THE LATEST NEWS
Cliff Crochet finds Florida bass in very shallow water
At the Heavy Hitters event, Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Anglers had their hands full tracking down Florida bass in the hot June weather. Cliff Crochet is no stranger to fishing for bass in the south, but even The Cajun Baby will admit Florida is a whole different ball game in the summer. The Pierre Part, Louisiana Pro has made a career out of shallow water power fishing, very few pro anglers are better at tracking them down in skinny water. However This is Florida, in June and even one of the best can be surprised just how shallow they may go. Check out how Cliff Crochet found the bass on Day one at Heavy Hitters.
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Brent Chapman looks to continue his hot season at Heavy Hitters in Florida
Going into the Major League Fishing Heavy Hitters event, Brent chapman found himself sitting second in overall points. With Big money for Big bass and the complexities of fishing Florida in June, can the Kansas Pro continue his hot hand on Lake Toho? Brent Chapman’s full Day One Heavy Hitters tournament recap.
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Wheeler Leads Day One of Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super-Tournament at Lake Chickamauga
DAYTON, Tenn. (June 23, 2020) – Major League Fishing (MLF) pro Jacob Wheeler of Harrison, Tennessee, crossed the weigh-in stage Tuesday with a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 9 ounces to lead day one of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super-Tournament at Lake Chickamauga in Dayton, Tennessee. Wheeler now holds a 1-pound, 3-ounce lead in the $1.3 million tournament that features 204 anglers competing from FLW and MLF
“In these ledge tournaments, during practice you just graph and graph and find groups of fish, then on the first day of the tournament you kind of figure out what you have got,” said the 29-year-old Wheeler, who has career earnings of more than $2 million. “I hit 30 or 40 spots today, and I didn’t catch a ton of fish but I caught a decent number and was able to put together a solid bag. It was a good day.”
Wheeler said that he caught his fish in a mixture of areas. Of the five bass that he weighed in, two came offshore and three out of shallow grass.
“I had around 20 rods on the deck ready to roll today,” Wheeler said. “I caught them on two or three baits out deep and two or three different baits shallow. It was not one bait. I think this week it’s going to take a little bit of everything – a hodge-podge deal – to do well. I’m just trying to stay consistent and average about 20 pounds a day.
“It feels good to be back out on the home pond and back where I started,” Wheeler went on to say. “Even though I’m a transplant and I just moved here three years ago, I’ve been fishing this lake since I was three years old and I just seem to gel with it. But I also know that some days it leaves you scratching your head. We’ve got three more days and there is a lot of fishing left to do.”
The top 10 pros after day one on Lake Chickamauga are:
1st: Jacob Wheeler of Harrison, Tenn., five bass, 24-9
2nd: John Cox of DeBary, Fla., five bass, 23-6
3rd: Jason Reyes of Huffman, Texas, five bass, 22-10
4th: Lendell Martin Jr. of Nacogdoches, Texas, five bass, 21-9
5th: Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Ala., five bass, 20-3
6th: Joshua Weaver of Macon, Ga., five bass, 19-14
7th: Christopher Brasher of Longview, Texas, five bass, 18-12
8th: Ron Nelson of Berrien Springs, Mich., five bass, 18-8
9th: Kyle Cortiana of Coweta, Okla., five bass, 18-7
9th: Tom Monsoor of La Crosse, Wis., five bass, 18-7
For a full list of results visit FLWFishing.com.
Martin won the day’s $500 Berkley Big Bass award in the pro division after bringing a largemouth weighing 9 pounds, 8 ounces to the scale.
Overall there were 959 bass weighing 2,565 pounds, 8 ounces caught by 203 pros Tuesday. The catch included 173 five-bass limits.
The Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit at Lake Chickamauga is hosted by Fish Dayton and the Rhea Economic & Tourism Council.
In Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super-Tournament competition, the full field of 204 pro anglers compete in the two-day opening round on Tuesday and Wednesday. The top 50 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advance to Thursday. Only the top 10 pros continue competition on Championship Friday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition.
FLW anglers are vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the Tackle Warehouse FLW TITLE presented by Toyota, the Pro Circuit championship. The 2020 Tackle Warehouse FLW TITLE presented by Toyota will be held on the St. Lawrence River in Massena, New York, Aug. 24-29.
MLF pros competing in the Pro Circuit “Super Tournaments” will fish for prize money only. No points will be awarded toward any championship or title to MLF competitors. Only the original Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit anglers will compete for the AOY title throughout the remainder of the season. AOY points in the final events will be awarded based on Pro Circuit anglers finishing order. The top-finishing FLW pro will receive “first-place points” regardless of where he finishes in the overall standings, and so on.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 a.m. EDT each day from Point Park at Dayton Boat Dock, located at 185 Chickamauga Drive, in Dayton. The weigh-in each day will also be held at Dayton Boat Dock and will begin at 3 p.m. To minimize the spread of COVID-19, attendance is limited to competing anglers and essential staff only. Fans are encouraged to forgo the daily takeoffs and weigh-ins and follow the event online through the expanded “FLW Live” broadcasts and weigh-in coverage at FLWFishing.com.
Television coverage of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit at Lake Chickamauga will premiere at 7 p.m. EDT, Aug. 14 on the Outdoor Channel. Beginning July 3 and running through Dec. 27, FLW will air 312 hours of Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit action on the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel. Episodes have been expanded to two hours long, allowing each show to go in-depth to break down the final rounds of regular-season competition. Each episode will premiere in Friday night primetime slots on the Outdoor Channel, with additional re-airings on the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel.
The popular FLW Live on-the-water broadcast has been expanded to air on all four days of competition, featuring live action from the boats of the tournament’s top pros each day. Host Travis Moran is joined by Toyota Series pro Todd Hollowell and MLF’s Marty Stone to break down the extended action each day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. On-the-water broadcasts will be live streamed on FLWFishing.com, the FLW YouTube channel and the FLW Facebook page.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit 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).
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How did you make a Living Before PRO Fishing?
Bass 365 caught up with MLF Bass Pro Tour anglers, at the Heavy hitters event in Kissimmee Florida. We asked the question “What did you do BEFORE going Pro?” How did these Pro anglers earn their living before full time fishing? The answers might not be what you expect!
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Huge Bag Lifts Jones To Bassmaster Central Open Win On Arkansas River
MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Chris Jones knew he had his work cut out for him, but he stuck to what he knows best and overcame a significant deficit to win the Basspro.com Bassmaster Central Open on the Arkansas River with a three-day total of 42 pounds, 13 ounces.
Chris Jones, of Bokoshe, Okla., wins the Basspro.com Bassmaster Central Open at Arkansas River with 42 pounds, 13 ounces.
Photo by James Overstreet/B.A.S.S.
Starting Championship Saturday in eighth place, Jones’ biggest decision was whether to stay local or make the long run downriver to the Kerr Lake Pool. The latter option requires locking, which greatly diminishes a competitor’s fishing time, but this fertile reservoir’s renowned fish population often justifies the sacrifice.
After drawing the last flight on Day 1, the pro from Bokoshe, Okla., fished Kerr and placed 17th with 12-10. The next day’s reversed checkout order gave him a shorter day, so he stayed in local waters and secured a final-round spot after adding 11-3.
Championship Saturday allowed him a longer fishing day, so he returned to Kerr and locked up the win by adding a 19-pound limit — the tournament’s second-largest behind Keith Poche’s 19-5 on Day 2.
“I knew the wind was going to blow today, I knew a front was coming and I knew there was a chance to catch a giant bag [in Kerr] and I just wanted that chance,” said Jones, who earned $45,300. “I knew I was 4 pounds behind [Day 2 leader] Dale Hightower, so I knew I had to go.
“I really should have [weighed in] 24 to 25 pounds. I weighed two little fish today, but I broke my rod on a big one and lost her and had another one tied up in some grass that came off. But it was just one of those magical days. Things have to go right for you to win and it happened today.”
Although he weighed a couple of fish on a YUM Bad Mamma that he Texas-rigged on a 4/0 Owner Beast hook with a 1/4-ounce weight, Jones did most of his work with a prototype Booyah swim jig set for release in July. Targeting water willow, he fished the 3/8-ounce black/blue bait with a 3.25-inch YUM Craw Chunk trailer in black neon.
“I did what I’ve always learned to do on this river — swim a jig, swim it some more and whenever they aren’t biting, you swim it some more,” Jones said. “I had my trolling motor on 70 or 80 and we just went.”
After two days of mostly sunny conditions, Championship Saturday brought dim, overcast conditions, which favored Jones’ game plan. While fish tend to tuck into cover in brighter conditions, they’re more active throughout the low light periods.
“I’ve been waiting on this cloud cover to get here for two days and it finally showed up,” Jones said.
John Garrett of Union City, Tenn., finished second with 42-7. Garrett finished 6 ounces short of the win after self-reporting a rules violation. After catching his sixth fish, he continued fishing without culling. Tournament rules stipulate that an angler cannot continue fishing with more than five fish in the livewell.
The gaff resulted in a 2-pound penalty.
“I made a mistake, but I could not have asked for a better day,” Garrett said of his strongest performance this week. “Today, I was either going to go to Kerr and swim a jig in grass or stay [local] and try to catch release fish. I fished for about an hour and a half and hit a magic stretch where all those fish had pulled up.
“All my fish this week came on a Texas-rigged Strike King Rage Bug with a 3/8- or a 1/2-ounce Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten weight. Out here in the clear water, I was throwing green pumpkin and in Spaniard Creek, I was throwing black/blue. I got good bites and got a lot of bites.”
Hightower added 13-12 to his previous weights of 13-1 and 15-0 and finished with 41-13. Foregoing the run to Kerr in favor of maximum fishing time, the Bassmaster Elite pro from Mannford, Okla., fished about half a mile from takeoff and meticulously worked shallow wood cover with a 7-inch YUM blue fleck worm with a 1/4-ounce Wicked Weights sinker and a Sixgill straight-shank hook.
“I just fished back and forth, up and down stretches, throwing at laydowns,” Hightower said. “I had a little flurry on the spot I fished yesterday, but they just seemed to all be the same size — little cookie-cutters. But I moved around a little bit and picked up a couple of good fish later in the day after I moved across the river.”
Scott Pellegrin of Chippewa Falls, Wisc., won the Phoenix Boats Big Bass award with his 5-13 largemouth, which he caught on Day 2.
William Young of Livingston, Texas, won the co-angler division with 21-6. He caught his winning fish on a Texas-rigged green pumpkin Zoom Baby Brush Hog with the tails dyed chartreuse.
“I flipped every piece of wood I could get to and capitalized on my bites,” Young said. “My boater and I caught fish from 6 inches of water to 2 feet. I caught more fish today than the whole time I’ve been here. It was a great day.”
Young also won the Phoenix Boats Big Bass award among co-anglers with a 5-2 largemouth, which he caught in the final round.
The event is hosted by Visit Muskogee and Three Forks Harbor.
2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Series Title Sponsor: Basspro.com
2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Series Premier Sponsors: Abu Garcia, Berkley, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Skeeter Boats, Talon, Yamaha
2020 Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Series Supporting Sponsors: Bass Pro Shops, Carhartt, Garmin, Huk Performance Fishing, Mossy Oak Fishing, Rapala
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 515,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2 and The Pursuit Channel), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For more than 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Basspro.com Bassmaster Opens Series, TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Series, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors, Bassmaster Team Championship, new Huk Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX presented by Abu Garcia and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic.
2020 Basspro.com Central Open at Arkansas River 6/18-6/20
Arkansas River, Muskogee OK.
(BOATER) Standings Day 3
Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$
1. Chris Jones Bokoshe, OK 15 42-13 200 $45,300.00
Day 1: 5 12-10 Day 2: 5 11-03 Day 3: 5 19-00
2. John Garrett Union City, TN 15 42-07 199 $21,760.00
Day 1: 5 15-00 Day 2: 5 11-12 Day 3: 5 15-11
3. Dale Hightower Mannford, OK 15 41-13 198 $15,360.00
Day 1: 5 15-00 Day 2: 5 13-01 Day 3: 5 13-12
4. Lee Livesay Gladewater, TX 15 41-04 197 $12,800.00
Day 1: 5 13-11 Day 2: 5 12-03 Day 3: 5 15-06
5. Cody Huff Ava, MO 15 37-03 196 $11,136.00
Day 1: 5 12-06 Day 2: 5 13-14 Day 3: 5 10-15
6. Stephen Browning Hot Springs, AR 14 36-15 195 $10,240.00
Day 1: 4 11-15 Day 2: 5 12-04 Day 3: 5 12-12
7. Brandon Palaniuk Rathdrum, ID 14 35-15 194 $9,600.00
Day 1: 4 09-03 Day 2: 5 13-08 Day 3: 5 13-04
8. Caleb Gibson Locust Grove, OK 13 35-13 193 $8,960.00
Day 1: 5 14-12 Day 2: 3 09-04 Day 3: 5 11-13
9. Justin Margraves Diana, TX 14 33-09 192 $7,040.00
Day 1: 5 11-09 Day 2: 4 13-03 Day 3: 5 08-13
10. Spike Stoker Stephenville, TX 14 32-11 191 $5,760.00
Day 1: 5 11-09 Day 2: 5 11-06 Day 3: 4 09-12
11. Mark Watson Midlothian, TX 10 31-01 190 $5,120.00
Day 1: 4 13-14 Day 2: 3 08-06 Day 3: 3 08-13
12. Paul Browning Pecos, TX 10 25-13 189 $4,480.00
Day 1: 4 08-08 Day 2: 4 13-11 Day 3: 2 03-10
———————————————————————–
PHOENIX BOATS BIG BASS
Scott Pellegrin Chippewa Falls, WI 05-13 $750.00
———————————————————————–
Totals
Day #Limits #Fish Weight
1 40 487 1134-08
2 29 410 988-08
3 9 54 143-09
———————————-
78 951 2266-09
2020 Basspro.com Central Open at Arkansas River 6/18-6/20
Arkansas River, Muskogee OK.
(NON_BOATER) Standings Day 3
Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$
1. William Young Livingston, TX 6 21-06 200 $18,383.00
Day 1: 3 10-11 Day 2: 0 00-00 Day 3: 3 10-11
2. Cameron Naquin Gray, LA 7 19-04 199 $4,267.00
Day 1: 1 02-03 Day 2: 3 07-06 Day 3: 3 09-11
3. Connor Rushing Pride, LA 8 17-09 198 $3,200.00
Day 1: 3 08-09 Day 2: 2 03-02 Day 3: 3 05-14
4. Joseph Shaw Madison, WI 6 16-12 197 $2,400.00
Day 1: 1 04-00 Day 2: 3 08-04 Day 3: 2 04-08
5. Steven Hatch Long Beach, MS 6 16-02 196 $2,240.00
Day 1: 2 05-01 Day 2: 3 07-04 Day 3: 1 03-13
6. Leroy Mcdonald Jr Blanchard, OK 8 16-01 195 $2,133.00
Day 1: 2 04-08 Day 2: 3 05-01 Day 3: 3 06-08
7. David Gibson Red Oak, TX 7 15-10 194 $2,027.00
Day 1: 2 05-08 Day 2: 3 06-08 Day 3: 2 03-10
8. Albert Hudson Austin, TX 6 15-08 193 $1,920.00
Day 1: 3 06-15 Day 2: 2 06-05 Day 3: 1 02-04
9. Michael Leach Conroe, TX 7 14-03 192 $1,760.00
Day 1: 2 03-09 Day 2: 3 07-00 Day 3: 2 03-10
10. James Boyett Mountain Home, AR 5 12-09 191 $1,600.00
Day 1: 3 06-09 Day 2: 1 03-04 Day 3: 1 02-12
11. Robert Paxton Jr Flower Mound, TX 6 11-14 190 $1,493.00
Day 1: 2 05-04 Day 2: 3 04-12 Day 3: 1 01-14
12. David Booth Erin, TN 4 09-15 189 $1,387.00
Day 1: 1 02-05 Day 2: 3 07-10 Day 3: 0 00-00
———————————————————————–
PHOENIX BOATS BIG BASS
William Young Livingston, TX 05-02 $250.00
———————————————————————–
Totals
Day #Limits #Fish Weight
1 20 167 379-13
2 16 118 261-05
3 4 22 55-03
———————————-
40 307 696-05
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