity to compete for up to $235,000.

“Things happened this week that made no sense – things that weren’t supposed to happen and there was no explanation to it,” said Pike. “I had one main area that I was fishing today, with 15 to 20 good spots along it. I just kept making circles through those areas and kept getting bites.

“I honestly couldn’t ask for more,” continued Pike. “To qualify for the TITLE, then fish in the Top 10, find myself in contention for the win – then take home the win, all in my rookie season – it’s just unbelievable.”

Pike said he loves catching smallmouth but would not consider himself a smallmouth angler. Add his lack of experience fishing rivers to that and his expectations for this event were low.

“I could understand figuring out fish that I was more comfortable with, but to do this on a smallmouth fishery is just incredible,” said Pike. “I usually get my tail kicked in smallmouth tournaments.

“I mostly fished shoals and rock piles the size of my boat this week. If I didn’t get bit on the first cast, I just moved to the next one. I probably had 40 to 50 spots that I found during the tournament. Once I knew I had a solid bag each day, I could just go fish and look around. That helped a lot.”

Pike said he caught most of his fish this week drop-shotting a green-pumpkin Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Flat Worm with a 1/2-ounce Eco Pro Tungsten weight and 6- and 7-pound-test Gamma Touch fluorocarbon line.

“I had no idea what I needed to do to catch Joey [Cifuentes] going into today. He had such a strong lead, I just didn’t think it was going to happen,” said Pike. “I still can’t believe it.

“This trophy means a lot. People work their whole lives for this and don’t ever get one. I got lucky and everything lined up just right to go home with one my rookie year – that doesn’t happen often.”

JOIN THE MAJOR LEAGUE FISHING CONVERSATION NOW

The top 10 pros at the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Savage Arms Stop 6 on the St. Lawrence River finished:

                  1^st:           Cody Pike of Powhatan, Va., 20 bass, 82-12, $135,000
                  2^nd:          Matthew Stefan of Junction City, Wis., 20 bass, 81-0, $30,000
                  3^rd:          Joey Cifuentes of Clinton, Ark., 20 bass, 79-10, $25,000
                  4^th:           Scott Dobson of Clarkston, Mich., 20 bass, 78-6, $20,000
                  5^th:           Jon Canada of Helena, Ala., 20 bass, 76-11, $19,000
                  6^th:           John Cox of DeBary, Fla., 18 bass, 76-8, $18,000
                  7^th:           Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif., 20 bass, 76-6, $17,000
                  8^th:           Ron Nelson of Berrien Springs, Mich., 20 bass, 75-8, $16,000
                  9^th:           Justin Cooper of Zwolle, La., 20 bass, 73-7, $15,000
                  10^th:        Aaron Britt of Yuba City, Calif., 20 bass, 71-9, $14,000

Full results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 50 bass weighing 183 pounds, 4 ounces caught by the final 10 pros Sunday. All of the final 10 pros brought a five-bass limit to the scales.

The four top performers who now qualify to compete in the MLF Bass Pro Tour Carparts.com Stage Seven at Lake St. Clair Presented by Covercraft in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, Sept. 10-15, are Cody Pike, Matthew Stefan, Joey Cifuentes and Scott Dobson.

The MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers, Savage Arms Stop 6 Presented by Abu Garcia at the St. Lawrence River will feature live on-the-water coverage and a two-hour action-packed television show that will premiere on the Outdoor Channel on Sunday, Sept. 1 from 7 to 9 a.m. ET and re-air on the Sportsman Channel this fall.

The MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers, Savage Arms Stop 6 Presented by Abu Garcia at the St. Lawrence River was hosted by the Town of Massena.

In Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit competition, the full field of anglers competed in the two-day opening round on Thursday and Friday. The top 50 pros based on their two-day cumulative weight advanced to Saturday. Only the top 10 pros continued competition on Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition.

Pro Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, clinched the 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Angler of the Year title Saturday, after finishing the event in 11^th place. Neal will receive his entry fees paid for the entire 2022 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit season for his win.

Pro Clabion Johns of Social Circle, Georgia, clinched the Polaris 2021 Rookie of the Year (ROY) award on Friday, which is awarded to the rookie pro angler who finishes the season with the highest point total. For his efforts, Johns won a Polaris Ranger 1000.

Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE presented by Mercury, the Pro Circuit Championship, where they will compete for up to $235,000. The 2021 TITLE will be on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Aug. 17-22, and is hosted by Explore La Crosse.