If Lee Livesay had a say in where Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments are held, there’s zero question which lake he’d pick first — and second, third and so on.
“I’m not gonna beat around the bush,” Livesay said. “I want to fish at Lake Fork any day, every day and any time of the year. I’ll take it over anyplace else. That’s never gonna change.”
Well, well, well.
As if Livesay drew up the schedule himself (note: he didn’t), the second stop of this year’s tour will be Feb. 29-March 3 with the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork, less than an hour from Livesay’s hometown of Longview, Texas. In all, 103 Elites are scheduled to compete in the derby, with a $100,000 first-place prize at stake and thousands more in cash prizes for top competitors, as well as all-important points in the Progressive Insurance Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.
The field will include many of the world’s best bass anglers, including Livesay, the four-time B.A.S.S. winner who has, to put it mildly, feasted at Fork the past few times he’s competed here.
How dominant has the 38-year-old Texan been on his home water?
Consider this: Livesay cracked the ballyhooed Century Club in Elite Series tournaments here in 2021 and 2022, each resulting in runaway wins. He caught an incredible 112 pounds, 5 ounces over four days in 2021 (a full 10 pounds better than second-place finisher Patrick Walters) and came back a year later with a winning total of 113-11 (a full 11-9 better than the second-place angler for that derby, two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year Brandon Palaniuk).
Though both were double-digit victories, competitors were pounding Fork as well, with six total Century Club performances across those two tournaments. The 2022 derby was especially productive, with each of the Top 10 anglers catching more than 90 pounds of bass over four days.
Livesay is confident he can three-peat at Lake Fork but knows any Elite finding a consistent big bite could hoist a blue trophy when the fishing is done.
“I know a lot about the lake, but there are going to be many guys who will find fish out there,” he said. “I think we could see huge weights again. It’s the right time frame. There will be fish in the timber, in the grass. You can fish deep or you can fish shallow. People will have their pick.”
Livesay wasn’t pointing to the wealth of possibilities to disguise his own game plan. Matter of fact, he hasn’t actually fished the lake since last spring.
“It was last May or June,” he said. “I drove around about a quarter of the lake recently, before it went off-limits, and it was full pool. We’ve had a lot of rain and I saw some things that make me believe we’ll have good fishing. I like to fish shallow and that’s probably my best chance there. But that could change.
“I really don’t want any preconceived notion of what to expect,” he continued. “It’s all affected by temperature, fishing pressure. Forward-facing sonar is a real factor now. I know what to look for, so I’ll show up, practice hard, look shallow, look deep and everywhere in between.’
Livesay said he had a “bad day” in both of his Elite Series wins on Lake Fork. The key for him, and likely every other competitor, is to be “open-minded.”
“Lake Fork is more of a mental game for me because a million variables go through my head,” he said. “When the schedule came out, I thought I might spend all winter there. But where the giants are in December and January is not where they’ll be in February. So, I just backed off. I know how to get around and I know what’s there. When we start, it’s just about reading the conditions and finding the bigger bites.
“I just have to get into a flow.”
The AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork will have a full field for Day 1 and Day 2. The group will be cut to the Top 50 for Day 3 and the Top 10 will compete for the tournament title on Championship Sunday.
Bassmaster LIVE will be streaming on Bassmaster.com all four days, and coverage will also be available on FS1 on Saturday and Sunday.
CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Feb. 23, 2024) – For the first two hours of Group B’s second day on the water Friday at Suzuki Stage Two Presented by Fenwick, pro Dean Rojas of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, struggled to recapture his Day 1 success. Rojas had stacked 16 bass weighing 48 pounds, 14 ounces on SCORETRACKER® during his first day on the Santee Cooper lakes, but he went more than two hours Friday morning without boating a scorable fish.
Once Rojas relocated a population of fish, though, the action heated up in a hurry. He got on the board with a 5-pounder, then caught another 11 bass, bringing his two-day total to 76-1. He finished atop the leaderboard for Group B, a mere 10 ounces ahead of pro Brent Ehrler of Redlands, California.
Rojas’ day summed up the action across lakes Marion and Moultrie. A morning that started slow ended with two bass over 9 pounds, and 20 over 6 pounds hitting the scales. Despite many of the top anglers using the afternoon to scout new water, the field combined to catch 249 scorable bass for 824 pounds, 14 ounces – easily the biggest totals of any day so far.
The remaining 20 anglers – the top 10 from each group – now advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round, where weights are zeroed, and anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to the Championship Round on Sunday. In Sunday’s final day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.
Having put plenty of distance between himself and the cut line on Wednesday, Rojas, too, used his second day of competition to explore new water on the massive 170,000-acre playing field that is Santee Cooper. He never returned to the area where he caught his Day 1 bag, instead scouting a few other spots where he’d gotten bit during practice.
“The stuff I fished today was just secondary stuff that I had,” he explained. “It’s not my main stuff. I caught ‘em really good the first day, so there was no sense in working on those fish anymore.”
Rojas is doing something a bit different than the majority of anglers, not spending much time around the fishery’s many cypress trees. He didn’t want to reveal much about his tactics but said he’s focusing on areas where bass are moving up to stage.
“There’s probably a few that are up there (spawning), and there’s some that are coming,” Rojas said. “It’s still the very first beginnings of it.”
While he found plenty of fish, Rojas didn’t catch the same quality on Friday, boating just one bass bigger than 3 pounds. As a result, he still plans to return to his Day 1 area during what figures to be an explosive Knockout Round.
Still, he sees the day as a success, having eliminated some water and added more to his arsenal should he have to veer from Plan A.
“I have lots of options,” he said. “I feel very comfortable. The stuff that I fished today I can fish again tomorrow, and the stuff that I didn’t fish today, I can still go back again tomorrow.”
As for what it will take to make the Championship Round, Rojas speculated that the cut will fall around 45 pounds – although he admitted that could be way off. Santee Cooper has proven fickle this week, with lots of anglers putting together impressive bags but few doing so on consecutive days. The only safe bet seems to be that whoever does unlock the bite will have a chance to land some big ones.
“I have no idea,” Rojas said. “I’m going to try and catch every single bass I can tomorrow.”
The top 10 pros in Group B that now advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round on Santee Cooper Lakes are:
1st: Dean Rojas, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 28 bass, 76-1 2nd: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 21 bass, 75-7 3rd: Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., 21 bass, 75-2 4th: Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C., 21 bass, 74-2 5th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala, 18 bass, 65-1 6th: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 15 bass, 60-12 7th: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 17 bass, 58-9 8th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 13 bass, 55-11 9th: David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 18 bass, 53-13 10th: Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 14 bass, 51-2
Eliminated from competition are:
11th: Fred Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., 10 bass, 49-2 12th: Fletcher Shryock, Guntersville, Ala., 17 bass, 48-9 13th: Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., 14 bass, 48-4 14th: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 12 bass, 46-4 15th: Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., 19 bass, 45-5 16th: Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., 12 bass, 43-7 17th: Bradley Roy, Lancaster, Ky., 14 bass, 43-2 18th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 14 bass, 42-6 19th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 14 bass, 38-10 20th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 11 bass, 36-13 21st: Jeremy Lawyer, Sarcoxie, Mo., 12 bass, 36-4 22nd: Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, 10 bass, 36-3 23rd: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 14 bass, 36-2 24th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 10 bass, 34-15 25th: Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., 10 bass, 32-9 26th: Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., 13 bass, 32-2 27th: Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, nine bass, 30-4 28th: Stephen Browning, Hot Springs, Ark., eight bass, 28-3 29th: James Elam, Tulsa, Okla., six bass, 21-10 30th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., seven bass, 19-7 31st: Jonathon VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., six bass, 19-4 32nd: Boyd Duckett, Guntersville, Ala., seven bass, 18-11 33rd: Scott Suggs, Alexander, Ark., six bass, 18-0 34th: Ryan Salzman, Huntsville, Ala., six bass, 17-11 35th: Gary Klein, Mingus, Texas, six bass, 15-5 36th: Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas, six bass, 14-9 37th: Cliff Crochet, Pierre Part, La., five bass, 14-3 38th: John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., four bass, 13-1 39th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C, three bass, 12-13 40th: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., three bass, 7-13
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 249 bass weighing 824 pounds, 14 ounces caught by 39 pros Friday. The catch included 14 6-pounders, three 7-pounders, one 8-pounder and two 9-pounders.
Pro David Dudley of Lynchburg, Virginia, won the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award Friday with a fat 9-pound, 11-ounce largemouth that he caught on a Dudley’s Digger Blade from Treeshaker Tackle during Period 3. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and a $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.
The six-day tournament, hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce, showcases 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of $659,000, including a top payout of $100,000 and valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2025, the Bass Pro Tour championship.
The 40 Anglers in Group A competed in their two-day Qualifying Round on Tuesday and Thursday – the 40 anglers in Group B on Wednesday and Friday. Now that each group’s two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers that finished first through 10th from both groups advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to Sunday’s 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 launch at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from the John C. Land III Landing, located at 4404 Greenall Road in Summerton. Each day’s General Tire Takeout will be held at the park, beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com .
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on the final four days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
On Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24-25, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the John C. Land III landing for the MLF Watch Party. Fans can watch the pros live on the MLFNOW! big screen, enjoy free food, enter to win hourly giveaways and cheer on their favorite pros. The first 50 kids 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel from Pure Fishing each day. The final 10 Championship Round Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand at the trophy celebration on Championship Sunday to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.
The Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. The tournament features anglers competing with a 1-pound, 8-ounce minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.
The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2025 championship.
Bass Pro Tour anglers also compete throughout the 2024 season for the prestigious Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) award and its $100,000 payday. Fishing Clash – an interactive 3D fishing simulation game that’s played by more than 80 million people worldwide – is the official AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League.
Television coverage of the Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 21 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering the following Saturday on Sept. 28. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Garmin, General Tire, Humminbird, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Rapala, StarBrite, Suzuki, Toyota and U.S. Air Force.
Before the start of the Gamakatsu Bassmaster Elite at Toledo Bend, Kyoya Fujita’s personal-best bag of largemouth weighed around 24 pounds.
But after anchoring his bag with an 8 1/2-pounder Thursday, the Japanese pro shattered that mark and claimed the Day 1 lead at Toledo Bend with a 31-pound, 3-ounce bag of largemouth.
Known as the “Prince of Japanese Angling,” Fujita holds a 2-3 advantage over Elite Series rookie Robert Gee of Tennessee and nearly a 4-pound advantage over Wisconsin pro Pat Schlapper.
Fujita had never been to Toledo Bend before he pre-fished here in January. He said the lake has changed a lot since then, particularly the water levels, which are much higher now.
Using Garmin LiveScope, Fujita targeted prespawn bass located in 30 feet of water around standing timber in a popular area of Toledo Bend. Two baits caught the majority of his bass in one specific spot he found the last day of practice.
It only took about three hours for Fujita to reach his total for the day, as he landed the 8-pounder around 8 o’clock. During one particular flurry, he threw back a 4-pounder and then a 5-pounder. While the day was warm and sunny, the wind kicked up across the lake, making things more difficult.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher,” Fujita said through a translator. “In the morning, it was easy fishing. Afternoon, no bites. I don’t like rough water.”
Fujita said 30 pounds is the goal for tomorrow, and believes there are the bass in the area to repeat that performance.
“I will go to same area and same spot. (I’ll do) the same fishing,” he said. “I’ll try for 20 pounds. But if tough conditions, I’ll go to the next area with 3-pounders and 4-pounders and change tactics.”
Gee fished the St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by SEVIIN in 2023 and suffered his worst finish of the season at Toledo Bend. But he took the lessons he learned from that event and applied them this week to catch 29-0 Thursday.
“I beat the bank the whole time [in 2023] and from that moment on it changed my outlook on the way I needed to be fishing,” Gee said. “I dedicated myself to working on my offshore game ever since that tournament and it paid off today.”
He caught plenty of bass on Day 1, including a stop that produced two 5-pounders and several more quality bass to increase his total to 20 pounds around midday.
But a late-day stop produced the bulk of his weight.
“I made a move to a ditch and every fish I saw was over 5 pounds,” he said. “I culled everything I had out, including a 5-pounder, in 30 minutes. It was unbelievable. This is my biggest bag ever by myself.”
The majority of the bass he is catching are relating to standing timber. The shallowest bass came from 10 feet of water while his big bass late in the day were in 40 feet. One bait produced the bulk of his weight.
Gee knows there are plenty of bass left in his afternoon area and is hoping it will produce just as well on Day 2.
“Honestly, I didn’t think it held bass that size,” he said. “I went over there to catch 3- and 4-pounders. But every fish I saw was 5-plus. It was the perfect storm when I rolled in there and I think they are coming to it. I think I know where they are going to if they aren’t in the same spot.”
Schlapper brought 27-4 to the scales to land in third. A three-time qualifier for the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, he settled into the same popular area as Fujita and caught the bulk of his bag in about an hour and a half.
“I got into an area later in the day where I figured it would be right, and it was right,” Schlapper said. “I caught my biggest one earlier in the day, but everything else came in that one area. There’s a group of us that are all in the same area. That one little stretch I had, people overlooked and it’s a little different than what the main thing is that is going on.”
The majority of the bass Schlapper caught are individuals just roaming around in 12 to 40 feet of water. He will be heading to the same area Friday, although he isn’t sure the day will follow the same script.
“What I think is happening is later in the day with the sun, they start coming up. I don’t know if it is to warm up or what,” he said. “I’m in a good area. There’s a lot of big bass and they are moving around. I just have to get it in front of five of the right ones and get them in the boat.”
Leesville, S.C., pro Bryan New landed the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Day, a 9-8 largemouth that bested several other 9-pounders.
The full field will take off from Cypress Bend Park beginning at 7 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in at 3 p.m. The Top 50 anglers after the Day 2 weigh-in will advance to Semifinal Saturday before the Top 10 compete for the blue trophy and $100,000 top prize on Championship Sunday. All anglers are earning points towards Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year.
Bassmaster LIVE will be streaming on Bassmaster.com all four days beginning at 8 a.m. ET, and coverage will also be available on FS1 on Saturday and Sunday.
Those wanting to attend will be able to enjoy the “B.A.S.S. on the ’Bend” festival on Saturday and Sunday at Cypress Bend Park before weigh-in. The festival will feature live music and many local vendors.
The event is being hosted by Toledo Bend Lake Country and the Louisiana Office and Tourism.
CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Feb. 22, 2024) – Hot Springs, Arkansas, pro Dylan Hays caught seven scorable bass Thursday weighing 30 pounds, 8 ounces, to earn the Group A Qualifying Round win at the Major League Fishing (MLF) Suzuki Stage Two Presented by Fenwick at Santee Cooper Lakes in Clarendon County, South Carolina.
Hays’ two-day Qualifying Round catch of 17 bass totaling 71 pounds, 13 ounces, earned him the win by a narrow 2-pound, 11-ounce margin over Day 1 leader and reigning Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) Matt Becker of Ten Mile, Tennessee, who caught a two-day total of 19 bass weighing 69-2 to finish the round in second place. General Tire pro Alton Jones, Jr., of Waco, Texas, caught a two-day total of 18 bass weighing 66-9 to finish the round in third, while pro Gerald Spohrer of Gonzales, Louisiana, ended the round in fourth place with a two-day total of 23 bass for 64-15. Rounding out the top five is Stage One winner Dustin Connell of Clanton, Alabama, who caught 17 bass for 63-14 to advance in fifth place.
The top 10 anglers advancing from Group A will now have an off day from competition Friday, while the 40 anglers competing in Group B will complete their two-day Qualifying Round. The top 10 anglers from each group advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to the Championship Round. In Sunday’s final day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.
All week, anglers have stressed the importance of triggering bites from the bigger-than-average bass that roam Santee Cooper. At least in Group A, no one has done so better than Hays.
The Arkansas pro anchored his Day 2 bag with a 7-3 kicker. He also caught a 6-7 and a 5-4. During each of his first two days on the water, he’s landed three bass over 5 pounds, and his biggest five fish weighed more than 26 both days.
Hays believes he’s figured out a key to enticing those bigger bass. Fishing in Lake Marion, he’s not shying away from the dirty water in much of the lake. He also thinks his bait selection has played a part. All his fish Thursday ate a 1/2-ounce bladed jig with either a Zoom Z Craw Jr. or Shimmer Shad as the trailer.
“Key No. 1 was dirty water,” Hays said. “Key No. 2 was throwing a ChatterBait instead of flipping. … And then just making a lot of casts, working really hard.”
Hays admitted that he’s “kind of making it up as [he goes],” especially as he explored new terrain, but he’s optimistic his key areas are reloading with new staging fish each day. Early in the morning, he watched another angler catch a 5-pounder off the same tree that produced a 6-pounder for him on Day 1.
Still, even if his cypress bite sputters, Hays now has a backup plan in place. The thing that had him most excited about his second day on the water was the fact that he caught several fish not around Santee Cooper’s ubiquitous wood, but grass.
“The first day I caught the majority of them off trees – specific trees, but off trees – but in practice I caught a couple good ones off of some grass,” Hays said. “I couldn’t ever really make it work very long. Today, I actually caught the 7 and 5 off the same kind of stuff, and a couple males, so that kind of got me excited. That might start developing as well.”
Hays’ Group A win marked the first time in his three Bass Pro Tour seasons that he’s won a round. He’ll hope it leads to his first tournament win as a pro on Sunday.
The fact that he’s put himself in that position power fishing around shallow cover – the way he grew up fishing – has made his first two days on Santee Cooper even more fun.
“Dude, if they’re biting a Hula Popper, I’ll throw a Hula Popper,” Hays said. “If I gotta throw a drop-shot in 40 foot, I’ll do that. I do not care, and that’s God’s honest truth. It does not matter; I like it all. But it is fun. I mean, it’s been a while since we were able to do this, and I grew up fishing a place very similar to this, a lot of cypress trees, and I’m very comfortable.”
The top 10 pros in Group A that now advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round on Santee Cooper Lakes are:
Pro David Walker of Huntingdon, Tennessee, earned Thursday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with an 8-pound, 8-ounce largemouth that he caught on a bladed swimjig during Period 3. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and a $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.
The six-day tournament, hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce, showcases 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of $659,000, including a top payout of $100,000 and valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2025, the Bass Pro Tour championship.
The 40 Anglers in Group A competed in their two-day Qualifying Round on Tuesday and Thursday – the 40 anglers in Group B on Wednesday and Friday. After each two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers that finish first through 10th from both groups advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to Sunday’s 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 launch at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from the John C. Land III Landing, located at 4404 Greenall Road in Summerton. Each day’s General Tire Takeout will be held at the park, beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com .
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on the final four days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
On Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24-25, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the John C. Land III landing for the MLF Watch Party. Fans can watch the pros live on the MLFNOW! big screen, enjoy free food, enter to win hourly giveaways and cheer on their favorite pros. The first 50 kids 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel from Pure Fishing each day. The final 10 Championship Round Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand at the trophy celebration on Championship Sunday to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.
The Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. The tournament features anglers competing with a 1-pound, 8-ounce minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.
The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2025 championship.
Bass Pro Tour anglers also compete throughout the 2024 season for the prestigious Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) award and its $100,000 payday. Fishing Clash – an interactive 3D fishing simulation game that’s played by more than 80 million people worldwide – is the official AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League.
Television coverage of the Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 21 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering the following Saturday on Sept. 28. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Garmin, General Tire, Humminbird, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Rapala, StarBrite, Suzuki, Toyota and U.S. Air Force.
CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Feb. 21, 2024) – For the second time in as many events this season, the Bass Pro Tour is visiting a new fishery, with the Suzuki Stage Two Presented by Fenwick at Santee Cooper Lakes in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Once again, pro Jacob Wheeler of Harrison, Tennessee, wasted little time figuring it out.
Wheeler, whose six wins and 28 top-10 finishes in Bass Pro Tour competition are unmatched, is back atop the leaderboard through one day of qualifying for Group B. He boated 13 scorable bass for 53 pounds, 8 ounces Wednesday, 4 pounds, 11 ounces clear of Lake Havasu City, Arizona’s Dean Rojas who caught 16 bass weighing 48-14 to end the day in second place. Those two separated themselves from the rest of the pack – pro Brent Ehrler of Redlands, California, caught 39-0 total to finish the day in third place.
The 40 anglers in Group B will now have an off day from competition Thursday, while the 40 anglers competing in Group A will wrap up their two-day Qualifying Round. Group B will finish their Qualifying Round on Friday.
The six-day tournament, hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce, showcases 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of $659,000, including a top payout of $100,000 and valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2025, the Bass Pro Tour championship.
Like most of the field, Wheeler emerged from practice on Santee Cooper a bit concerned about the dirty water and lack of bites. He rated his practice period a 4 out of 10. But, like many, his first day of competition left him pleasantly surprised.
“Obviously, catching 29 pounds for five and catching 50-something pounds of bass is one of the best days you could ask for,” Wheeler said.
While a small handful of the Bass Pro Tour anglers had prior experience fishing Santee Cooper before the spawn, conventional wisdom suggested this would be the type of tournament in which pros would be best served picking one area and combing it thoroughly. The navigational hazards and sheer amount of cover where fish could be living didn’t figure to suit a run-and-gun approach.
Wheeler turned that idea on its head. Taking advantage of the lack of wind, he hit several areas, looking for spots with the same key ingredients — a combination he figured out thanks to one clue during practice, then dialed in Wednesday.
“I constantly changed areas,” Wheeler said. “Because it was pretty calm today, it gave me an opportunity to run around. I didn’t stay in one area. I tried to run around and sort of look for that specific pattern, and that was what I did.”
While Wheeler mostly kept coy regarding specifics, he said he used a combination of forward-facing sonar and traditional, power-fishing tactics.
“I’m doing what I love to do, but I’m also sort of mixing a few things up,” he explained. “I’m looking for something very specific, and when I can find it, I’m basically running a pattern on this lake.”
Nearly half of Wheeler’s weight came from one stop. During a 90-minute stretch in Period 2, he caught six bass totaling 26-11. That included a 4-4, a 5-5 and a 6-14 — his biggest fish of the day. With the chances of catching 20-plus scorable bass in a day being slim, Wheeler said triggering big bites and landing those fish is the single biggest key to contending on Santee Cooper.
“I had three really big bites today,” Wheeler said. “So that, to me, is everything. I knew going into this, after seeing what happened in Group A, Day 1, I had to be very calm, cool and collected and be very methodical, because it wasn’t like it was going to be fast and furious. It wasn’t a Toledo Bend. Big bites were going to be few and far between, but when you got ‘em, you better capitalize on every single one.”
Wheeler remains unsure if he’ll be able to ride his Day 1 pattern through the weekend. He predicted that, as the weather warms and the bass continue their prespawn transition, Santee Cooper will fish differently during the Knockout and Championship Rounds than it has during the first two days. In typical Wheeler fashion, he’s put himself in prime position to figure it out. As usual, he said he plans to take advantage of his fast start by using much of Friday to explore new water.
“To me, I utilized this day to the best of my ability, to be leading right now going into Day 2 and have a firm grasp right now,” he said. “I still gotta catch a few bass, probably, to solidify my spot in the Knockout Round, but I’m feeling really confident about that.”
The top 20 pros in Group B after Day 1 on Santee Cooper Lakes are:
1st: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 13 bass, 53-8 2nd: Dean Rojas, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 16 bass, 48-14 3rd: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 11 bass, 39-0 4th: Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C., 12 bass, 38-9 5th: Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., 10 bass, 37-0 6th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., six bass, 29-4 7th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala, 10 bass, 28-14 8th: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., eight bass, 27-3 9th: Fred Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., five bass, 26-1 10th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., seven bass, 25-10 11th: Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., seven bass, 25-2 12th: Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., eight bass, 24-12 13th: Stephen Browning, Hot Springs, Ark., six bass, 22-8 14th: Fletcher Shryock, Guntersville, Ala., eight bass, 22-4 15th: Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., seven bass, 21-5 16th: Jeremy Lawyer, Sarcoxie, Mo., six bass, 20-0 17th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., seven bass, 19-4 18th: Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas, six bass, 14-9 19th: Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, four bass, 14-5 20th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., six bass, 14-4
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 226 bass weighing 721 pounds, 13 ounces caught by the 40 pros on Wednesday. The catch included 16 6-pounders, three 7-pounders and two 8-pounders.
Pro Fred “Boom Boom” Roumbanis of Russellville, Arkansas, earned the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award Wednesday with an 8-pound, 6-ounce largemouth that he caught on a lipless crankbait in Period 2. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and another $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.
The 40 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day Qualifying Round on Tuesday and Thursday – the 40 anglers in Group B on Wednesday and Friday. After each two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers that finish first through 10th from both groups advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to Sunday’s 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 launch at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from the John C. Land III Landing, located at 4404 Greenall Road in Summerton. Each day’s General Tire Takeout will be held at the park, beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com .
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on the final four days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
On Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24-25, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the John C. Land III landing for the MLF Watch Party. Fans can watch the pros live on the MLFNOW! big screen, enjoy free food, enter to win hourly giveaways and cheer on their favorite pros. The first 50 kids 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel from Pure Fishing each day. The final 10 Championship Round Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand at the trophy celebration on Championship Sunday to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.
The Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. The tournament features anglers competing with a 1-pound, 8-ounce minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.
The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2025 championship.
Bass Pro Tour anglers also compete throughout the 2024 season for the prestigious Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) award and its $100,000 payday. Fishing Clash – an interactive 3D fishing simulation game that’s played by more than 80 million people worldwide – is the official AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League.
Television coverage of the Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 21 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering the following Saturday on Sept. 28. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Garmin, General Tire, Humminbird, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Rapala, StarBrite, Suzuki, Toyota and U.S. Air Force.
CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Feb. 20, 2024) – The reigning Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) Matt Becker of Ten Mile, Tennessee, boated 12 scorable bass Tuesday, totaling 45 pounds, 8 ounces, to jump out to the early lead in the Group A Qualifying Round at the Suzuki Stage Two Presented by Fenwick at Santee Cooper Lakes in Clarendon County, South Carolina.
Just 4 pounds, 3 ounces behind Becker in second place on the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard is Hot Springs, Arkansas, pro Dylan Hayes, who caught 10 bass totaling 29-11. Alton Jones, Jr., of Waco, Texas, sits in third place, less than 6 pounds back of Becker with 10 bass weighing 39-10.
The 40 anglers in Group A will now have an off day from competition Wednesday, while the 40 anglers competing in Group B will begin their first day of competition. Group A will resume competition on Thursday.
The six-day tournament, hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce, showcases 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of $659,000, including a top payout of $100,000 and valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2025, the Bass Pro Tour championship.
Entering the first day of competition at Santee Cooper, Becker wasn’t feeling optimistic. The reigning AOY on the Bass Pro Tour said he had a “horrible practice” amid the muddy, prespawn conditions that greeted the field at Stage Two. He picked his starting spot because he got a single bite there during the three-day practice period.
Within the first 35 minutes of Tuesday morning, Becker had turned that one bite into six scorable bass weighing a combined 23 pounds, 6 ounces. That flurry gave him an early lead over the rest of Group A, and he never relinquished the top spot on SCORETRACKER®.
“I went to an area where I had one bite — that’s where I decided to start,” Becker said. “And before I knew it, I had six fish in the boat, and I didn’t even know what was happening. So yeah, it was fast and furious this morning. I did not expect that at all.”
It wasn’t just Becker who found the fishing better than expected on Santee Cooper. While bass didn’t hit the scales in the same numbers as Stage One on Toledo Bend, plenty of big ones showed up. Thirteen bass weighing 6 pounds or bigger were caught Tuesday, including one over 8 pounds. Fifteen pros topped the 20-pound mark on the day.
“Honestly, everybody caught ‘em – myself included – better than I expected,” Becker said. “I did not see this coming. I expected it to be a lot tougher on everybody. But I’m super happy with how it turned out.”
Becker burst onto the national tournament scene in a big way last year, beating out the likes of Jacob Wheeler, Ott DeFoe and Jones Jr. to claim both the Stage Seven and Angler of the Year trophies at the season finale on Saginaw Bay.
Clearly, the offseason did nothing to stem his momentum.
Becker started the 2024 campaign with a Championship Round appearance on Toledo Bend. He then finished 16th in the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals season-opener on Sam Rayburn. Now, even on a fishery that, at least on paper, doesn’t suit his strengths, Becker looks like he’s figured out the Santee Cooper bass.
Becker attributed the strong start to simply fishing with confidence.
“Definitely it’s a confidence thing,” he said. “I feel very confident in myself right now, and it just seems like every decision I make turns into the right one. Like today, for instance, I literally had one bite in that area that I started, but my gut was telling me to go start there, and it turned into the lead.
“I don’t ever want it to end. I want to keep this train rolling as long as we can.”
His fast start Tuesday only fueled his confidence. Becker said it made him believe in his area, removing the temptation to fire up his Suzuki outboard and make a time-consuming run across the treacherous fishery. He spent the rest of the day exploring new water in the same vicinity as his starting spot.
“It kind of slowed me down and allowed me to expand and fish new water,” he explained. “I had that one spot where I got a bite in practice, and then I kind of just expanded around the area the rest of the day. But having that confidence of getting a couple bites early really let me expand and keep fishing new water.”
After a bit of a lull, Becker continued to pad his total throughout the afternoon. Midway through Period 2, he boated a 6-10 kicker. On a fishery that lacks numbers of bass, triggering big bites looks like it’ll be key to contending. Seven of the top eight anglers on SCORETRACKER® caught at least one bass over 6 pounds.
“There’s a lot of big fish, and it seems like it’s only a matter of time — if you set the hook enough times, it’s going to be a 6- to 8-pounder,” Becker said. “So, it’s going to take a couple of big fish every day to do well in this tournament.”
Becker didn’t want to divulge too many details about his pattern, but he said he’s not relying on forward-facing sonar to target fish. Instead, he’s power fishing around “classic prespawn stuff.” He’s not slowing down, covering water with his trolling motor and fishing whatever cover he encounters — in his words, “pretty much just junk fishing around in one section of the lake.”
While Becker noted that he only saw one other competitor all day, which excites him, he’s not sure whether he’ll be able to ride his starting spot, or even the general area, to another Top 10. He plans to spend the second day of the Qualifying Round exploring more of the massive, habitat-rich playing field.
“I feel like I might have burnt up that area today, but you just never know,” Becker said. “It’s springtime, more fish could be coming with a warming trend. The sun was out this afternoon, and it was warming up. So maybe some more fish are coming. But I’m going to keep an open mind going into the rest of the tournament and try to expand on Day 2, try to fish some new water and maybe find something else as well.”
The top 20 pros in Group A after Day 1 on Santee Cooper Lakes are:
1st: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 12 bass, 45-8 2nd: Dylan Hays, Hot Springs, Ark., 10 bass, 41-5 3rd: Alton Jones, Jr., Waco, Texas, 10 bass, 39-10 4th: James Watson, Lampe, Mo., 11 bass, 37-15 5th: Gerald Spohrer, Gonzales, La., 13 bass, 36-9 6th: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 11 bass, 34-5 7th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, nine bass, 33-5 8th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 10 bass, 32-10 9th: Greg Vinson, Wetumpka, Ala., 11 bass, 26-15 10th: Brent Chapman, Lake Quivira, Kan., eight bass, 26-10 11th: Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., six bass, 26-8 12th: Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., five bass, 23-9 13th: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., eight bass, 22-3 14th: Jesse Wiggins, Cullman, Ala., seven bass, 21-4 15th: Mark Daniels, Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., eight bass, 20-13 16th: Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla., eight bass, 19-1 17th: Jacopo Gallelli, Florence, Italy, four bass, 17-7 18th: Matt Lee, Cullman, Ala., five bass, 17-7 19th: Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., six bass, 17-3 20th: Shinichi Fukae, Osaka, Japan, four bass, 15-14
General Tire pro Britt Myers of Lake Wylie, South Carolina, won Tuesday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with an 8-pound, 3-ounce largemouth that he caught on a deep-diving crankbait with just 10 minutes remaining in the day late in Period 3. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and another $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.
The 40 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day Qualifying Round on Tuesday and Thursday – the 40 anglers in Group B on Wednesday and Friday. After each two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers that finish first through 10th from both groups advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to Sunday’s 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 launch at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from the John C. Land III Landing, located at 4404 Greenall Road in Summerton. Each day’s General Tire Takeout will be held at the park, beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com .
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on the final four days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
On Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24-25, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF welcomes fans of all ages to visit the John C. Land III landing for the MLF Watch Party. Fans can watch the pros live on the MLFNOW! big screen, enjoy free food, enter to win hourly giveaways and cheer on their favorite pros. The first 50 kids 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel from Pure Fishing each day. The final 10 Championship Round Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand at the trophy celebration on Championship Sunday to meet and greet fans, sign autographs and take selfies.
The Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. The tournament features anglers competing with a 1-pound, 8-ounce minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.
The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2025 championship.
Bass Pro Tour anglers also compete throughout the 2024 season for the prestigious Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) award and its $100,000 payday. Fishing Clash – an interactive 3D fishing simulation game that’s played by more than 80 million people worldwide – is the official AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League.
Television coverage of the Suzuki Stage Two at Santee Cooper Lakes Presented by Fenwick will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 21 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering the following Saturday on Sept. 28. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Garmin, General Tire, Humminbird, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Rapala, StarBrite, Suzuki, Toyota and U.S. Air Force.
KIMBERLING CITY, Mo. (Feb. 19, 2024) – Boater Landon Edwards of Springdale, Arkansas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 22 pounds, 7 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Table Rock Lake . The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Ozark Division. Edwards earned $5,970 for his victory.
“I made a run down past Campbell Point up the White River,” said Edwards, who notched a previous BFL win on Table Rock Lake in 2022. “I found a sneaky spot in practice where I thought I could catch 18 pounds. I had graphed a spot that was just a little rock pile with a tree on it that had 20 to 30 big fish on it. I caught a 6½-pounder on it Thursday and then left it alone.”
Edwards said he ran to his “sneaky” spot during the tournament because he figured the field would be using Garmin Livescope to target bass, and he wanted to try something different to stand out from the field. He said he used a 6th Sense Divine 5-Wire 4-Blade Umbrella Rig with 6th Sense Divine Swimbaits to boat his bigger bass on the rock pile.
“I rolled up, threw my Alabama rig, and caught a 4½-pounder,” Edwards said. “I threw back and caught another 4½. I threw back in again and caught a 7-pounder. So, I had 15-something pounds with three fish.”
Edwards relocated to let his spot rest and pulled a 3¼-pound fish from deep water, putting him at more than 19 pounds with four fish.
“I went back to my lucky spot and caught one that weighed more than 3 pounds that put me over 22 pounds,” Edwards said. “I was having some motor problems, so we ran back to Kimberling City near weigh-in and finished up the day.
“I had confidence that I had enough weight to make the top 10,” Edwards said. “So, it was really nice to win it. These tournaments are so hard to win with all the locals who fish them. It was cool to win this.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Landon Edwards, Springdale, Ark., five bass, 22-7, $5,970 2nd: Eric Olliverson, Shell Knob, Mo., five bass, 20-13, $3,082 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus) 3rd: Jacob Wade, Mountain Grove, Mo., five bass, 20-12, $1,722 4th: Aric Szambelan, Farmington, Minn., five bass, 20-6, $1,205 5th: Cody Miller, Shell Knob, Mo., five bass, 19-14, $1,033 6th: Clay Henderson, Purdy, Mo., five bass, 19-13, $1,247 7th: Cody Ellison, Fordland, Mo., five bass, 19-3, $861 8th: Brock Reinkemeyer, Warsaw, Mo., five bass, 18-9, $775 9th: Camden Kozikoski, Edmond, Okla., five bass, 18-8, $689 10th: Drew Sagely, Rogers, Ark., five bass, 18-1, $603
Edwards also caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $805.
James Welch of Bolivar, Missouri, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,436 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 14 pounds, 3 ounces.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:
Bolivar’s Welch Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division
1st: James Welch, Bolivar, Mo., five bass, 14-3, $2,436 2nd: Joshua Ramsey, Columbia, Mo., five bass, 13-10, $1,218 3rd: Jeff Moss, Oronogo, Mo., five bass, 12-15, $1,064 4th: Caleb Welch, Bolivar, Mo., five bass, 12-13, $568 5th: Grant Simmons, Blue Springs, Mo., five bass, 12-3, $487 6th: Tim Bowers, Thayer, Mo., five bass, 12-2, $447 7th: Shaun Smith, Smithville, Mo., five bass, 11-12, $406 8th: Blake Miller, Cedar Falls, Iowa, four bass, 11-11, $365 9th: Brock Krohne, Belton, Mo., five bass, 11-4, $325 10th: Kirk Short, St. Clair, Mo., four bass, 10-14, $284
Pat Leonard of Springfield, Missouri, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $367, catching a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
The next event for BFL Ozark Division anglers will be held March 30, at Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.
The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 3-5 BFL Regional tournament on Pickwick Lake in Counce, Tennessee. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.
The 2024 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 45 boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL 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 BFL All-American.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota and YETI.
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (Feb. 19, 2024) – Boater Brooks Anderson of Marietta, Georgia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 3 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Lake Lanier . The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Bulldog Division. Anderson earned $4,584 for his victory.
Anderson began his day with a run to the south end of Lanier and spent the first three hours of the tournament without a fish in the boat. His first fish – a 4½-pounder – didn’t come until 11 a.m., and he ended up losing that one at the net.
“That was a heartbreaker, to finally get a good bite and then lose it,” Anderson said. He said he caught a few 2-pounders before his day turned around.
“At 11:30 I caught one that was 4¾ and got me pointed in the right direction,” Anderson said. “I ran to another hole and caught one that was just over 4 pounds, and then one that was right at 6 pounds.”
Anderson said his primary techniques used were a shaky-head rig, a Damiki rig and a spoon. He relied on Garmin Livescope to catch bass on the shaky-head rig on secondary points in 15 feet of water. He threw the spoon and Damiki rig around ditches and timber.
Anderson focused on the Six Mile Creek Park area to Buford Dam and said he added a 4-pound fish and a 4½-pound bass with 30 minutes left in the competition to post his final weight.
“When I caught that last 4½-pounder I thought I had a slight chance of winning,” Anderson said. “But I fish a lot of local tournaments out here, and you’re never safe with any weight. So, this feels awesome. It’s my first year to be able to fish a full circuit of BFLs, so I’m really excited for this year.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Brooks Anderson, Marietta, Ga., five bass, 23-3, $4,584 2nd: Alex Prince, Blue Ridge, Ga., five bass, 22-3, $2,292 3rd: Kevin Underwood, Gillsville, Ga., five bass, 21-7, $1,529 4th: Maddux Walters, Canton, Ga., five bass, 20-12, $1,070 5th: Christopher Wilder, Macon, Ga., five bass, 20-1, $1,417 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus) 6th: Brad Davis, Statham, Ga., five bass, 20-0, $840 7th: Zac Bennett, Loganville, Ga., five bass, 19-12, $764 8th: Ty Overmyer, Dawsonville, Ga., five bass, 18-15, $688 9th: Jeremy York, Conyers, Ga., five bass, 18-11, $611 10th: Matt O’Connell, Brooks, Ga., five bass, 18-1, $835
Kenneth Cash of Covington, Georgia, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $675.
Joseph Chilcott of Williamson, Georgia, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,292 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 16 pounds, 2 ounces.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:
Boater Brooks Anderson of Marietta, Georgia, and Strike-King co-angler Joseph Chilcott of Williamson, Georgia.
1st: Joseph Chilcott, Williamson, Ga., five bass, 16-2, $2,292 2nd: Joshua Green, Cartersville, Ga., five bass, 16-1, $1,146 3rd: Tim Greene, Loganville, Ga., five bass, 15-2, $765 4th: Brady Vaughn, Royston, Ga., five bass, 14-3, $535 5th: John McCoy, Jasper, Ga., five bass, 13-13, $458 6th: Matt Luczynski, Newnan, Ga., five bass, 13-1, $420 7th: Tommy Royston, Hartwell, Ga., five bass, 12-13, $382 8th: Ryan Frazier, Stone Mountain, Ga., five bass, 12-4, $344 9th: Justin Lemaster, Royston, Ga., five bass, 11-14, $306 10th: Steve Phillips, Douglas, Ga., five bass, 11-11, $267
Daniel Paulin of Smyrna, Georgia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $337, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 3 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
The next event for BFL Bulldog Division anglers will be held March 9, at Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Georgia. To register for the event as a boater or a co-angler, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com or call (270)-252-1000.
The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 10-12 BFL Regional tournament on Santee Cooper Lakes in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Boaters will fish for a top award of $60,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard and $10,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top award of $50,000, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.
The 2024 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 45 boaters and Strike King co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying event winners, will advance to one of six BFL 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 BFL All-American.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota and YETI.
Jeremiah Kindy has bass fished on Lake Ouachita since he could walk. In fact, he caught his first jig bass as a toddler around a set of islands 2 miles from Brady Mountain Recreation Area fishing with his dad and brother.
This week, he claimed the most impactful victory of his life by winning the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita presented by SEVIIN with a three-day total of 52 pounds, 3 ounces, earning the top prize of $44,295.
It was the Benton, Ark., native’s first Bassmaster Open appearance since the 2002 Central Open, which was also held at Ouachita.
“This is definitely the most important tournament I’ve ever won,” Kindy said. “It means the world. Just being able to compete and have so many family and friends here. Even if I wouldn’t have won, it would have been awesome. But to get this win is freaking amazing. For three days, I was the best angler on this lake. That’s pretty important.”
With bags of 19-7, 16-5 and 16-7, Kindy outlasted fellow Arkansan Matt Baker, who finished second with 46-13 and third-place Andy Newcomb who finished with 45-12. Although he isn’t currently signed up for the next two Opens in Division II, Kindy plans on fishing both of them, which will make him eligible for the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, scheduled for March 21-23 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Since he began fishing tournaments as a teenager, Kindy has earned a reputation from fellow anglers as one of the best anglers on Lake Ouachita. With nearly 200 of the best anglers in the country coming to his home lake, many of whom planned on LiveScoping out deep, he knew he would have to do it his way if he wanted a shot at the win.
“The only way I thought I could win this tournament was to fish to my strengths, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t compete with the guys out in the middle of the lake. It set up right. The way we had them two warm days, some females moved up and I got fortunate enough to catch enough of them.”
Kindy’s success revolved around early prespawn staging areas on the main lake where big bass have historically pulled up first. The majority of his bites came up the lake in dirtier water on isolated stretches of bank.
“I ended up catching more than half of my fish up the lake,” Kindy said. “It was just key spots that I know they pull up on first. The places I caught them on, I will catch them in those same places in a month. It lasts a lot longer than people think.”
When the wind kicked up, Kindy moved down lake to clearer water and fished around hydrilla beds. The deep edge of the grass was located in 25 feet of water, but Kindy said the majority of the bass were between the bank and 14 feet of water. Mixed in with the grass were some black rocks, and the bass seemed to hover close to that warmth.
Temperatures rose to 65 degrees on Day 1 and Kindy opened the tournament by catching just under 20 pounds to land in fourth. While warm still, clouds and wind spread over the lake Day 2 and Kindy struggled most of the day, but rallied in the afternoon to take over the lead heading into Championship Saturday.
Air temperatures dropped close to freezing the final morning, which caused some misfortune for Kindy to start the day.
“I picked up my rod with my last Booyah XR75 and I guess my hand quit working. That rod went in the lake,” he explained. “I had my other Trap tied on, so I guess the Lord was telling me to throw that one. That is what I kept in my hands all day today, that Duo Realis one.”
From there, Kindy warmed up and was able to fill his limit by mid-morning around his grass related bass.
“Today was my favorite kind of day, windy and sunny,” he said. “You don’t get a better recipe.”
“It was all main-lake related,” Kindy continued. “I figured out something late yesterday that really helped me out. We had them two warm days and I had been catching them out over the grass. Well, with the cold front, a lot of the big ones stayed up shallow on the rocks.”
After hitting some key stuff early in the morning up the lake and not getting a bite, he returned later in the day and was able to catch three bass in a row to make a couple of key culls. He ended the day close to check-in and sealed the deal with a 3 1/2-pounder.
Entering the day in second place, Baker added 12-3 to his bags of 17-11 and 16-15 the first two days to claim second place.
“I definitely wasn’t fishing this one for second place, but I’m thankful and thankful for (Kindy),” Baker said. “He deserves it. He has 20 more years of knowledge on this place than I do. I’m thankful to be able to stand up on stage with him. That was special.”
The Glenwood, Ark., angler did a little bit of everything this week. Up the lake, he got bites throwing a War Eagle football jig and a spinnerbait. Baker also mixed in a Damiki rig and a jerkbait for bass he saw suspended on cover in the dirty water.
In clear water, he fished hydrilla beds and caught several kicker fish the first two days around that grass. A Booyah One Knocker and Hard Knocker were his best baits around the grass.
While he could see the bass on his forward-facing sonar, Baker struggled early on Day 3.
“They would come out of the structure to look at my jerkbait and it was like they were in slow motion today,” Baker said. “They were not fired up at all. I finally got one giant to eat it and I had him for a few seconds and broke him off. It was one of the right ones.”
After that, he moved into an area where the wind was blowing, began throwing his Booyah One Knocker and proceeded to fill his limit.
“This type of weather is reaction-bite weather,” he explained. “You have to be burning something. I knew it was a Trap day and I picked up the 1/2-ounce Booyah One Knocker. I weighed in my three best fish on it.”
After landing 18-0 and 14-10 the first two days, Newcomb caught four bass weighing 16-7 on the final day. He anchored his Day 3 bag with a 6-3 largemouth he caught with less than an hour left to go.
“Today was terrible,” Newcomb said. “I knew the cold was going to hurt what I was doing, but I didn’t know it was going to hurt it that bad. The bank I started on, I got a number of bites and got three of them to actually commit. I missed the majority of them. From there, it was done. I tried to force that shallow thing.”
The Camdenton, Mo., pro threw a Z-Man Evergreen JackHammer and a wacky-rigged Bait Cave Customs Slim Stick around shallow cover most of the week. The banks he targeted were “the ugliest” he could find. He said they tended to be flatter banks with isolated pieces of wood.
New York pro Zach Goutremout earned $750 for catching the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament, a 10-14 lunker largemouth he landed Day 2 using a Damiki rig. Canadian pro Evan Kung earned $500 in Garmin rewards.
By notching his second-straight Top 10 finish, Georgia’s Paul Marks leads the Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifier points race with 390 points. Minnesota’s Easton Fothergill is second with 384 points, followed by Newcomb in third with 380, Kung in fourth with 376 and Missouri’s Joe Wieberg in fifth with 371. Alabama’s Tucker Smith (367), Georgia’s Emil Wagner (366), California’s Ish Monroe (360) and Texas’ Dakota Ebare (358) round out the Top 9 in points.
Jeremiah Kindy hasn’t caught many bass this week during the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita presented by SEVIIN. But so far, he has caught the right 10 to be leading the event with a two-day total of 35 pounds, 12 ounces.
Adding 16-5 Friday to the 19-7 he caught during Thursday’s opening round, the Benton, Ark., native is just over a pound ahead of fellow Arkansan Matt Baker while Andrew Hargrove remains in the Top 3 with a two-day total of 34-4.
“It feels great to be leading. These guys are killers. I’m proud to fish with them,” Kindy said.
Kindy has fished Lake Ouachita most of his life. But so far, he has been relatively surprised how the lake has fished the last two days.
He figured the Day 2 conditions, cloudy and windy, would create a better bite across the lake than the calm and sunny conditions on the first day. That was not the case as he and many other anglers struggled to find a consistent bite.
“I thought they were going to smash them today,” he said. “This is the exact weather you want on Lake Ouachita.”
Throughout the week, Kindy has caught bass using a crankbait and a Rat-L-Trap around rocky areas that have hydrilla close by. He has caught bass from 2 to 14 feet of water.
With so much knowledge on the lake, Kindy has tried to fish fresh water every day. His most productive spot Friday was a place he didn’t even fish on Day 1. He will likely mix in new water Saturday as well as some of his best spots from Day 1.
“All day, I’m confident that the next stop I make, I’m going to catch one,” he said.
The day did not start well for Kindy, who did not have a bass in the livewell at noon. He changed areas and managed to catch a limit weighing about 9 pounds before returning and culling all but one of those bass with his final tally in the last two hours.
His biggest bass weighed over 4 pounds.
“It is always an adventure on this lake. It is tough,” he said.
Unlike the first two days when temperatures reached the upper 60s, the high temperatures on the final day are only expected to reach the high 40s with winds out of the north Saturday. Kindy isn’t exactly sure how that will affect his bite.
“I thought today was going to be easy and it was hard,” he said. “I thought yesterday was going to be hard and it was easy. I still believe once they start staging, they don’t leave. They may fade back and forth, but I’m going to be throwing around them.”
With bags of 17-11 on Day 1 and 16-16 on Day 2, Baker has done a little bit of everything to achieve his two-day total of 34-10.
“I don’t feel like I’m dialed in, but I’m thankful to be where I’m at,” Baker said.
While this isn’t his home lake, Baker has fished plenty of tournaments on Ouachita. This week, he has bounced back and forth between several different areas with varying degrees of water clarity. He caught his limit using five different baits on Thursday and four different baits on Friday.
“They are around the grass in the clearer water and are in the 11- to 20-foot range,” Baker said. “In the dirtier water, I’m catching them in 2 to 8 feet. I’m seeing fish deeper in dirtier water, but I can’t catch them.”
After bouncing around a couple of spots, Baker found an area where the wind was hitting and caught his first bass, a 5-pound kicker which anchored his bag. He caught another keeper before moving to an area with dirty water and filled his limit.
“I got a limit quick,” Baker said. “It’s a place where I got a lot of my weight yesterday. I caught one of them good ones too, a 4 3/4. It doesn’t seem like there’s a bunch of bass up there. I had two big ones at that point and had all day to catch two more big ones.”
Unfortunately for Baker, he scrambled around most of the afternoon and could not locate another kicker largemouth.
“I really thought I had a chance at a big bag today coming back down here and fishing in the wind,” he said. “I finally culled about 20 or 30 minutes (before check-in), but I had a lot of down time where I wasn’t helping myself. I had to cover tons of water and junk fish and tried to find something for tomorrow.”
Entering the day in second, Hargrove added 14-5 to his 19-15 Day 1 tally. Using his forward-facing sonar, Hargrove has roamed a deep flat that features grass and brushpiles. The bass, however, aren’t relating to the cover and are instead cruising the bottom in anywhere from 20 to 40 feet of water.
“Most of the bass are just swimming on the bottom. Those are mostly singles and I try to throw to them and get them to eat,” Hargrove said. “Yesterday, a few of my bigger ones came out of brushpiles.”
New York’s Zach Goutremout caught a 10-14 largemouth that anchored his 22-0 Day 2 bag, taking control of the race for Phoenix Boats Big Bass.
Robert Jacuzzi from Mount Ida, Ark., won the co-angler competition with a two-day total of 13-11. Jacuzzi landed in eighth after Day 1 with a limit weighing 6-3 before catching 7-8 on the second day. Georgia’s Chad Stahl finished second with a total of 12-2 and Alex Allen was third with 12-1.
Jimmy O’Brien from Southampton, N.Y., earned $250 for catching the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament on the co-angler side, a 6-1 largemouth he landed on Day 1.
The Top 10 pros will launch from Brady Mountain Recreation Area at 6:45 a.m. CT Saturday and return for weigh-in at 2:45 p.m. The winner will punch his ticket to the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, given they have fished all three tournaments in Division II.
The final day of competition will be broadcast live on FS1 Saturday morning beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT, with streaming available on Bassmaster.com, as well as FS2 and the FOX Sports digital platforms.
The tournament is being hosted by Visit Hot Springs.
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