Category: Major League Fishing – Bass Pro Tour/Cup Events

BRANSON, Mo. (May 17, 2019) – There’s an old saying about records being made to be broken. Greg Vinson got that memo. Twice.
The Alabama pro staked a claim to the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour record books Thursday in the first Shotgun Round of the Berkley Stage Six Presented by TrueTimber, stacking a record 52 bass from Table Rock Lake onto SCORETRACKER® for 83 pounds, 6 ounces (also a record). Vinson was one of seven anglers who weighed 60 pounds on the day (yet another Bass Pro Tour record). 

Vinson’s performance was part of the most prolific day of fish-catching in the young history of the Bass Pro Tour. 

Vinson Voracious
After a slow start to the morning, Vinson staked a claim to the top of SCORETRACKER® midway through the first period. After moving to the lower end of the White River arm, he weighed 18 fish in the first period for 28-5, and followed that up with 25 pounds in Period 2. Over the course of the 7 ½ hours of official competition time, the Mercury pro averaged a fish every 8.6 minutes.
“That was the most unbelievable day of fishing I ever had,” Vinson admitted. “I got off to a slow start, but once I made a move to something new, everything I did seemed like it was right. Everywhere I went, I caught fish, and I didn’t see another angler all day long. To be on something that good and not see another competitor in this field is pretty rare.”

Shotgun Round 1 Loaded with Heavyweights
If professional bass fishing doesn’t work out for Jeff Sprague, he has a future in fortune telling. As reported in the live blog, Sprague’s assessment of the Table Rock bite was that “Somebody is going to wreck ’em today.”
Sprague was absolutely correct, if a little understated. SCORETRACKER® was loaded with anglers who indeed wrecked ’em in Group A: 26 anglers weighed 40 pounds or more, 17 connected with 50 pounds or more, and four surpassed the 70-pound mark. 

The overall catch weight for the field of 40 anglers was 1,894 pounds of bass on 1,173 fish (both Bass Pro Tour records).
“This place has just been pelted with tournaments and locals, and it’s putting out numbers and fish like it did today,” said Sprague, who finished fourth on the day with 70-4. “This is just an amazing fishery. I actually expected to catch bigger fish than I caught today, so I know there are some bigger ones that aren’t being caught. And we’re going to catch those fish. There are going to be some more phenomenal numbers ahead.”

Group B Takes Its Shot at the Rock
Now that the Elimination Line has been established above the 50-pound mark, the 40 anglers in Group B will take their turn on Table Rock on Saturday for Shotgun Round 2. Unlike the anglers in the first round – who fished in mostly sunny, sometimes-breezy conditions – Group B heads into Saturday morning just ahead of a storm system that will bring 20- to 30-mph winds and possible thunderstorms.
As outlandish as it sounds, that could make the bite even better.
“I’m looking at a forecast for south wind, seeing 10 to 20 (mph),” said MLF NOW! analyst Marty Stone. “The harder the wind blows on these Ozarks Mountains lakes, the more the fish bite, and the bigger they are. Our grade of 3- to 5 pounders could go up if it blows 20. This lake is slam-full of 3- to 5-pounders, and they didn’t really show on Friday. 

“Group B now knows that they have to go out and catch 50 pounds, so they’re going to be a lot less patient with marginal water, and they’ll get more aggressive. Our total weight could be more. I won’t say something crazy like we’ll catch more scoreable bass, but I’m not going to rule it out, either.” 

Looking Ahead to the Weekend
The field will carry their Shotgun Round weights into the Elimination Rounds on Sunday and Monday. The Top 20 anglers from each of those Elimination groups will advance to a 40-angler Knockout Round on Tuesday – weights will be zeroed, making the Knockout a one-day scramble. The Top 10 anglers in the Knockout Round will advance to the Championship Round on Wednesday, May 22.

Daily Winners
Shotgun Round 1 daily awards were:
* The Berkley Big Bass of the day was a 5-2 largemouth caught by Jeff Kriet
* Vinson was the Berkley Catch Count winner with 52 fish
* Vinson also earned the Phoenix Boats Daily Leader award with record-breaking 83-6

How, When and Where to Watch
Shotgun Round 2 competition begins Saturday at 6:30 a.m. CT with live, official scoring available at “lines in” via SCORETRACKER® on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! live stream starts at 9 a.m. CT, with live, on-the-water coverage and analysis provided by Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone, and Natalie Dillon until lines out at 2:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show – hosted by Steven “Lurch” Scott – will start at 4 p.m. 

Group A Standings Shotgun Round 1

Neenah was named by early-day Wisconsin Governor James Duane Doty; it means “running water” in the language of the Ho-Chunk Native American tribe of the region.

CULLMAN, Ala. – It’s an age-old question in competitive bass fishing: pattern or location? If you ask MLF pro Dean Rojas this week, he’ll come down firmly on the side of “location”.

Fishing an area on the upper end of Smith Lake that he had found during practice for the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury, the Arizona pro went to work on the Sunday-morning shad spawn with a mix of baits (primarily a crankbait, swim jig, frog and swimbait). By the end of the first period, Rojas had put 23 fish on SCORETRACKER® for 36 pounds, 5 ounces – enough spotted and largemouth bass that Rojas could’ve put his rods down for most of the rest of the day and still won.

“It’s not too often that you get into a Championship Round where the fish are biting like that and you can use multiple baits to rack up a big lead,” Rojas said. “The conditions were right: we had overcast skies, a breeze, warm temperatures, and the fish were just feeding in the area I was in. It was just about capitalizing on this format. I knew I had to catch as many fish as I could early to put some distance between me and the field.”

Rojas added an additional 9-1 in the second and third periods for good measure, finishing with 47-0 and a 6-plus-pound win over Brent Chapman (40-14), Michael Neal (34-15), Jason Christie (32-6) and Todd Faircloth (32-2). Mark Rose (29-14), Brent Ehrler (26-0), Dustin Connell (24-14), Mike Iaconelli (17-14) and Fred Roumbanis (10-1) rounded out the Top 10.

“At the end of the first period, that was the end of (the bite),” Rojas admitted. “It was a big deal that I caught as many fish as I could to build a big lead. Period 2 and Period 3 were a matter of catching a few here and there, but I was struggling because they just wouldn’t bite.”

Rojas Cashes in on “Money Spot”

Rojas was one of a handful of anglers in the 80-man field who identified his primary area, a stretch of bushes in the Ryan Creek Arm. Rojas hit the area throughout the week of competition, sharing it periodically with Boyd Duckett, etc., but had the whole stretch to himself on Championship morning.

“I had to mix it up to catch all those fish, but there was bait all over that area, so I had a feeling the fish should be there this morning,” Rojas said. “I went to that spot every morning in the ride-around to see if they were still spawning, because that’s what they were doing in practice. I didn’t go to it until the Elimination Round because my other stuff wasn’t working, and then didn’t fish it in Knockout because Boyd was fishing there. I went there this morning and they were busting, so I sat down on it and fished it out.”

Chapman Made a Late Run at Rojas

Just 24 hours after qualifying for the finals thanks to a 3-13 largemouth that he caught with 10 seconds left, Chapman made another final-period run at the top of SCORETRACKER®, catching a 3-14 largemouth and a 4-10 largemouth in the final 20 minutes of competition to cut Rojas’ lead in half.

“I noticed going into the third period that things were getting tough, and that little point where I caught had a fish on every bush when there was a shad spawn going on,” Chapman said. “I figured that my best chance was to go somewhere where I knew I was putting my bait around fish on every single cast. I figured that was my best chance to at least put myself in position to have a chance to win.”

Championship Notes

Rojas’ Stage Five win is his first tour-level win since a Bassmaster Elite Series title on Toledo Bend Reservoir in 2011, a span of 80 events … Neal fished his third Championship Round in five events this season … Sunday’s round was the first Bass Pro Tour Championship Sunday without Edwin Evers: the current Bass Pro Tour Points Race leader finished 16th, to add to his previous finishes of second, first, fourth and seventh … Faircloth was named the MLF Autism Awareness Champion on Sunday after weighing the most fish in April (Autism Awareness Month).

CULLMAN, Ala. (May 4, 2019) – It goes without saying that post-spawn spotted bass are unpredictable, finicky and sometimes hard to locate. Throw in capricious weather and you have the makings of a highly unpredictable day of fishing. Fortunately for Major League Fishing® (MLF) pro Jason Christie, the location and pattern he identified 24 hours earlier in the second period of Thursday’s Elimination Round at the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury was anything but unpredictable.   Fishing a shaky head on the same offshore break where he caught the majority of his fish the day before, Christie racked up 48 pounds, 3 ounces of Smith Lake spotted bass during a weather-abbreviated Knockout Round to finish atop the Top 10 anglers advancing to Sunday’s Championship Round. Christie’s two-day total in the Elimination and Knockout Rounds was 99-3, almost all of it caught out of the small area in 15 to 20 feet of water. “I started in the same spot this morning that I did good on yesterday, and there was a herring spawn that I think it caused some more fish to come in – it was pretty steady there for awhile in the morning,” Christie said. The heavy thunderstorm that kept the field on the bank at Smith Lake Park for an extra 90 minutes this morning didn’t seem to affect Christie’s spot at all. While early round hammers Jesse Wiggins and Jacob Wheeler struggled to find fish, Christie put 12 fish on SCORETRACKER® in the first hour and finished the first period with 31-5. “I got a little frustrated because I lost a few and missed a couple in the morning, but one thing I’ve learned, you can’t count on these fish day-to-day,” Christie said. “They’re moving, the bait’s moving, it’s that transition time of year so they can be hard to predict. I’m just going to start in the best spot I think tomorrow and play it by ear.” 

Chapman’s Last-Second Heroics The Bass Pro Tour has seen some last-minute drama in its four previous events, but none have been as dramatic as the SCORETRACKER® rearrangement caused by the 3-13 largemouth that Brent Chapman swung aboard his boat as time expired at the end of the day. Chapman entered the final minutes of competition in 11th place, but hooked a fish on a creature bait with just seconds remaining, and got the fish over the gunwale of his boat just in time for it to qualify as a scoreable fish.

That fish pushed Chapman past Jeff Sprague and Bradley Roy into ninth place with 31-0.Brent Ehrler caught a 1-14 with six seconds remaining to claim the 10th and final spot in the final round.   “That’s about as exciting a catch as I’ve ever had in my career,” Chapman admitted. “I don’t know exactly how much weight I needed to make it into the Top 10, but to hook a fish that size and then have to get it in in just a few seconds is a little stressful. But that sums up this whole format. It’s exciting.”  

Championship Round First-Timers Christie will fish his first Championship Round of the 2019 Bass Pro Tour, as will Mark Rose (third with 39-3), Fred Roumbanis (fourth with 36-1), Dean Rojas (eighth with 32-10) and Chapman. They’ll join previous final-round competitors Dustin Connell (second with 40-9), Michael Neal (34-13), Mike Iaconelli (sixth with 34-11) and Todd Faircloth (seventh with 33-7).

One Last Shot at Smith Lake As Saturday’s competition proved, there’s no such thing as a sure thing this week on Smith Lake. Local pros Jesse Wiggins, Jordan Lee and Matt Lee failed to make the Top 10, and anglers who weighed heavy weights in previous rounds (Timmy Horton, James Watson, Wheeler and Andy Morgan, to name a few) were unable to find dependable patterns or schools of fish during the Knockout Round.   “What Smith Lake has shown us time and time again this week is that we can expect the unexpected,” said MLF NOW! live stream analyst Marty Stone. “Going into tomorrow we think that everybody is fishing for second place because Jason Christie has found the best place – I’ve always said that on a lake, a place will be a pattern every time – and on the outside looking in, Christie definitely has the best place. But we have a weather change coming in, and we’re dealing with spotted bass. I really don’t have a clue what’s going to happen tomorrow, other than it’s going to be exciting.” 

When, Where & How to Watch Competition begins on Championship Sunday at 6:30 a.m. CT, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER® on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! live stream starts at 9 a.m. CT, with live, on-the-water coverage and analysis provided by Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone and Natalie Dillon until lines out at 2:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show – hosted by Steven “Lurch” Scott – will start at 4 p.m.

The Day’s Results

CULLMAN, Ala. (May 3, 2019) – As you take a look down the list of Major League Fishing® (MLF) anglers who finished above the Elimination Line Friday at the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage 5 Presented by Mercury, you notice the obvious numbers: Jesse Wiggins at No. 1 with nearly 100 pounds on his home-water Smith Lake; Todd Faircloth, Tim Horton and James Watson easily in the Top 20 with over 80 pounds apiece; six more anglers with more than 65 pounds over two days of competition. But the name among today’s Group B anglers at No. 12 – Jason Christie – is notable for a much less obvious number: 36 pounds, 3 ounces.   That’s how much more weight the Oklahoma pro put on SCORETRACKER® on Friday than he did during his Shotgun Round on Wednesday, an improvement that catapulted Christie from 37th place to 12th and qualified him for his first Knockout Round since Stage Two. And he did virtually all of it in two periods. After weighing only one fish in Period 1 while fishing shallow, Christie switched up to a deeper offshore point in Ryan Creek and settled into a groove in Period 2 with a shaky head, connecting with 27 fish over the final five hours of competition time. The Mercury pro finished the day with 51-0 and a two-day total of 65-13. “It felt good to finally catch a few,” Christie said. “I stayed shallow the first day, but since we’ve been here, it’s gotten so warm, the fish have moved out. Today I fished an area where I knew there were a lot of fish because I’ve seen them chasing bait, but instead of fishing in 3 feet of water I started fishing in 20.” 

The Elimination Line Battle He’s been known as “The Squirrel” for years, but it seems just as appropriate to call Jeff Kriet “Cardiac Kriet” after his latest flirtation with the Elimination Line. Kriet, who entered the day in 11th place with a seemingly comfortable 8-pound cushion between himself and the 20th spot, found himself gradually falling down the Top 20 throughout the afternoon. By the final 30 minutes of the round, Kriet was scrapping with Bradley Roy, John Murray, Anthony Gagliardi and Mark Daniels, Jr., for the 20th and final spot in the Knockout Round.

The Oklahoma pro caught four fish for 5-8 in the third period to finish the Elimination Round with 54-8 – just enough to finish 4 ounces ahead of Daniels to lock up the final spot in the Knockout Round.

“Lesson learned: you can’t miss a step against these sharks or they’ll tear you apart,” Kriet said of the rest of the field. “I can’t believe I put myself in that position again: that’s three times in a row that I’ve been down in that 20th-place battle, and it’s making me older by the minute.”     

One Day at a Time Now on Smith With weights starting back at zero for Saturday’s Knockout Round of 40 anglers, the Top 20 each from Group A and Group B, the game of cat-and-mouse among anglers practicing and running new water in the Elimination Round now becomes a one-day scramble that will likely be influenced by a storm system that is due to arrive late Friday night and continue throughout the day on Saturday.

“You definitely play this game different than we used to, and I think we’re all still trying to figure that out,” admitted Brent Chapman, who caught 28 fish for 42-8, finishing eighth in Group B. “It’s going to take a lot of weight to advance to Sunday’s final round, without a doubt. I’m just guessing it’ll take 45 to 50 pounds to make it to the Championship Round, especially with the weather we have coming. The fish should bite really, really well.”

Elimination Round 2 By the Numbers The bite was spread evenly throughout the day on Friday: 227 fish hit SCORETRACKER™ in Period 1, 240 in Period 2 and 217 in Period 3.   

How, When & Where to Watch Knockout Round Competition among the final 40 anglers begins Saturday at 6:30 a.m. CT, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! live stream starts at 9 a.m. CT, with live, on-the-water coverage continuing until lines out at 3:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show live stream will start at approximately 4 p.m. dailyT

CULLMAN, Ala. (May 2, 2019) – To date, there have been nine Elimination Rounds contested in the 2019 Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour, all nine of them filled with drama around the Elimination Line. Judging by the sight of Gerald Swindle flopped in exhaustion on the front deck of his Triton as the final seconds ticked off the clock on Thursday, Elimination Round 1 of the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury may have been the most dramatic yet.  Swindle entered the final minute of competition on Smith Lake in 24th place, 1 pound, 4 ounces out of 20th place, and on the outside looking in for a spot in the Knockout Round. But on his last cast – after switching rods with under 60 seconds remaining because the line on the rod he was fishing was frayed – Swindle connected with a 1-12 that vaulted him past Brandon Palaniuk, Scott Suggs, Terry Scroggins and Bobby Lane into 19th place with 49-2, 8 ounces in front of Brandon Palaniuk.  “You can’t fish on gut instincts if you’re playing defense, and I’ve been playing defense all year,” Swindle said. “I’m happy to make it (to the Knockout Round), but man, I’m tired of playing defense. I’m looking forward to leading one of these things so I can play some offense. But I’ll tell you one thing I know: I’m going to sleep really well tonight.”  

Palaniuk Advances Via Tiebreaker Palaniuk’s entry into the Knockout Round was equally dramatic. After weighing only one scorable spotted bass in Period 1, the Idaho pro jabbed his way through a 12-fish day, connecting on a 2-3 largemouth with 17 minutes left in the round. Palaniuk then held on for dear life as both Chris and Bobby Lane chipped away at him before Swindle eventually leap-frogged him.   Palaniuk and Scott Suggs finished the round with the same two-day weight (48-10), but Palaniuk earned the 20th spot on a tiebreaker: Palaniuk weighed 28 fish over two rounds to Suggs’ 27. “Unexpected,” Palaniuk said of his day. “The first day I caught a bunch of my fish in the morning, but I only caught one bass at the very end of the first period today. It was an intense day coming down to the wire. So intense that it’s a good thing my official was on top of his game or I wouldn’t have made it – the third-to-last fish I caught, the fish was bouncing around the scale wouldn’t lock.   “It showed as 1-9 but wouldn’t settle, so he told me ‘Hold on, wait, remove your hands’ and then let the scale settle and lock. It came up as 1-10, and that was the difference-maker. I made it in because that official was careful about doing his job.” 

Top 5 From Shotgun Looked for New Fish There was no drama at the top of SCORETRACKER®, where Phoenix Boats Daily Leader Jacob Wheeler (87-6), Wesley Strader (81-3), Ott DeFoe (76-9), Josh Bertrand (72-11) and Andy Morgan (70-13) cruised through productive days where they caught plenty of fish while also exploring new spots on Smith Lake for the Knockout Round. “I spent a lot of time looking for other fish today,” Morgan admitted. “Fish are in post-spawn right now, so they’re hungry, but they’re on the move. It’s all about the bait right now – all about the shad and where they are – so you have to keep up with that.” 

Today’s Round By The Numbers Elimination Round 1 anglers caught 966-4 on 599 fish; Period 2 was the most productive with 336 fish.            

Elimination Round 2 on Friday With the first half of the Knockout Round now set, the 40 anglers from Group B get their next shot at Smith Lake Friday for the second Elimination Round of Stage Five. The grouping around the Elimination Line is slightly looser in Group B than it was in Group A – five anglers are within a single scorable bass of the 20th spot versus eight in Group A – but the projected Elimination Line weight of 52 to 53 pounds on Friday is significantly higher than Thursday’s. 

Knockout Round on Saturday The Top 20 anglers from each of the two Elimination groups will advance to a 40-angler Knockout Round on Saturday – weights will be zeroed, making the Knockout a one-day scramble. The Top 10 anglers in the Knockout Round will advance to the Championship Round on Sunday, May 5. 

When, Where & How to Watch Competition begins daily at 6:30 a.m. CT, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! Live Stream starts at 9 a.m. CT, with live, on-the-water coverage and analysis provided by Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone and Natalie Dillon until lines out at 2:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show – hosted by Steven “Lurch” Scott – will start at 4 p.m. daily. 

ELIMINATION ROUND 1 FINAL RESULTS

CULLMAN, Ala. (May 1, 2019) – From the moment it was announced that the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour would be making a stop at Lewis Smith Lake in northern Alabama, Jesse Wiggins was tabbed as a favorite.   After his performance in the second Shotgun Round of the Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury, it’s hard not to tab the Alabama pro as THE favorite.  Wiggins – who grew up in Cullman and has been fishing Smith Lake since “Before I can even remember” – obliterated the Bass Pro Tour’s single-round catch record with 49 fish, tallying 72 pounds, 4 ounces and finishing the day with a 16-4 cushion over second-place angler Todd Faircloth (56-0).   “A good day on Smith Lake this time of year is 30, maybe 35 fish, so today was a heckuva day,” Wiggins admitted. “I basically fished two spots all day long, they just happened to be schooled up in both of those spots.”  

Wiggins Hit High Gear in Period 2 At the rate that Wiggins caught fish in Period 2, it’s hard to imagine him wanting to stray outside his two Shotgun Round spots at all. Following a 12-fish first period, the St. Croix pro put 21 fish on SCORETRACKER™ in the second period for 32-9, almost all of it on a 3/16-ounce shaky head with a green pumpkin candy Jackall 5.8 Flick Shake Worm.  “Jesse Wiggins did this on a lake in post-spawn that was supposed to be tough,” marveled MLF NOW! analyst Marty Stone. “This performance today isn’t just about him being good on Smith Lake, it’s about Jesse Wiggins just being flat good. You put a really good fisherman on a lake he understands really well and this is what you get.”   But despite a prolific day and a virtually fail-safe cushion above the Elimination Line, Wiggins plans to move out of his spots and spend the day (Elimination Round 2) deciphering how far out of the backs of their spawning pockets Smith Lake’s post-spawn fish have gotten.  “These fish move a lot this time of year,” Wiggins said. “Once they’re done spawning, they head back out onto those points, and it can be a little hard to find them in good numbers. I definitely plan on spending a good amount of my time figuring out how far those fish have moved.”  

Elimination Round 1: “Nothing is Certain” The 40 anglers from Group A return to Smith Lake Thursday for the first Elimination Round of Stage Five, bringing their weights from the first Shotgun Round with them. Based on the results of the first two days of competition, the projected range for the Elimination Line is 48 to 50 pounds – there are eight anglers in Group A whose doubled Shotgun Round weights would place them within a single scorable bass of the Elimination Line.  “Because all these scorable bass are so close in weight and these guys are catching so many of them, this could be the wildest Elimination Round we’ve ever had,” said Stone. “You go more than 10 minutes without catching fish here and you drop two to five places quickly. When you’re dealing with shad-spawn fish, they’re very ‘here and now’ and these guys in Group A have to relocate their fish. Nothing is safe and nothing is certain.”  

Shotgun Round 2 By the NumbersGroup B totaled 997 fish: 304 in Period 1, 464 in Period 2 and 229 in Period 3.   

Looking Ahead The Top 20 anglers from each of the two Elimination Round groups will advance to the Knockout Round on Saturday, where weights will be zeroed. The Top 10 anglers in the Knockout Round will advance to the Championship Round on Sunday.  

How, Where & When to Watch Competition begins daily at 6:30 a.m. CT, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! live stream starts at 9 a.m. CT, with live, on-the-water coverage continuing until lines out at 2:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show live stream will start at 4 p.m. daily.    

The Day’s Results

CULLMAN, Ala. (April 30, 2019)  – If you ever wondered if momentum is a thing in professional bass fishing, look no further than the five names at the top of SCORETRACKER™ after the first Shotgun Round of the Bass Pro Tour Phoenix Boats Stage Five Presented by Mercury: Jacob Wheeler, Andy Morgan, Wesley Strader, Ott DeFoe and Edwin Evers. Led by Wheeler’s record-breaking 38-fish, 61-pound, 15-ounce performance, that quintet of Major League Fishing® (MLF) pros racked up 138 scorable bass for just over 236 pounds to leave Smith Lake with comfortable cushions to carry into their Elimination Round competition on Thursday. It was a continuation of recent success for all five anglers: Evers has four top-10 finishes in four events this season and leads the Bass Pro Tour points race; DeFoe is just a month removed from a Bassmaster Classic win; Strader has seven Top 20s in his last season-and-a-half; Morgan is shooting for back-to-back wins; and Wheeler has two Top 5s in his last four events. “Momentum makes you a little fearless, for lack of a better term,” said Morgan, who entered the week fresh off a win two weeks ago at Stage Four on Lake Chickamauga. “You’re just kinda ‘with it’ from the get-go, whether you’re getting bites from the get-go or not. Everybody is at their best when they’re relaxed, and that’s what everybody is after in this sport: to be relaxed, and to just keep it rolling.” 

Wheeler Was Dominant on Day 1  No matter how you measure Wheeler’s performance, “rolling” is an accurate description. On a fishery that showed signs of being in a slight post-spawn lull before the event started, Wheeler figured out the right patterns and the right locations early in the day, piling up 36 of his 38 fish in the first two periods and overtaking Morgan, who had rang up 18 fish and a big lead in Period 1. “That morning bite is definitely a key opportunity to catch a majority of your fish,” Wheeler admitted. “Your goal is to try to catch as much as you possibly can in the Shotgun Round so you’re not under the pressure to have to catch them in the Elimination Round. You see this day in and day out in this format: a good Shotgun Round puts guys in position to try to go dial in new patterns – or just stay on top of what’s going on – in the Elimination Round, so they can make it to the Knockout Round, and then make the Top 10 cut.” Wheeler’s assessment of the morning bite is accurate: 238 fish were recorded on SCORETRACKER in the first period; that total dropped to 203 and 195 in Periods 1 and 2.

Group B Up Next  The 40 anglers in Group B compete Wednesday in Shotgun Round 2. Based on Day 1 results, the Elimination Line will hover around 25 pounds, but and if weather forecasts are correct, Group B’s round could be even more of a smashfest than Day 1. “Day 2 is supposed to be a little overcast and maybe blowing a little bit, so I think we’ll have a little bit better conditions for fish to bite,” said Group B competitor Jeff Sprague.

Looking Ahead  The field will carry their Shotgun Round weights into the two Elimination Rounds on Thursday and Friday for the Elimination Rounds. The Top 20 anglers from each group will advance to the Knockout Round on Saturday. The Top 10 anglers in the Knockout Round will advance to the Championship Round on Sunday. 

How, Where, When to Watch  Competition begins daily at 6:30 a.m. CT, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! live stream starts at 9 a.m. CT, with live, on-the-water coverage continuing until lines out at 2:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show live stream will start at 4 p.m. daily. 

The Day’s Results

DAYTON, Tenn. (April 14, 2019) – From the moment he announced his intention to compete on the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour, Tennessee pro Andy Morgan was tabbed by his fellow competitors as an angler to watch. Based on both his exceptional 23-year career and his catch-every-fish-that-swims fishing style, Morgan came into the season as a near-universal pick by his contemporaries to take home one of the eight regular-season Bass Pro Tour trophies.  It turns out that Morgan’s first Bass Pro Tour trophy didn’t have far to travel: 7.1 miles from Lake Chickamauga to the trophy room in his home in Dayton.   Fishing a lake that he grew up on – and finishing the day in a pocket that he and his dad have won “a number of April tournaments in over the years” – Morgan weighed in 34 Lake Chickamauga largemouth for 80-0 pounds to run away with the Championship Round of the Econo Lodge Stage Four presented by Winn Grips.  “I wanted to win one more tournament on Chickamauga,” Morgan admitted. “I can’t explain how hard it is to win an event at this level, and I can’t explain just how bad I wanted to win right here in front of my family and friends – I wanted it bad. It means the world to me to be able to come out here on this lake where I won my first tournament when I was 15, fish against this bunch of guys, and get that trophy. I’m awful proud of it.”  Jared Lintner finished second with 60-7, Todd Faircloth was third with 59-5, Jacob Powroznik was fourth with 54-4 and Mike Iaconelli completed the Top 5 with 54-2.     

Morgan Committed to One Spot Early  Morgan fished Championship Sunday as one would expect a seasoned veteran to work his home fishery, committing his entire championship round to a long backwater north of Dayton that locals refer to as “The Branch”. Morgan woke up on Championship Sunday, looked at the weather forecast calling for heavy morning rain and afternoon winds, and knew immediately that he had an outstanding chance for a big day in two sloughs inside “The Branch”.   “As soon as I saw the weather, I knew that I wasn’t going to leave that area all day,” Morgan confirmed. “I was going to fish it all day long and figure it out, because I thought it had the best population of fish to work on. I knew it could all go down right in those two sloughs, and that I needed to just stay put and be patient.”  Morgan’s patience paid off. The Favorite Fishing pro worked his way around two areas he refers to as “Back Slough” and “Bus Slough” with a jig and Zoom Super Salt Plus Z Craw, a lipless crankbait and a vibrating jig, picking up 11 fish apiece in the first and second periods to claim and hold a 7-1 lead heading into the final period.    Jared Lintner, who spent a good part of his day sight fishing, had crept to within 2 pounds of Morgan midway through Period 2 and had located one spawner that he identified as “a double-digit fish.” But while Lintner added 11 fish to his SCORETRACKER™ total through the final 2 ½ hours of competition, eight of those were under 2 pounds; Morgan, meanwhile, connected with his two biggest fish of the day – a 5-7 and a 6-9 – and a 4-4 to gradually open up his lead.  “I had no other competitors in my area and the weather kept the local traffic out, so I had the whole place to myself,” Morgan said. “I’ve had some pretty special days on Chickamauga – I won my first Angler of the Year title on this lake – but today was the one day in my whole career where the deck was stacked for me to win.”  

 Morgan finished the week with 224-8, a record for weight caught in a Bass Pro Tour event. He and Lintner’s 106 fish caught is also a record.   

Lintner Made a Run at It  Lintner made things interesting through the first two periods, catching solid numbers of 1- to 3-pound males in an area in Soddy Creek that had been fished heavily throughout the week. The Aftco pro made a serious run at Morgan’s lead in the second period with a series of 3-pounders, but ultimately couldn’t convince a couple of big females to bite.  “I didn’t know if that area would replenish, or if the ones that were in there would bite again, but the winning fish were in that area,” Lintner said. “I saw a couple of fresh big ones that I thought were going to go, but they just weren’t ready to bite.” 

Bass Pro Tour Stage Four By the Numbers  

Total Weight                     7,415 pounds, 9 ounces     

Total Fish                         3,829 fish

5-plus pounds                  74 fish

6-plus pounds                  36 fish  

7-plus pounds                  17 fish    

Records Broken  

Total Event Weight            7,415 pounds, 9 ounces    

Total Event Fish Caught    3,829

Most Overall Weight          224 pounds, 8 (Andy Morgan)

Most Fish Caught              106 (Jared Lintner & Andy Morgan)

Two-Day Weight                105 pounds, 6 ounces (Zack Birge) 

Next Up on the Bass Pro Tour  The 80-man MLF Bass Pro Tour field will have a two-week break before returning to competition for Stage Five on Smith Lake in Cullman, Alabama, April 30 to May 5.

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

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

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

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

When, Where & How to Watch   Competition begins Saturday at 7:30 a.m. ET, with live, official scoring available via SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app. The MLF NOW! Live Stream starts at 10 a.m. ET, with live, on-the-water coverage and analysis provided by Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone and Natalie Dillon until lines out at 3:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show – hosted by Steven “Lurch” Scott – will start at 5 p.m. daily.