BENTON, Ky. (March 29, 2024) – Major League Fishing (MLF) announced Friday that Bass Pro Tour angler James Watson has been suspended for multiple violations of the standards outlined in the 2024 Major League Fishing Angler and League Participation Agreement and the 2024 Professional Bass Tour Talent and Promotion Agreement.
Watson’s invitation to compete on the Bass Pro Tour has been revoked and he is prohibited from fishing any Major League Fishing-sanctioned tournaments while serving his suspension. Watson’s suspension began on March 29, 2024, and will continue through Dec. 31, 2025. Watson may reapply to compete in MLF tournaments beginning with the 2026 season.
The vacancy created by Watson’s suspension from the Bass Pro Tour will not be filled. The 2024 season will continue with 79 anglers. There are no changes to the 2024 Bass Pro Tour payouts or structure.
When most anglers win the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing, they at least pretend like it came as the biggest surprise of their lives.
But not Justin Hamner.
The fourth-year Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Northport, Ala., said openly that he “just had a feeling” coming into this year’s Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors that he was going to win — and in three days on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, he turned that feeling into a hard-core reality.
Hamner completed an assault on B.A.S.S. history with a Championship Sunday limit of five bass that weighed 15 pounds, 13 ounces, and pushed his three-day total to 58-3. He became only the 10th angler in the 54-year history of the event to lead all three days.
“I have no idea what’s been going on, but this past month has been pretty dang good,” said Hamner, who earned $300,000 and the coveted Ray Scott trophy. “I can’t explain it, but I really did feel like I had a good chance to win.”
That feeling wasn’t exactly reinforced during a tough practice when Hamner said the best bass he caught was a 3-pounder. But he started the tournament on the spot where he caught that fish and used a shad-colored, deep-diving jerkbait to put together a limit that weighed 22-6 and gave him the Day 1 lead.
He went back there for Day 2. But, just like in practice, he couldn’t replicate a pattern and was forced to redirect.
“The wind was blowing a ton of bait into the pocket I was fishing,” he said. “When all of that bait got in there, those fish were keyed in on the bait and they wouldn’t bite my jerkbait. I couldn’t make them bite it, and I still can’t really explain it.”
That’s when Hamner relocated again and started using Garmin LiveScope to target largemouth in brushpiles. He quickly caught two 5-pounders that pushed him to a 20-pound limit and helped him maintain the lead going into the final day.
Despite being in the most visible spot a professional angler can hold, Hamner said he never got nervous until around 1 p.m. on Championship Sunday. At that point, he said he lost four big bass, but he couldn’t say if nerves caused him to lose the fish or if losing the fish caused the nerves.
“The first two didn’t bother me at all,” he said. “I still had that calm feeling. But around 1 o’clock, the fish changed and wouldn’t even react. I don’t know what caused what. There’s just no telling what was going through my mind because the pressure was finally starting to get to me.”
Despite his troubles, Hamner’s limit of 15-13 helped him hold off Wisconsin angler Adam Rasmussen who made a hard charge with 18-5 on the final day but finished almost 3 pounds back with 55-4.
“My father taught me not to talk about myself, so it’s gonna be hard for me to get used to calling myself the Bassmaster Classic champion,” said Hamner, who finished 14th and third in the first two Elite Series events of the year in February. “But it’s been an amazing month.”
Hamner said he hadn’t thought about where he’ll put the massive Ray Scott trophy. Instead, he said he’s more worried about moving out of the double-wide trailer he’s living in — something that should be easier to do with the $350,000 he’s won over the past two months.
Something else that will likely be easier for the 33-year-old is promoting his sponsors.
Though he was coy about which brand of deep-diving jerkbait he used this week, he said he added No. 6 Duo Realis treble hooks — and since they were made from a heavy wire, they helped the bait sink a little further. He stuck with Yo-Zuri T7 Premium Fluorocarbon all week, using 12-pound test when he was around lighter cover and 14-pound test around thicker brush.
One of the biggest keys to his success, he said, was adding scent from the BaitFuel Hardbait Stick.
“It’s the new stick that they came out with that you can actually apply to the hard bait,” he said. “I had like six fish follow my jerkbait today. I would stop and put that stuff on and then catch them. There’s no doubt in my mind it makes a huge difference.
“It was like immediate. The whole school would come up chasing it, but they wouldn’t eat it. I put that on there and the first one that would come up would eat it.”
Hamner described his cadence with the jerkbait as “weird.”
“I change it up a lot — so much that my friends make fun of me,” he said. “I let Garmin LiveScope tell me in real time how the fish are reacting to the bait.
“The key, to me, is figuring out what speed they want the bait — and today, they wanted it faster.”
When all the talk of rods, reels and baits was done, Hamner summed up his amazing week with a question.
“What just happened?” he asked. “I always thought this lake set up the way I like to fish. It’s like Lake Tuscaloosa back home. You can’t do the same thing twice on that lake either. Maybe that helped me this week — maybe. I honestly just can’t explain it.
“But, like I said, I had a great feeling coming into the week.”
Florida angler Aaron Yavorsky, who turned 18 last week and now holds the record as the youngest angler ever to take part in the Classic, earned the $2,500 Mercury Big Bass of the Tournament prize with the 6-12 largemouth that he caught on Saturday.
The Rapala CrushCity Monster Bag of the Week was the 22-6 bag caught by Hamner on Day 1. That earned him an extra $7,000.
Hamner also earned the $20,000 Yamaha Power Pay award for being the highest-placing eligible entrant.
Alabama pro Will Davis Jr. won the $1,000 BassTrakk Contingency Prize for listing his weight for the week as accurately as anyone in the field.
Since practice began last week, Alabama pro Justin Hamner says he hasn’t been able to duplicate two patterns from one day to the next.
That trend continued Saturday, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting him adversely.
Hamner caught yet another five-bass limit that weighed 20 pounds and increased his two-day total to 42 pounds, 6 ounces, to maintain the lead in the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees.
Hamner, who has seemed strangely calm all week, said his only plan for Championship Sunday is to “win the Bassmaster Classic.” Beyond that, he isn’t sure what he’ll be doing once the tournament resumes.
“The dream is going pretty good so far, but we’ve still got one more day,” said Hamner, who is fishing only his second career Classic. “I had to do something totally different today than what I did on the first day of the tournament. The area I started in this morning had completely changed, and I left there around 10 or 10:30 (a.m.).
“In my new spot, I immediately caught three big ones and left there.”
Hamner had been hoping that increased winds would improve his bite. But on Saturday, he said it actually hurt him and forced him to change his plans.
“Yesterday, when I caught all of those fish in those creeks, there was zero bait,” he said. “Today, the wind actually blew directly into those creeks and the fish were more active. They were feeding on the bait, but I could not get those fish to bite.
“It was the weirdest thing and I have no explanation for it.”
The forecast for Championship Sunday calls for 20 to 30 mph winds with occasional gusts up to 40 mph. Hamner said he plans to start on the same brushpiles where he caught his best fish Saturday — and if that doesn’t work, he’ll redirect on the fly once again.
“It’s been a weird feeling all week,” he said. “As soon as I get on the water, I’m not feeling any pressure. I’m playing with geese, catching big bass and having fun. I plan to do that tomorrow — and win the Bassmaster Classic.”
Hamner’s closest competitor at the end of Day 2 was Wisconsin pro Adam Rasmussen with 36-15. A famed walleye guide turned bass pro, Rasmussen said the high winds on Sunday could help him simply by making things tough for the rest of the crowd.
“Where I’m from, I certainly know how to hold the boat really well in high winds,” said Rasmussen, who guides mainly on Sturgeon Bay. “I think that could cause some guys to stumble a little bit.”
Rasmussen said he has one point that’s been “really special” all week, and he plans to milk it for all it’s worth Sunday.
“I’ve gone to it four or five times a day, and almost every time I’ve gone back to it, I’ve gotten bit,” he said. “I might roll in there first thing tomorrow morning, and if I get some bites, I might just pole down on it — just sit on it and see what I can do.”
Entering the day with more than a 5-pound deficit, Rasmussen said he plans to “swing for the fences” to try and win the $300,000 first-place prize. He thinks it will take 23 to 24 pounds — and maybe even a little luck in the form of Hamner struggling — but he knows the big weight is out there.
“When I came to pre-practice here, I had a 29-pound day,” he said. “So, I know what lives here. This is Grand Lake; it has giants. I just have to go catch them.”
Missouri pro Cody Huff caught 15-2 Saturday and fell slightly from second place to third with a two-day mark of 36-4. He rests in a logjam of anglers within striking distance, including Brandon Card (34-4), Hank Cherry (33-11), Cooper Gallant (33-3) and Lee Livesay (33-1).
“It was a complete turnaround for me today,” Huff said. “All the areas that had worked really well for me yesterday, the water temperature had dropped like 8 or 9 degrees with that real cold night. The shad weren’t up, the bass weren’t up. It was just a ghost town.”
A third-year Elite who lists Bassmaster legend Rick Clunn as one of his mentors, Huff didn’t have a bass in his livewell at 11 a.m. But he adjusted and kept himself in contention for the Classic trophy.
“I got on another deal and caught what I caught and broke off another good fish,” Huff said. “With my main pattern toasted, I just had to go fishing and figure them out again. That’s this lake. It’s gonna be that way again tomorrow because it’s gonna look like a new lake again.”
Florida angler Aaron Yavorsky, who turned 18 last week and now holds the record as the youngest angler ever to take part in the Classic, had Big Bass of the Day on Saturday with a 6-12 largemouth. He currently holds the lead for Mercury Big Bass of the Tournament.
The Top 25 remaining anglers will take off at 7:15 a.m. CT Sunday from Wolf Creek Park and Boating Facility, with the final weigh-in scheduled for approximately 5:00 p.m. at the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa. Door will open at 3:15 p.m., with the Strike King Bassmaster College Classic presented by Bass Pro Shops weigh-in to be held at 3:35 p.m. The winning Classic angler will earn $300,000 and the most-coveted trophy in pro fishing, the Ray Scott trophy.
Click here for a full list of how to watch the event online and on television.
Click here for a full list of Classic events, including the annual Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo presented by GSM Outdoors.
LEESBURG, Fla. (March 22, 2024) – The final day of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats at Harris Chain of Lakes event was stressful for everyone in the hunt. On the run back to the ramp, most of the Top 5 probably thought they’d given away a chance at a win. But, while nobody slammed the door, pro Mikey Keyso of North Port, Florida, did enough, building on a huge Day 2 to earn his first Toyota Series win after three runner-up finishes.
Weighing in 13 pounds, 7 ounces on the final day, Keyso totaled 51-4 for the win, finishing ahead of Tennessee’s Conner Dimauro and taking advantage of Florida pro Bobby Bakewell’s stumble. For the win, Keyso pocketed $44,000 as well as qualification to the lucrative Toyota Series Championship this fall.
Heading into the event, many predicted that no one lake would dominate competition. If it was easy and quick to get to Lake Apopka, things may have been different, but considering all the factors in play, it looked likely the winner would need to cobble it together. Keyso did it to perfection – starting in Griffin, he did his Day 2 damage in Dora and ended up icing the win in Eustis.
“I knew it was going to be tough, and I knew with the wind blowing like it was, I had to make a decision the first day,” he said. “So, I went to the lake I know best, and was able to survive that day. Then, I was able to get to my stuff the second day. Today, I decided to stop short of it and catch some fish, and thank God I did, because there were guys all over the stuff I fished yesterday.
“When it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, I guess,” he said. “I’ve been on better fish. I’ve thought I was going to win a few times, and this one I was totally not expecting (to win). I was thinking 10 or 12 pounds a day, and get out of here, and it’s the one I won.”
Day 1, Keyso fished offshore grass with a Reaction Innovations Machete Worm in tramp stamp and junebug on either a 3/16- or 1/4-ounce weight. Worming offshore grass is a classic Florida technique and something Keyso was able to do with his eyes closed and no forward-facing sonar.
“I got to hit my stuff the second day and did the same thing again,” he said. “I used the Machete Worm again and caught every bass I caught on it. The eelgrass tapered off the bank a bit. When I would fish the edge of it, I’d use the heavier weight. I’d use the lighter weight in the thicker stuff.”
On Day 2 in Dora, Keyso’s 24-14 bag put him in contention, and he dialed in the game plan in practice with side imaging.
“I found all that stuff on side imaging and realized the fish were starting to come; there’s another wave of fish about to spawn,” he said. “They were using the eelgrass by the bank to stage up. Once I figured that out, I scanned the whole lake and found every good eelgrass clump in front of a spawning flat I could find.
“Yesterday was one of the days where everything just went right,” he said. “Some days a little goes right and a little goes wrong. Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had, as far as everything going right. I had 20 pounds pretty easy, and then I caught an 8-pounder. It was pretty wild – I think I culled a 4-pounder with an 8-pounder. It was unbelievable.”
Come Day 3, perhaps feeling some jitters or maybe simply sniffing the win, Keyso stopped on a shad spawn spot in Eustis on his way to Dora.
“It was Kissimmee grass and balled up, old, dead hydrilla they were spawning on,” he explained. “I just decided to stop on it this morning because I felt like I had to catch some bass to get my head right, and thank God I did. I fished Eustis one entire day in practice, thinking if I found something in Eustis, I could win. I practiced Eustis the entire day and it paid off.”
“I went back there today and one of the guys in the tournament was on it,” he said. “I didn’t catch a single fish there. It was a little frustrating, but thank goodness I laid on them like I did the second day.”
On the way back, after so many second-place finishes, Keyso thought he was headed for another silver.
“I definitely, 100 percent, thought I was going to be second,” said Keyso. “I wanted to believe I was going to win, but I thought Bobby was going to catch them. He’s probably the best out here on this chain – I don’t get out there much. To beat the best guy on the chain is pretty cool – I hate it for him because he’s got some seconds, too, but his win is coming. It won’t be long.”
Keyso is also extra proud of the win because the only transducer he has on his trolling motor is a Humminbird MEGA 360.
“LiveScope didn’t win today,” he said. “I’m old-school, so it was kind of good to see the LiveScoper not win. I love the kid to death, but I’m old-school. If there’s a bird on a point, I fish it, that kind of deal. The gameplan actually worked out. I just made all the right decisions – it’s crazy how it worked.”
The top 10 pros on the Harris Chain of Lakes finished:
1st: Mikey Keyso, North Port, Fla., 15 bass, 51-4, $44,000 2nd: Conner DiMauro, Dayton, Tenn., 15 bass, 47-4, $17,000 3rd: Nicholas Hoinig, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., 15 bass, 46-8, $12,750 4th: Robert Camp, Port St. John, Fla., 15 bass, 46-5, $11,250 5th: Bobby Bakewell, Orlando, Fla., 13 bass, 46-1, $10,250 6th: Tyler Sheppard, Yulee, Fla., 15 bass, 45-4, $8,375 7th: Hunter Weston, Palm City, Fla., 15 bass, 41-15, $7,300 8th: Casey Warren, Longs, S.C., 14 bass, 39-13, $6,300 9th: Britt Myers Jr., Lake Wylie, S.C., 15 bass, 38-2, $5,300 10th: Jessie Mizell, Myakka City, Fla., 15 bass, 37-3, $4,200
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Pro Bobby Bakewell of Orlando, Florida, won the $500 Day 1 Berkley Big Bass award in the pro division Tuesday with a bass weighing 7 pounds, 11 ounces. On Wednesday, pro Robert Camp of Port St. John, Florida, earned the $500 Berkley Big Bass prize after bringing a 9-pound, 1-ounce bass to the scale.
Frank Kitchens III of Oxford, Georgia, took home an extra $1,000 as the highest finishing Phoenix MLF Bonus member. Boaters are eligible to win up to an extra $35,000 per event in each Toyota Series tournament if all requirements are met. More information on the Phoenix MLF Bonus contingency program can be found at PhoenixBassBoats.com.
Parker Knudsen of Minnetonka, Minnesota, won the Strike King Co-angler Division Thursday with a three-day total of 14 bass weighing 34 pounds, 1 ounce. Knudsen took home the top prize package worth $33,500, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers on the Harris Chain of Lakes finished:
Benton Peoples of Bardstown, Kentucky, was the Berkley Big Bass $150 award winner in the Strike King co-angler division, Tuesday, with a 7-pound, 4-ounce bass, while the Day 2 $150 award went to Ronny Wiemer of Land O’ Lakes, Florida, with a 8-pound, 2-ounce fish.
With two regular-season events in the Toyota Series Southern Division now complete, pro Jessie Mizell of Myakka City, Florida, leads the Southern Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 511 points, while Brady Lunsmann of Citrus Springs, Florida, leads the Strike King Co-angler Division AOY race with 514 points.
The Toyota Series at Harris Chain of Lakes, hosted by Discover Lake County Florida, was the second of three regular-season events for the Toyota Series Southern Division. The next event for Toyota Series anglers will be the Toyota Series at Toledo Bend Reservoir, March 26-28, in Many, Louisiana. For a complete schedule of events, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The 2024 Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats consists of six divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern, Southwestern and the Western Division Presented by Tackle Warehouse – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International and Wild Card divisions. Anglers who fish in any of the six divisions or the Wild Card division and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning up to $235,000 and a qualification to REDCREST 2025. The winning Strike King co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard. The 2024 Toyota Series Championship will be held Nov. 7-9 on Wheeler Lake in Huntsville, Alabama, and is hosted by the Huntsville Sports Commission.
Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Toyota Series include: 7Brew, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, FX Custom Rods, General Tire, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak Fishing, Onyx, Phoenix Boats, Polaris, Power-Pole, Strike King, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota and YETI.
“I’m leading the Bassmaster Classic,” said Justin Hamner, sounding as much like he was asking a question as making a statement.
But it was 100% true.
The young pro from Northport, Ala., weighed in 22 pounds, 6 ounces Friday to take the Day 1 lead at the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors. The fourth-year member of the Bassmaster Elite Series found a pattern on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees that placed him just over a pound ahead of Missouri pro Cody Huff and continued the flow of what has been a dream 2024 season.
“This whole year has just been so much fun,” said Hamner, who opened his Elite Series season with a 14th-place finish at Toledo Bend and a third-place showing at Lake Fork last month. “I’ve just been fishing free and doing what I want to do with no stress. I’m just going back to my roots and bass fishing knowing it’s my only job for the first time ever.
“It still hits me sometimes that this is the first year that I don’t have to have a side job anymore. This is what I do now — and obviously, I couldn’t be any happier than I am right now.”
Unlike many anglers who overestimate their weights on BassTrakk — the unofficial real-time scoreboard for B.A.S.S. events — Hamner underestimated his bass Friday. BassTrakk showed him with five fish in his livewell at quitting time that weighed just 19 1/2 pounds. That total would have been good for third place, but it was off by nearly 3 pounds.
Hamner, who was tightlipped about his techniques, caught keepers steadily throughout the day, putting his first bass in the box at 8:57 a.m. and his last in at 3:06 p.m. The two largemouth that anchored his bag were estimated at 5 pounds each.
After a practice he deemed “absolutely terrible,” Hamner said he was shocked by the level of success.
“Every day was so different that I could never duplicate patterns two days in a row,” he said. “So now, I’m going into every day with an open mind. Obviously, I know where I’m going to start tomorrow. But if it ain’t happening quick, I’m just gonna go fishing.”
One thing Hamner did seem sure of was that increased winds would help his fortunes — and that’s exactly what the forecast is calling for. While Saturday’s winds will once again be at 5 to 10 mph, Sunday’s forecast is calling for 20 to 30 mph winds with an occasional gust over 40.
“That should be very good for me,” Hamner said. “When it was slick calm this morning, the fish I caught would just have one hook in their mouths, barely hooked. I even lost a couple of good ones because of it. I could have had a sure-enough big bag.
“But as soon as that wind picked up, they would bite it and have the whole bait sideways in their mouths.”
As for managing the emotions of leading the Classic, Hamner said he didn’t know what to expect since he’s never been in the situation before. He also said he’ll have to figure out the increased presence of spectator boats as he goes.
“The way this whole year is going, I just don’t feel a lot of pressure,” he said. “I’m just going out there to have fun. The spectators could be interesting because I’m fishing some really tight areas. But I’m not worried about it. I’m just glad somebody wants to come and watch me.”
Like Hamner, Huff didn’t have the best practice, but his fortunes changed when it was time to go live.
BassTrakk showed Huff with catches of a 4-0, 4-8, 4-0, 3-8 and 4-0, but some were obviously underestimated, considering his heavier total weight of 21-2. One thing that was completely accurate, however, was that the last bass he caught was weighed in just before noon.
Confident that he had 20 pounds in his livewell, Huff decided to spend the final three hours of the day “trying to catch a big fish” and looking for things that might help him the rest of the event. He caught a few decent keepers — nothing that would allow him to cull, but hopefully a sign of good things to come.
“My practice wasn’t that great, but it seemed like when I got to some of those areas where I caught them in practice, they were all good ones today,” Huff said. “I hope it stays that way — I hope the big females just keep coming through.”
Huff said he also had several areas he found in practice that he still hasn’t visited — and since he didn’t see other tournament boats where he fished Friday, he hopes those areas were left alone as well. Like Hamner, now that he’s near the top of the leaderboard, Huff expects a large gallery of spectator boats on Day 2.
“I’m fishing really, really shallow,” Huff said. “It’s the kind of thing that would really be vulnerable to a lot of boat traffic. But one of the keys to what I’m doing has been slowing down and just picking everything apart.
“Having a lot of boats following me — that whole element — it might force me to slow down and pick things apart even more. Maybe it’ll be a good thing.”
After a tremendous career on the Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Huff is now making his third career appearance in the Classic. And while he isn’t sure that his previous Classic appearances will make a big difference in how he handles the pressure of being in contention, he’d rather be living this scenario than the alternative.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever gonna be comfortable with this situation unless they’re made of brick,” Huff said. “But I’m a lot more comfortable with this than I am with being at the bottom of the pack.”
Oklahoma pro Luke Palmer brought in the Big Bass of the Day, a 6-5, and took the lead in the Mercury Big Bass of the Tournament race.
The full field will take off again at 7:15 a.m. CT Saturday from Wolf Creek Park and Boating Facility, with weigh-in scheduled for approximately 5:00 p.m. at the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa. Doors will open at 3:15 p.m., with the Strike King Bassmaster High School Classic taking the stage to weigh in at 3:35 p.m. After Saturday’s weigh-in, only the Top 25 remaining anglers will advance to Championship Sunday for a chance at the $300,000 first-place prize and the most -coveted trophy in the history of the sport.
Click here for a full list of how to watch the event online and on television.
Click here for a full list of Classic events, including the annual Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo presented by GSM Outdoors.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 17, 2024) – Just about every day in the 13 months since Major League Fishing announced that Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium would take place on Lay Lake, Dustin Connell has thought about what it would be like to taste victory at the Coosa River impoundment where he grew up fishing.
But in all his dreaming, scheming and practicing, the Clanton, Alabama, native didn’t envision this.
Connell routed the rest of the Championship Round field Sunday, stacking 28 scorable bass for 83 pounds on SCORETRACKER® – more than 30 pounds better than runner-up Alton Jones, Jr. of Waco, Texas. The dominant performance earned Connell $300,000 and made him the first ever two-time winner of the Bass Pro Tour’s championship event.
It wasn’t just his margin of victory that surprised Connell but how he made it happen. As recently as Saturday evening, he planned to spend the final day fishing current seams in the riverine portion of the reservoir, as he had during the Knockout Round. But at the last minute, he called an audible, opting to start on the lower end of the lake targeting suspended, schooling spotted bass. One of several clutch decisions he made over the four-day event, doing so led to Connell landing on a pile of unpressured bass and unleashing an avalanche that buried the rest of the Top 10.
“This tournament has been on my radar ever since they announced it last year,” Connell said. “I’m like, ‘Oh man, I gotta win that one. That’s a great opportunity. I gotta win that one.’ And I won it today unexpectedly. I didn’t know that many [were] in there. They just moved in there.”
Competing on a fishery that an angler knows well comes with obvious advantages. Connell put his lifetime of experience on the Coosa River to use all week – knowing how baitfish and bass would behave amid the heavy current that rolled through Lay Lake, where bass would set up in that current, the best baits to trigger bites. But there’s a reason so many anglers talk about the “home-lake curse”: Remembering places and ways one has caught fish in the past can get in the way of finding the best way to do so at the present.
Connell wasn’t immune to the pull of history, but he made it a point to base his decisions about where to fish on what he saw on the water, not where he’d found success before.
“When I’m running down the river, I’ve caught ‘em on so many different places, and I’m like, golly, I need to stop, I need to stop,” Connell said. “But I told myself before I fished this tournament, I said, ‘I’m going to fish this lake like I would any other one, not run off of history.’ I wanted to fish it brand new. And I did all week. I did really, really good practicing and just trying to find new areas.”
Key for Connell was turning over every possible stone to discover what could be the winning area. Not only during practice but also the two-day Qualifying Round, he visited every section of the lake, switching between techniques – shaking a jighead minnow for suspended fish, swimming a jig in grass, rolling a spinnerbait around laydowns, plying current seams with a scrounger head.
His thorough approach paid off on the second day of qualifying, when Connell found what would become his winning spot. Friday afternoon, he pulled into a bay off the main lake that featured two depressions where bass were chasing schools of shad. He caught just one 4-pounder there, but the number of baitfish present led him to mentally flag the area.
“The two depressions harbor the bait, and the fish swim around those depressions and feed on all the bait,” he explained. “And it’s just like their home place. It’s the deepest water in that bay, and the big spots just roam out there and chase that bait. And in the past, I’ve caught them in there. I’ve caught them on a jerkbait, I’ve seen them schooling in there. And I knew that they lived in there. I’ve caught them there a bunch of times, but not to that extent.”
Finding the area was one thing, but it took a series of clutch calls for Connell to find himself back there on Championship Day. Even as he arrived at the launch ramp Sunday morning, he was torn between returning to the river, where he’d caught more than 52 pounds of scorable bass the day prior, or joining the forward-facing sonar crowd in the lower lake. Feeling like his urge to fish current stemmed at least in part from nostalgia, he settled on starting the day chasing schooling fish, then running upriver in the afternoon, when the bite had been better the past two days (if need be).
“I said, I can catch 50-something pounds – maybe 60 (in the river),” Connell said. “I can’t catch 75 up there, no way. And I thought it was going to take 70, 72 pounds total (to win), because I figured they would catch a lot of fish. I said, ‘I’m going to go down, start down here and then work my way up.’ … Well, I never got to go upriver.”
Connell’s first stop was the main-lake area that had accounted for most of the forward-facing sonar success all week – half of the 10-angler field started Sunday morning within sight of one another. Whether due to pressure or those bass heading to the bank to spawn, it quickly became apparent that the bite had dried up.
After feeling several fish short-strike his bait, Connell became the first to leave. He first stopped in a nearby pocket before hitting the bay where he’d caught the 4-pounder two days prior. Before even dropping his trolling motor into the water, he knew he’d found something special.
“I rolled up, and as soon as I set the boat down, I saw bait on my 2D (sonar), and I said, ‘Dude, we’re about to catch ‘em,’” Connell said. “‘They’ve got to be here; all the bait’s in here.’ And this low-light conditions had all that bait up shallow, and they were there.”
Connell began Period 2 in second place, 6-7 back of Berrien Springs, Michigan pro Ron Nelson. Within the first 15 minutes, he boated back-to-back 4-pounders to take the lead. From there, the rout was on. In a 70-minute span, he put 10 scorable bass on the scale, adding 29-4 to his total and extending his cushion to more than 20 pounds. By noon, he’d already reset the bar for the best single day of the week.
He didn’t just catch fish in bulk quantities, either. Connell landed 14 spotted bass of 3 pounds or bigger and three over 4 pounds. In all, he piled on 41-12 on 14 fish during Period 2, all of them eating a new minnow-style soft plastic from Rapala CrushCity called a Mooch Minnow. The bait is slated for public release at ICAST this summer. “That bait is the perfect size, and it has two small tabs at the back of that creates a small, subtle swimming action,” Connell explained. “And instead of it just being straight-tailed, that little action, man, it really gets them going. I caught every bass I weighed in today on that bait. And it’s made out of TPE, and you can catch like 20 fish on [each one].”
Competing amid familiar surroundings with family and friends in attendance made for an emotional week for Connell. Even before he launched Sunday, he found himself tearing up, thinking about his journey from fishing Lay Lake out of an aluminum boat as a kid to returning as one of the most accomplished pros in the world.
“I’ve been shook up all day,” Connell said. “I was crying this morning at the boat ramp. This lake is very sentimental to me – the whole Coosa River system. I grew up fishing that way, fishing those lakes and catching those big spotted bass, and it just meant a lot.”
During the final minutes of Period 3, the tears returned, as his massive lead offered Connell a rare chance to soak in the win and what it meant in real time. He reminisced about catching Lay Lake spotted bass on topwaters with his brother – who was among the contingent to greet him at the boat ramp after his win – about asking his mother to drive him to the lake so he could fish from a canoe.
In some ways, this triumph – even with its lucrative first-place paycheck – is nothing new for Connell. He’s won REDCREST before, in 2021 at Lake Eufaula. It’s his sixth Bass Pro Tour win and his second in the past six weeks after he engineered a similar final-day beatdown at Stage One on Toledo Bend.
But making another fond memory on the Coosa River and celebrating in person with some of the people who got him into fishing make this victory particularly sweet. Connell doesn’t think he could have made the winning decisions without his support system.
“I think I’ve just started to mature as an angler and understand how things happen and just be very methodical about things,” he said. “I guess, getting older, I just slow down a little bit more, just kind of analyze everything. Used to be I would freak out, run around and just make bad decisions. Now, decision-making is good, it’s solid. I’m in a good place. I have great sponsors. And when you’ve got that kind of support behind you, you can settle down.”
The top 10 pros at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium at Lay Lake are:
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 132 scorable bass weighing 371 pounds, 6 ounces caught by the final 10 pros Sunday. Throughout the entire four-day event, the 50 REDCREST 2024 competitors caught a total of 1,038 scorable bass weighing 2,283 pounds, 3 ounces.
Pro Ron Nelson of Berrien Springs, Michigan, earned Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 5-pound, 3-ounce spotted bass that he caught on a swimbait in Period 1. Power-Pole pro Chris Lane earned the $3,000 Berkley Big Bass Bonus for weighing in the heaviest bass of the event – a 7-pound, 1-ounce spotted bass that he caught on Day 2 of competition.
Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium on Lay Lake was hosted by the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau, and showcased the top 40 professional anglers from the 2023 Bass Pro Tour, along with the top champions and finishers across all MLF circuits.
Television coverage of REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium will be showcased across two, two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, July 6 and July 13 on Discovery Channel. Starting in July 2024, MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery Channel, 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.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 16, 2024) – The Knockout Round at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Powered by OPTIMA Lithium turned into a no-holds-barred melee. It didn’t matter whether anglers were chasing spotted bass with forward-facing sonar, beating the bank or dissecting current, the bite caught fire across Lay Lake, with the top spot on SCORETRACKER® and the weight needed to qualify for Sunday’s Championship Round fluctuating all day as a result.
Ultimately, Dustin Connell of Clanton, Alabama, wound up atop the leaderboard with 18 scorable bass for 52 pounds, 15 ounces. Connell bailed on his main-lake area where he caught most of his fish during the Qualifying Round, instead opting to run up the river and fish beneath the Logan Martin dam. He started slow, spending the first two periods below the cut line, before making an adjustment and boating 10 spotted bass for 29 pounds even in the final period. He finished just 1 ounce ahead of Gonzales, Louisiana’s Gerald Spohrer , who ended the day in second place.
Meanwhile, after 39-1 across two days proved enough to qualify for the Knockout Round, it took nearly as much Saturday alone to earn a spot in the Top 10 and a shot at the $300,000 first-place paycheck. Nick Hatfield claimed the 10th and final spot with 38-14, 1-8 ahead of BFL All-American champion Emil Wagner. University of Montevallo angler Dalton Head narrowly missed extending his dream event another day as well, finishing 12th.
Connell has emerged as a vocal proponent of forward-facing sonar, and for good reason. The technology played a role in each of his five previous Bass Pro Tour wins, including Stage One this year on Toledo Bend. But this week, on a lake he grew up fishing without modern electronics, he’s making it a point to try and win old school.
“I don’t want this tournament to get won, on my home lake, ‘Scoping,” he said. “I’m going to do my best to save it.”
Connell believed his best chance to find bass in the same numbers as those anglers using live sonar would be in the turbulent tailrace at the upper end of this week’s playing field. Finding the morning bite slow there surprised him; he was the last angler in the field to post a scorable bass.
“That first period was just brutal,” Connell said. “There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to get some bites here and there, but the speed at which I was going to get a bite was just slow. I mean, it was just dead.”
Knowing he needed to make a move to keep pace with the cut line, Connell resisted the temptation to run to the lower end of the lake, instead moving about 10 miles downriver to a current seam shortly after the start of the third period. It didn’t take long for the decision to pay off.
During a 32-minute flurry from 1:37-2:09 p.m., Connell used a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader on a scrounger head to haul in seven scorable bass and leap from outside the Top 10 into the lead. Not even getting his line tangled in his clip-on microphone could slow him down.
“I pulled up on a place and stomped ‘em, right off the rip,” Connell said. “And then I was like, okay, we’re good.”
Lay Lake continues to showcase its diversity, with five distinct patterns producing spots in the Top 10. However, Connell believes the championship will boil down to a battle between anglers fishing current up the river and those using forward-facing sonar to chase schooling spotted bass at the lower end of the main lake.
The Knockout Round results support that assessment. Connell wasn’t the only angler in the river to catch fire late. Berrien Springs, Michigan pro Ron Nelson, who hunkered down in a honey hole just beneath the Logan Martin dam spillway, also started the third period outside the Top 10. Like Connell, he stacked 10 scorable bass on SCORETRACKER® in the final 2½ hours, climbing all the way to third. Spohrer did all his damage in the current, too.
While those three ended up claiming the top spots in the Knockout Round, that might have had something to do with the fact that the most proficient anglers using forward-facing sonar caught their weight early before intentionally backing off the throttle. Michael Neal, Cole Floyd and Jacob Wheeler all spent much of the day in the top five. Neal has looked particularly in tune with the roaming fish, leading after Day 1 of qualifying and after each of the first two periods Saturday.
“I feel like I’ve pretty much led the tournament all the way through even though I haven’t technically been at the top of the leaderboard, just because I’ve quit every day,” Neal said. “But tomorrow, there’s no quitting. We’re going to burn it to the ground.”
Connell acknowledged that Neal and company will be tough to beat. He also noted that the generation at Logan Martin dam is scheduled to change Sunday, which might reposition his fish.
Still, he’s “all-in on the river.” Predicting it will take more than 50 pounds to hoist the trophy, he doubts he can catch as many fish as his lower-lake competition but hopes to make up for it with a bigger average.
“I’m trying to catch big ones,” he said. “I want to catch big spots. That’s why we come here.”
Another variable that could favor Connell’s approach is having less company nearby. Neal, Wheeler, Floyd, Hatfield and Alton Jones Jr. are all scanning the same section of the lake, often within sight of one another. While a few of the anglers who occupied that same zone during the first three days of competition missed the cut, the fish have to be feeling the pressure.
Meanwhile, Connell didn’t see another angler near his Saturday afternoon spot. Even if someone else has stopped by, he said, the dynamic nature of river fishing means the fish probably won’t be caught with the same presentation.
“I’m in a section of the river I don’t think is getting a lot of pressure,” Connell said. “And tomorrow, the water schedule is supposed to change some, so it’s going to change the whole deal. It’s going to mix up a lot of things.”
Connell admitted that there’s a chance he’s being too stubborn. But whether it’s because he’s already experienced a REDCREST win, taking home the trophy at Lake Eufaula in 2021, or because of his many memories catching spotted bass out of Coosa River current, he doesn’t just want to add another title to his resume. He wants to do it his way.
“It’s very sentimental to me to have a chance at a major, major tournament at one of my home waters that I’ve always fished, but I worry if I’m being too stubborn or not,” Connell said. “So, it’s back and forth. I don’t mind going down there and ‘Scoping, but it would mean way more to me if I won it doing what I’m doing.”
The top 10 pros that made the cut and will advance to Championship Sunday on Lay Lake are:
11th: Emil Wagner, Marietta, Ga., 14 bass, 37-6 12th: Dalton Head, Moody, Ala., 13 bass, 33-12 13th: John Cox, DeBary, Fla., 10 bass, 32-6 14th: Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., 10 bass, 26-12 15th: Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., eight bass, 24-12 16th: Greg Vinson, Wetumpka, Ala., nine bass, 24-4 17th: Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., seven bass, 18-1 18th: Ryan Salzman, Huntsville, Ala., six bass, 16-15 19th: Cliff Pace, Petal, Miss., five bass, 14-10 20th: Jonathon VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., four bass, 11-2
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 260 scorable bass weighing 709 pounds, 11 ounces caught by the 20 pros Saturday.
Cox won the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award Saturday with a 5-pound, 6-ounce largemouth bass that he sight-fished off of a bed on a wacky-rigged worm in Period 1. 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. Chris Lane’s 7-pound, 1-ounce spotted bass that he weighed on Day 2 is currently the biggest bass weighed in the competition thus far.
All 50 Anglers competed on Days 1 (Thursday) and 2 (Friday) of the event. After two days of competition, the field was cut to just the top 20 based on two-day total cumulative weight. Weights were zeroed, and the top 20 anglers competed on Day 3 (Saturday). Only the top 10 anglers now advance to the fourth and final day of competition. Weights are zeroed again for Sunday’s championship round, and the winner is determined by the heaviest one-day total cumulative weight, with the victor earning the top prize of $300,000 and the REDCREST 2024 trophy.
The General Tire Take Off Ceremony will begin each morning at 6:15 a.m. on Championship Sunday at Beeswax Landing, located at 245 Beeswax Park Road in Columbiana, Alabama. The final 10 anglers will depart at 7 a.m. and return after competition ends at 3:30 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
In conjunction with the event, the FREE, family-friendly REDCREST Outdoor Sports Expo will also take place Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, located at 2100 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N., in Birmingham. Fishing and outdoor enthusiasts will have the opportunity to visit numerous booths and vendors, showcasing the latest and greatest in fishing, boating and the outdoors. The biggest names in the outdoor industry will be on hand, including the professional anglers that compete on the Bass Pro Tour and legends of the sport.
Children are welcome to visit and play in the MLF Kids Zone, plus meet Skye & Marshall from PAW Patrol. Throughout the day there will be giveaways and prizes, including signed MLF angler jerseys, rods and reels, gift cards, and more. On Sunday one lucky attendee will walk away with a brand new 2024 Toyota Tacoma truck. Fans must be present to win the Tacoma grand prize. For more information on the MLF Outdoor Sports Expo, visit REDCRESTExpo.com.
The 2023 Bass Pro Tour featured a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country. The top 40 anglers in the Angler of the Year (AOY) standings after the seven events qualified to compete in REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium.
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on Championship Sunday from 7:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
Television coverage of REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium will be showcased across two, two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, July 6 and July 13 on Discovery Channel. Starting in July 2024, MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery Channel, 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.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 15, 2024) – Since the start of practice, the buzzword at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium has been “change.” That remained the case on the second day of qualifying, with Thursday’s sunny skies giving way to morning thunderstorms and subsequent overcast conditions.
The ever-evolving spring bite on Lay Lake shifted as a result, and so did the name atop SCORETRACKER®. Huntsville, Alabama pro Ryan Salzman climbed to the top spot with a two-day total of 65 pounds, 14 ounces. Fishing at the upper end of the playing field below Logan Martin Dam, Salzman boated 10 scorable bass Friday for the second day in a row, adding 30-3 to his tab for a 65-14 Qualifying Round total.
Salzman leads a tightly bunched and dangerous group of anglers at the top of the standings. Coosa River local and 2021 REDCREST champion Dustin Connell of Clanton, Alabama, finished the round in second place with 63-4. Within four pounds of him are former Bass Pro Tour winners Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, and Jesse Wiggins of Addison, Alabama, as well as local favorite Dalton Head of Moody, Alabama, the Abu Garcia College Fishing representative from the University of Montevallo who happens to call Lay his home lake.
Considering the logjam at the top of the leaderboard and the fact that weights will zero when the Top 20 anglers take the water for Saturday’s Knockout Round, the race for the championship trophy and $300,000 first-place paycheck remains wide open. Just about every technique still has a chance to account for the win, too, as the suspended spotted bass pattern that dominated Day 1 appeared to cool and shallow power fishing in pockets, bedding bass and heavy current all produced big days.
Salzman first branched out from pond fishing as a college student at North Alabama on the shores of Pickwick Lake. The only vessel he had access to was a jon boat with no electronics and a 25-horsepower outboard, so he quickly found that the easiest way to catch bass on the Tennessee River impoundment was by braving its turbulent tailraces.
He’s has been enamored with fishing heavy, manmade current ever since. Now a guide on the Tennessee River, Salzman focuses many of his outings on various tailraces.
While Salzman said the area he’s patrolling on Lay is smaller and shallower than most of the tailraces he fishes at home, that knowledge has served him well so far at REDCREST.
“The main difference is this one is shallower,” he explained. “Our (Tennessee River) dams are so massive, there’s sections that set up just like this. So, we just have more options. This dam is just a lot smaller.”
While the current tends to position fish predictably, Salzman said the front that rolled through the area Friday morning impacted his bite. He caught just three bass in his first four hours on the water. He closed strong, though, catching more than half his weight (17-9 on five fish) in the final period.
Salzman kept coy about the nuances of his approach, but he said the key to his strong afternoon was getting into the perfect spot. He shared the area with two other anglers during most of the Qualifying Round, and one beat him to his primary location Friday morning. That’s why he wasn’t afraid to keep catching fish long after he’d locked up a place in the Knockout Round – by qualifying in the top spot, he’ll be the first boat to launch Saturday.
“Yesterday, we had someone who had zero run up there in the middle of the day, and he kind of got on one of my main places and sacked it pretty good,” Salzman said. “Then he was on it all morning, and then he finally got off of it, and I was able to get on it at the end of the day, and I caught some of my bigger fish. That was really the big goal was to win the round so that I could have a good boat number.”
Fishing his first REDCREST, Salzman said he’s not nervous entering the weekend – for good reason. He has a strong track record when championships are on the line. In both his two previous appearances in championship events, the 2019 Forrest Wood Cup and 2021 Tackle Warehouse TITLE, Salzman finished among the Top 10. He thinks being able to take risks and not worry about points suits his style.
“I feel like I feel no pressure, because you don’t have to worry about just going and getting a few bites,” Salzman said. “You can just go all-in on whatever you’re doing.”
Salzman isn’t quite all-in on fishing the tailrace. He recognizes that a change in generation at Logan Martin dam could occur at any time and make the area far less productive, if not unfishable, so he has a few backup patterns in mind. But he’d much rather stick to his comfort zone in the current.
“Pending a drastic change, I will be up there,” he said. “But I did figure out some patterns down the lake that I felt good about. I didn’t know that I could catch the weight that I caught up there, but I feel like I can catch fish other places. I’d like to be up there, but you just never know. With the current, every day is different up there, and you’ve just got to keep an open mind.”
The top 20 pros that made the cut and will advance in competition on Lay Lake are:
21st: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 14 bass, 38-13 22nd: Dakota Ebare, Brookeland, Texas, 14 bass, 37-9 23rd: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 13 bass, 37-5 24th: Jeremy Lawyer, Sarcoxie, Mo., 14 bass, 37-1 25th: Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, 13 bass, 36-13 26th: Matthew Stefan, Junction City, Wis., 13 bass, 34-13 27th: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 11 bass, 34-7 28th: David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 12 bass, 32-4 29th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 12 bass, 31-15 30th: Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., 11 bass, 31-9 31st: Bradley Roy, Lancaster, Ky., 13 bass, 31-9 32nd: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 13 bass, 30-5 33rd: Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, 11 bass, 26-4 34th: Kevin VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., nine bass, 24-6 35th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., eight bass, 22-12 36th: Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., seven bass, 21-11 37th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., eight bass, 21-3 38th: Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., nine bass, 21-2 39th: John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., eight bass, 20-14 40th: Cody Meyer, Star, Idaho, seven bass, 20-2 41st: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, six bass, 19-11 42nd: Mark Daniels, Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., seven bass, 19-8 43rd: Dylan Hays, Hot Springs, Ark., six bass, 16-8 44th: Josh Butler, Hayden, Ala., five bass, 14-4 45th: Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas, six bass, 13-14 46th: Jordan Lee, Cullman, Ala., four bass, 13-13 47th: Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., four bass, 11-5 48th: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., four bass, 9-2 49th: Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, three bass, 7-12 50th: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., one bass, 3-2
Overall, there were 284 scorable bass weighing 773 pounds, 5 ounces caught by the 50 pros Friday.
Lane earned the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award on Friday with a 7-pound, 1-ounce spotted bass that he caught on a soft plastic jig-head minnow in Period 1. 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. Lane’s 7-pound, 1-ouncer is the biggest bass weighed in the competition thus far.
All 50 Anglers competed on Days 1 (Thursday) and 2 (Friday) of the event. After two days of competition, the field is now cut to just the top 20 based on two-day total cumulative weight. Weights are zeroed, and the top 20 anglers compete on Day 3 (Saturday). Only the top 10 anglers advance to the fourth and final day of competition. Weights are zeroed again for the final-day championship round, and the winner is determined by the heaviest one-day total cumulative weight, with the victor earning the top prize of $300,000 and the REDCREST 2024 trophy.
The General Tire Take Off Ceremony will begin each morning at 6:15 a.m. each day of competition at Beeswax Landing, located at 245 Beeswax Park Road in Columbiana, Alabama. Anglers will depart at 7 a.m. each day and return after competition ends at 3:30 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
In conjunction with the event, the FREE, family-friendly REDCREST Outdoor Sports Expo will also take place throughout the weekend, March 15-17 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, located at 2100 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N., in Birmingham. Fishing and outdoor enthusiasts will have the opportunity to visit numerous booths and vendors, showcasing the latest and greatest in fishing, boating and the outdoors. The biggest names in the outdoor industry will be on hand, including the professional anglers that compete on the Bass Pro Tour and legends of the sport.
Children are welcome to visit and play in the MLF Kids Zone, plus meet Skye & Marshall from PAW Patrol. Throughout the day there will be giveaways and prizes, including signed MLF angler jerseys, rods and reels, gift cards, and more. On Sunday one lucky attendee will walk away with a brand new 2024 Toyota Tacoma truck. Fans must be present to win the Tacoma grand prize. For more information on the MLF Outdoor Sports Expo, visit REDCRESTExpo.com.
The 2023 Bass Pro Tour featured a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country. The top 40 anglers in the Angler of the Year (AOY) standings after the seven events qualified to compete in REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium.
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 7:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
Television coverage of REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium will be showcased across two, two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, July 6 and July 13 on Discovery Channel. Starting in July 2024, MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery Channel, 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.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 14, 2024) – In the days leading up to Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium, no one seemed to know what to expect from Lay Lake. While it’s normal for competitors to keep coy prior to lines in, the air of mystery felt real this time – Kevin VanDam even reported that he took the water on Day 1 with 43 rods rigged and ready.
Through one day, at least, the answer has been lots of bass, particularly offshore on the main lake. The 50-angler field accounted for 362 total scorable bass, with 20 pros topping the 20-pound mark. And even though air temperatures climbed into the 80s Thursday and water hit the 60s, spotted bass chasing bait in the main channel on the lower end of the reservoir produced much of that weight, with more than half of the Top 10, including the Day 1 leader, pro Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, roaming the same stretch.
Neal stacked 21 scorable bass weighing 52 pounds, 9 ounces on SCORETRACKER®, giving him an 8-pound, 3-ounce lead over Dalton Head of Moody, Alabama. The 21-year-old University of Montevallo angler put his local knowledge to good use, creating plenty of distance between himself and the cut line and even climbing to the top of the standings at one point. Pro Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, South Carolina, who fished within sight of Neal for much of the day, sits in third with 38-13, just 13 ounces clear of Coosa River local pro Dustin Connell of Clanton, Alabama, who ended the day in fourth.
While many of the top performers Thursday employed similar approaches, that could change as the weather, water clarity and current all remain in flux. Connell even went so far as to predict that using forward-facing sonar to target suspended fish will not win. And with weights set to zero twice before a champion is crowned, the event is still wide open.
For about the first six hours of competition, Neal never cranked up his Mercury. He spent that entire time milling around in an area on the main lake, spinning rod in hand, scanning for spotted bass.
It didn’t take long to see why he started in that area, which he found the final day of practice, and spent so much time hunkered there. During a 30-minute flurry that started around 8 a.m., he boated seven scorable bass that weighed a combined 17-10, vaulting to the top of SCORETRACKER® in the process.
Neal described his approach as typical late winter/early spring spotted bass fishing: find the baitfish, find the bass.
“They focus their whole life around bait besides when they go to spawn, and that’s what I’ve been doing is just focusing on bait,” he explained. “It doesn’t really matter how deep it is or where it’s really located; just the more bait the better.”
Yesteryear’s conventional wisdom would have suggested that, with the water temperature in the 60s, it was time to beat the bank. And while we did see a few anglers sight-fishing for spawning bass Thursday, Neal believes the healthy population of Alabama bass in Lay Lake spawn later than their largemouth counterparts, especially given the amount of current that’s been rolling through the reservoir recently.
“I went to the bank and tried to make them be on the bank, kind of like everybody else did, and just didn’t get any bites,” Neal said. “And the ones I did were just real little. It’s just a matter of listening to what the fish have got to say and not worrying a whole lot about what the weather’s telling you. You’ve just got to fish where they are and let them tell you what they’re doing.
“I think these spots will be spawning way after the largemouth here. I think they wait on like no current and things like that to spawn on the river, and they just haven’t had those options yet.”
While Neal said he could have put more weight on SCORETRACKER® – he went into practice mode with about 90 minutes left in Period 3, once he hit the 50-pound mark – he doesn’t think he can ride his starting spot to a championship. For one thing, he’s concerned about the number of other anglers in the area. Neal plans to use the second day of qualifying to try to find a less-popular school.
“I’ve got some other places I can go run, and I’ve pretty much got a full day tomorrow to go try and find some other stuff, too,” he said. “Just gotta be smart with how I play the day tomorrow to try and find some fresh stuff.”
There’s also a weather change in the forecast, with thunderstorms expected Friday. While Neal doesn’t think that will have too great an impact on the fish he’s targeting – of all the bass in the reservoir, they should be the most stable – he said there’s a chance it stirs up the pollen that has collected in the water. Pollen has proved to be the enemy of ‘Scopers, clouding their screens and making it difficult to identify fish.
“It wasn’t bad – like, I didn’t really notice it to start,” Neal said of the pollen Thursday. “But as the day went on, it got worse and worse. But we’re supposed to have like an inch of rain tomorrow, so it’s going to change. Whether it makes it better or worse with the pollen, I don’t know, but it’ll be one or the other.”
While he hopes to find new fish Friday, Neal doesn’t plan to veer too drastically from his game plan. He’s fully committed to targeting spotted bass on the lower end of Lay Lake.
“I’m going to do some shallow stuff, but I’m not going largemouth fishing at all,” he said. “I’m going to go in some pockets and fish some places where I feel like spots would spawn and stuff, but I’m going to go to the same area of the lake and kind of put all my eggs in one basket and hope for the best.”
The standings after Day 1 on Lay Lake are:
1st: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 21 bass, 52-9 2nd: Dalton Head, Moody, Ala., 17 bass, 44-6 3rd: Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., 15 bass, 38-13 4th: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 16 bass, 38-0 5th: Ryan Salzman, Huntsville, Ala., 10 bass, 35-11 6th: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 15 bass, 35-9 7th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 13 bass, 33-14 8th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 13 bass, 32-1 9th: Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., 10 bass, 31-0 10th: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 11 bass, 29-2 11th: Jonathon VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., nine bass, 26-11 12th: John Cox, DeBary, Fla., 10 bass, 26-9 13th: Alton Jones, Jr., Waco, Texas, 10 bass, 25-12 14th: Greg Vinson, Wetumpka, Ala., nine bass, 25-1 15th: Jesse Wiggins, Addison, Ala., 10 bass, 24-6 16th: Gerald Spohrer, Gonzales, La., nine bass, 22-15 17th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., seven bass, 22-9 18th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., eight bass, 21-14 19th: Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, eight bass, 21-4 20th: Matthew Stefan, Junction City, Wis., eight bass, 20-11 21st: Bradley Roy, Lancaster, Ky., eight bass, 19-11 22nd: Jeremy Lawyer, Sarcoxie, Mo., eight bass, 18-15 23rd: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., seven bass, 18-14 24th: Dakota Ebare, Brookeland, Texas, six bass, 17-15 25th: Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., six bass, 17-5 26th: Takahiro Omori, Tokyo, Japan, six bass, 16-8 27th: Adrian Avena, Vineland, N.J., six bass, 16-6 28th: John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., six bass, 15-6 29th: Alton Jones, Lorena, Texas, six bass, 14-14 30th: Cliff Pace, Petal, Miss., five bass, 14-12 31st: Dylan Hays, Hot Springs, Ark., five bass, 14-5 32nd: Cody Meyer, Star, Idaho, five bass, 13-12 33rd: David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., five bass, 13-11 34th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., four bass, 13-8 35th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., five bass, 13-2 36th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., five bass, 13-1 37th: Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., four bass, 11-15 38th: Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., five bass, 11-6 39th: Jordan Lee, Cullman, Ala., three bass, 10-8 40th: Emil Wagner, Marietta, Ga., four bass, 10-4 41st: Mark Daniels, Jr., Tuskegee, Ala., three bass, 9-2 42nd: Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., three bass, 8-12 43rd: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, three bass, 8-9 44th: Josh Butler, Hayden, Ala., three bass, 7-8 45th: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., three bass, 7-0 46th: Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas, three bass, 6-5 47th: Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, two bass, 5-12 48th: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., two bass, 4-4 49th: Kevin VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., one bass, 3-8 50th: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., one bass, 3-2
Overall, there were 362 scorable bass weighing 968 pounds, 13 ounces caught by the 50 pros Thursday.
Salzman earned Thursday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 5-pound, 10-ounce spotted bass that he caught on a squarebill crankbait in Period 1. 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.
All 50 Anglers will compete on Days 1 (Thursday) and 2 (Friday) of the event. After two days of competition, the field is cut to just the top 20 based on two-day total cumulative weight. Weights are zeroed, and the top 20 anglers compete on Day 3 (Saturday). Only the top 10 anglers advance to the fourth and final day of competition. Weights are zeroed again for the final-day championship round, and the winner is determined by the heaviest one-day total cumulative weight, with the victor earning the top prize of $300,000 and the REDCREST 2024 trophy.
The General Tire Take Off Ceremony will begin each morning at 6:15 a.m. each day of competition at Beeswax Landing, located at 245 Beeswax Park Road in Columbiana, Alabama. Anglers will depart at 7 a.m. each day and return after competition ends at 3:30 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
In conjunction with the event, the FREE, family-friendly REDCREST Outdoor Sports Expo will also take place throughout the weekend, March 15-17 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, located at 2100 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N., in Birmingham. Fishing and outdoor enthusiasts will have the opportunity to visit numerous booths and vendors, showcasing the latest and greatest in fishing, boating and the outdoors. The biggest names in the outdoor industry will be on hand, including the professional anglers that compete on the Bass Pro Tour and legends of the sport.
Children are welcome to visit and play in the MLF Kids Zone, plus meet Skye & Marshall from PAW Patrol. Throughout the day there will be giveaways and prizes, including signed MLF angler jerseys, rods and reels, gift cards, and more. On Sunday one lucky attendee will walk away with a brand new 2024 Toyota Tacoma truck. Fans must be present to win the Tacoma grand prize. For more information on the MLF Outdoor Sports Expo, visit REDCRESTExpo.com.
The 2023 Bass Pro Tour featured a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country. The top 40 anglers in the Angler of the Year (AOY) standings after the seven events qualified to compete in REDCREST 2024 Presented by OPTIMA Lithium.
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 7:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
Television coverage of REDCREST 2024 Presented by OPTIMA Lithium will be showcased across two, two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, July 6 and July 13 on Discovery Channel. Starting in July 2024, MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery Channel, 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.
LEESBURG, Fla. (March 4, 2024) – Boater Ryan Crowley of Fleming Island, Florida, caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 8 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on the Harris Chain of Lakes. Hosted by Discover Lake County Florida, the tournament was the third event of the season for the BFL Gator Division. Crowley earned $4,541 for his victory.
Crowley came into the tournament with a two-part strategy: bed-fishing for spawning bass in a canal and fan-casting offshore around eelgrass and peppergrass. While pre-fishing, he located four quality bass on beds and was able to anchor his limit on tournament day with an early 8-pounder. Unfortunately, two of the other bedding bass he’d found were gone, and a 5-pounder he’d hoped to catch refused to bite.
Crowley, who works in construction, was able to catch a few small buck bass before overcast skies and dingy water made sight-fishing too challenging, which forced a move.
“From there I just went offshore and started chunking around a ChatterBait and a Speed Worm,” he said. “The water temperature was 72, so I thought maybe they’d hit a (Zara) Spook (topwater). So I threw that for a while but didn’t get any blow-ups on it. I was able to catch one right at 5 (pounds) and one right at 4 on a ChatterBait.”
“It was real thick where we were,” added Crowley about his best offshore area, which was about 8 feet deep. “I was just looking for more scattered, isolated stuff where, if I wanted to slow down and fish a worm, I could without getting hung up on every cast.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Ryan Crowley, Fleming Island, Fla., five bass, 21-8, $4,541 2nd Parker Stalvey, Green Cove Springs, Fla., five bass, 20-14, $2,270 3rd Lee Stalvey, Palatka, Fla., five bass, 20-6, $2,174 4th Danny Glisson, Auburndale, Fla., five bass, 18-14, $1,060 5th: John Viox, Hebron, Ky., five bass, 17-15, $908 6th: John Dial, Winter Haven, Fla., five bass, 17-8, $833 7th: Devin van Dalen, Grand Island, Fla., five bass, 16-7, $757 8th: Greg Harp, Vero Beach, Fla., five bass, 16-5, $681 9th: Bryan Lefefbvre, Grand Island, Fla., five bass, 16-4, $605 10th: Geoffrey Corah, Tavares, Fla., five bass, 15-14, $530
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Lee Stalvey of Palatka, Florida, caught a bass that weighed 10 pounds, 9 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass boater award of $660.
Dan Weber of Palm Bay, Florida, won the Strike King co-angler division and $2,270 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 15 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:
1st: Dan Weber, Palm Bay, Fla., five bass, 15-8, $2,270 2nd: Chris Heath, Miromar Lakes, Fla., five bass, 15-4, $1,465 3rd: Michael Quilatan, Windermere, Fla., five bass, 14-14, $757 4th Jordan Elmore, Saint Petersburg, Fla., five bass, 14-11, $530 5th John Hicks, Winter Garden, Fla., five bass, 14-5, $454 6th Aleksandar Rak, Jacksonville, Fla., four bass, 13-12, $416 7th David White, Winter Garden, Fla., five bass, 13-5, $378 8th Anthony Hunt, Coconut Creek, Fla., five bass, 13-4, $322 8th Jeff Stone, Jackson, Ga., five bass, 13-4, $322 10th Chris Westhelle, Sanford, Fla., five bass, 12-2, $265
Chris Heath of Miromar Lakes, Florida, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $330, catching a bass that weighed in at 9 pounds, 1 ounce – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After three events, Tyler Sheppard of Yulee, Florida, leads the BFL Gator Division Boater Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 717 points, while Evrett Hunter of St. Augustine, Florida, leads the Strike King Co-Angler Division AOY race with 723 points.
The next event for BFL Gator Division anglers will be held April 20, at Lake Okeechobee in Clewiston, Florida. 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.
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