THE LATEST NEWS

Team Toyota’s Matt Arey was one of the last people to pull out of the boat ramp parking lot Tuesday night after concluding his second day of practice on Santee Cooper Lakes. The massive, predominately shallow fishery provides the playing field for the 7^th stop of the 2020 Bassmaster Elite Series Season here in Clarendon County, South Carolina.

Arey was doing a bit of head scratching as he re-tied and put away equipment in preparation for his final half day of practice. While he may live just over three hours from Santee Cooper, Arey was quick to admit he’s only fished these waters three times in his life, and they were all in April.

“The good news is, this is Santee Cooper, and some giant bass will be brought to the scales this week,” Arey offered. “The bad news is the big bites have been few and far between for me. But admittedly I’m usually in a deer stand this time of year, not hunting for big Santee bass. Maybe I am missing something.”

Santee Cooper may not have a special place in his heart just yet, but Arey does have three ladies in his life providing some extra incentive to make Saturday’s top 40 cut here in South Carolina.

“His girls”; a.k.a. wife Emily, and daughters Reese (8 years old) and Wren (3 years old). Their Shelby, North Carolina home is a reasonable drive away and they plan on making the trip south if he qualifies for the weekend cut.

Reese, Wren, and Emily made the drawing you see hanging in the center storage compartment of his Ranger Boat in the photo above. They draw one for him every year and while he takes the picture with him everyday on the water; there is nothing like having his family in town for a tournament.

“Those girls are my whole world,” Arey beamed. “I want to perform well here for all the obvious reasons like money and getting closer to the Classic, but a visit from my girls means every bit as much.”

Arey currently sits in 11^th place of the Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings, in great position to qualify for his second Bassmaster Classic in as many years, which was his number one goal starting the 2020 season.

But for now that long-term goal is being replaced with a short-term goal, so he can see his girls this weekend and keep a promise made to his 8-year old.

“My daughter Reese has been on me about wanting to autograph something,” Arey said with a laugh. “So I did what any Dad would do and asked her to sign my favorite hat (pictured above). She obliged and I promised her I’d wear it if I made the top 40 cut. I guess I have a lot of reasons to keep fishing through Saturday this week.”

Hopefully Arey catches enough weight throughout the first two days of competition it merits his girls piling into their Toyota Sequoia and heading south. Who knows, maybe Reese can even help her dad sign a few more autographs at the John C. Land III Sport Fishing Facility this weekend… her patented tiny heart included.

The post Three Reasons to Make Saturday’s Cut appeared first on Bass365.com.

KENNESAW, Ga. – Oct. 6, 2020 – Few anglers show more promise of a long and prosperous career than 26-year-old Wes Logan of Alabama. His wherewithal to buy a Yamaha V MAX SHO® outboard and sign up for the Power Pay contingency program was a strategically mature choice that has already produced returns.

Logan pitched and punched a Zoom® Z Craw Jr and a Missile Baits® D Bomb® on a 1.5-ounce Texas punch rig to finish fourth at the NOCO Bassmaster® Elite on Lake Guntersville and took home a $1,000 Power Pay bonus from Yamaha.

“I pushed running back to weigh-in to literally the last second. You can do that when you’re running a Yamaha. This outboard offers me reliability, hole shot and the opportunity to earn Power Pay bonuses. It wouldn’t make sense to buy anything else,” said Logan.

The great thing about the Yamaha Power Pay program is anglers don’t have to win tournaments to take home Power Pay cash. Anglers simply have to be the highest finishing registered participant in a Power Pay supported tournament. Power Pay is not just for bass anglers, it also includes saltwater, walleye, high school and college anglers through hundreds of events.

For more information, complete terms and conditions or to register for Yamaha Power Pay, visit yamahapowerpay.com or email Chip with questions at Chip@DynamicSponsorships.com.

Yamaha Marine products are marketed throughout the United States and around the world. Yamaha Marine Engine Systems, based in Kennesaw, Ga., supports its 2,000 U.S. dealers and boat builders with marketing, training and parts for Yamaha’s full line of products and strives to be the industry leader in reliability, technology and customer service. Yamaha Marine is the only outboard brand to have earned NMMA®’s C.S.I. Customer Satisfaction Index award every year since its inception. Visit www.yamahaoutboards.com.

This document contains many of Yamaha’s valuable trademarks. It may also contain trademarks belonging to other companies. Any references to other companies or their products are for identification purposes only, and are not intended to be an endorsement.

REMEMBER to always observe all applicable boating laws. Never drink and drive. Dress properly with a USCG-approved personal floatation device and protective gear.

© 2020 Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. All rights reserved.

The post Wes Logan Knows it Pays to Run a Yamaha Outboard appeared first on Bass365.com.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 3, 2020) – Pro Troy Morrow of Eastanollee, Georgia, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 9 pounds, 7 ounces to win the three-day Toyota Series at Lake Norman event in Huntersville, North Carolina. Morrow’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 32-3 earned him the win by a 4-ounce margin over second-place angler Todd Walters of Kernersville, North Carolina, and earned Morrow the top payout of $24,795 in the third and final tournament of the 2020 Toyota Series Eastern Division.

Morrow spent his practice graphing, humps, shoals and the deepest docks he could find. In all, he marked about 200 places that looked good. Each day during the tournament, Morrow hit between 30 and 40 places he had marked from practice and he rarely repeated water.

“In the old days I might only fish about 15 or 20 places per day, because I felt like I had to fish so slow and thoroughly,” Morrow said. “But with LiveScope I’m much more efficient. I can fish double the number of spots because if they’re not there, spooky, or not acting right, I just move on. Like, one thing I noticed immediately is if I caught a fish, a lot of the times the rest of the fish would leave. Knowing that kept me from wasting time on unproductive water.”

Morrow’s primary lure all week was a shaky head with a Zoom Finesse Worm on a 3-16-ounce Gambler Giggy Head instead of a drop-shot.

“They reacted to the shaky head much more positively than the drop-shot,” said Morrow. “I would watch them follow a drop-shot down and they just wouldn’t run it down like they would a shaky head. Sometimes they would even bite the shaky head on the way down and generally the bigger fish were more interested in the shaky head.”

In addition to the shaky head, Morrow also threw a 5/8-ounce Southern Hook Southern Spin underspin with a Zoom Boot Tail Fluke to single rocks and stumps as deep as 30 feet. A Carolina rig also claimed a couple of weigh fish as well.

Morrow’s win at Norman marks his fifth FLW win. He has also won two Phoenix Bass Fishing League Regional Championships and the All-American. But this is his first Toyota Series trophy.

“This feels good,” Morrow went on to say. “To come here and do my thing against these guys and win feels good. I’ve won at the BFL level several times but a win at this level has been a long time coming.”

The top 10 pros on Lake Norman finished:

            1^st:       Troy Morrow of Eastanollee, Ga., 15 bass, 32-3, $24,795

            2^nd:       Todd Walters of Kernersville, N.C., 15 bass, 31-15, $9,608

            3^rd:       Bryan Thrift of Shelby, N.C., 15 bass, 30-9, $7,438

            4^th:       Martin Villa of Charlottesville, Va., 15 bass, 29-8, $6,233

            5^th:       Jason Wilson of Lincolnton, N.C., 15 bass, 28-15, $5,579

            6^th:       David Williams of Maiden, N.C., 15 bass, 27-11, $5,493

            7^th:       Michael Stephens of Gastonia, N.C., 15 bass, 27-5, $4,339

            8^th:       Cole Huskins of Gastonia, N.C., 15 bass, 27-2, $3,919

            9^th:       Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., 13 bass, 25-1, $3,099

            10^th:     Cody Pike of Powhatan, Va., 12 bass, 21-11, $3,479

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

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

Derek Brown of Charlottesville, Virginia, won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 13 bass weighing 20 pounds, 9 ounces. Brown took home the top prize package of a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor.

The top 10 co-anglers on Lake Norman finished:

            1^st:       Derek Brown of Charlottesville, Va., 13 bass, 20-9, Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat w/115-hp outboard

            2^nd:       Neal Shade of Greenville, S.C., 13 bass, 19-15, $3,218

            3^rd:       Jeff Lederman of Powhatan, Va., 12 bass, 19-0, $2,574

            4^th:       Stanton Harris of State Road, N.C., 11 bass, 18-2, $2,252

            5^th:       Michael Miller of Greenville, S.C., 10 bass, 17-4, $1,977

            6^th:       Gary Haraguchi of Phoenix, Ariz., 10 bass, 15-13, $1,609

            7^th:       Todd Sosebee of Bessemer City, N.C., 10 bass, 15-1, $1,287

            8^th:       Rob Griswold of Lincolnton, N.C, eight bass, 14-11, $1,126

            9^th:       Donald West of Apex, N.C., seven bass, 11-7, $965

            10^th:     David Williams of Fredericksburg, Va., seven bass, 11-1, $804

The Toyota Series at Lake Norman was hosted by Visit Lake Norman, Charlotte & Mecklenburg County Park & Recreation. It was the third and final regular-season tournaments in 2020 for Eastern Division anglers. The next event for Toyota Series anglers will take place Oct. 8-10 – the Toyota Series at Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri. For a complete schedule, visit FLWFishing.com.

The 2020 Toyota Series consists of eight divisions – Central, Eastern, Northern, Plains, Southeastern, Southern, Southwestern and Western – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International division. Anglers who fish all three qualifiers in any of the eight divisions and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning $235,000 cash, including a $35,000 FLW PHOENIX Bonus for qualified anglers. The winning co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard. The 2020 Toyota Series Championship will be held Dec. 3-5 on Lake Cumberland in Burnside, Kentucky, and is hosted by the Somerset Tourist & Convention Commission and the Burnside Tourism Commission.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Toyota Series on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, FLW and its partners conduct more than 290 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Zimbabwe.

FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show while Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. Acquired by Major League Fishing in late 2019, FLW is expanding its programming in 2020 to the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel as well as on-demand at MyOutdoorTV (MOTV).

The post Eastanollee’s Morrow Wins Toyota Series Event on Lake Norman appeared first on Bass365.com.