THE LATEST NEWS
MLF Announces Additional Details of 2019 Expansion
TULSA, Okla. (Sept. 21, 2018) – After the initial announcement of the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour last week, league officials today announced additional details of the tour, including industry-leading media exposure with more than 850 hours of television coverage and 350 hours of live streaming, angler leadership in the series, and payouts of nearly $10 million that have never before been seen in the professional bass fishing industry.
“Our league and sponsor partners have made a significant investment to make sure that the decision to fish with Major League Fishing in 2019 was an easy one for anglers,” Jim Wilburn, president and CEO of MLF, said. “With these payout amounts combined with our more than 850 hours of television programming across six networks and support for anglers at every level of the business, we believe our angler-centric business model is one that will resonate with anglers and sponsors.”
“Nothing can match the amount of media coverage and exposure these 80 anglers will enjoy in the coming years across multiple networks,” Wilburn said. “We expect massive growth across the entire industry as a result of these positive changes for all anglers, sponsors and fans.”
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MLF and PBTAA co-founder Boyd Duckett has been instrumental in guiding the development of the new league expansions that he says will put anglers in control of their own destiny and sets a precedent for the sport of fishing that will benefit generations to come. (Click to enlarge/download)
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About Major League Fishing
Developed through a joint effort between Outdoor Channel and the PBT anglers in 2011, Major League Fishing brings the high-intensity sport of competitive bass fishing into America’s living rooms in the form of riveting two-hour TV episodes. World-class anglers are filmed over the course of a six-day event. The show captures their efforts as they utilize a demanding format that allows them to weigh all the “scorable bass” they catch. Unlike other competitive fishing events, live leaderboards in the boats allow anglers to know their standings at all times. For more information about the game, visit www.majorleaguefishing.com and follow Major League Fishing on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. You can catch all current and past episodes of Major League Fishing on My Outdoor TV, the world’s leading outdoor television content platform.
Outdoor Sportsman Group is comprised of the world’s foremost media and entertainment brands for outdoor adventure enthusiasts. It includes three leading multichannel networks: Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and World Fishing Network, as well as MOTV, the world’s leading outdoor television content platform. The Group also consists of a number of established integrated media assets: 15 outdoor magazines including Guns & Ammo, Petersen’s Bowhunting and Florida Sportsman, and 19 top websites, including BassFan.com. Additionally, Outdoor Sportsman Group includes television production operations, Winnercomm. For more information, visit www.outdoorsg.com. #MyOutdoorTV
Lucas One Step Away From Raising Coveted Bassmaster AOY Championship Trophy
HIAWASSEE, Ga. — Justin Lucas needed two things this week to ensure an easy path to winning the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship.
First, he needed to catch enough bass to simply maintain the first-place lead he brought with him in the regular-season AOY standings. He’s done that easily with 10 bass that weighed 27 pounds, 2 ounces the first two rounds, including a catch of 13-12 on Friday.
Lucas also needed Josh Bertrand, his good friend and closest competition in the AOY standings, to struggle. That’s happened as well, with Bertrand landing only two fish the first round and now resting in 43rd place in the weekly standings with a two-day weight of 15-13.
It’s never over until it’s over. But as Lucas now holds a gigantic 47-point lead in the standings with only one day left to fish, the race is certainly creeping in that direction.
“We have one more day, and I need to go out and catch maybe 8 pounds to lock it up,” said Lucas, who admits he’s been losing sleep over the idea of winning the AOY trophy and the $100,000 bonus that goes with it. “It may not even take 8 pounds, but I haven’t reached the point where I feel like I can let up.”
Lucas said he caught his bass in completely different areas Friday.
“Stuff that I hit yesterday, I don’t know if the timing was off or what, but those places just weren’t good today,” he said. “So I just mixed up the timing a little today, and things worked out fine.
“The key for me was getting away from all of the boat traffic. When I’m in a calm area, I can catch a fish because I have an exact cast I need to make to catch a bass.”
Though the tournament won’t conclude until Sunday, Lucas was very open about the bait he’s using. It’s a Berkley Cane Walker, one of several new topwater baits recently unveiled by the company.
“It just came out this week,” he said. “It’s all chrome, and that’s just a really good color when it’s sunny and calm. It has a lot of flash to it. I can cast it a mile, and it comes with great hooks right out of the box.
“It’s loud and it spits a lot of water. On a long cast, all of that stuff works together.”
While Lucas was tightening his hold on the AOY Championship, James Elam was putting himself in position for a wire-to-wire victory in this week’s tournament. After taking the individual lead on Day 1 with 16-10, the Oklahoma pro remained consistent with 16-14 and now leads with a two-day total of 33-8.
His closest competitor is Tennessee pro Jacob Wheeler, who is second with 31-5 after catching 16-5 on Day 2. The heaviest three-day weight this week will earn $25,000 and one of the coveted blue trophies that is awarded to every Elite Series winner.
The anglers will take Saturday away from the lake for the Elite Expo at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds. The Expo, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday, will include demo rides, the latest from Toyota, the Berkley Experience trailer with its live aquarium and more.
All 50 of the Bassmaster Elite Series AOY contenders will attend the Expo before heading back to Lake Chatuge Sunday to decide the AOY season champion and the tournament winner.
Sunday’s takeoff will be at 7:10 a.m. ET from Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds, with the final weigh-in back at the Fairgrounds at 3:30 p.m.
2018 Bassmaster Elite Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2018 Bassmaster Elite Series Premier Sponsors: Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Skeeter Boats, Triton Boats, Yamaha, Abu Garcia, Berkley, Huk, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota
2018 Bassmaster Elite Series Supporting Sponsors: T-H Marine, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Carhartt, Livingston Lures, Lowrance, Phoenix Boats
2018 Bassmaster Elite Series Elite Partner: Black Velvet
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 500,000-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), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For 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, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation Series presented by Magellan Outdoors, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.
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Swindle Talks Fishing and Football Friday morning at Lake Chatuge
Gerald Swindle is professional bass fishing’s funniest man, and one of only 11 men in history to win the prestigious Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year points title more than once. Swindle is also a former 3-sport athlete from Locust Fork High School in Alabama, and he took time just before blast-off Friday morning to talk bass fishing and football.
Q: As a professional angler, you’re your own head coach and quarterback on the water. What was your best ‘play call’ yesterday?
Swindle: I’d say it was my decision to keep moving around as much as possible on this little 7,000-acre reservoir. Not staying in one spot very long.
Q: When it comes to rods, reels, and lures – who were your most valuable players on Day 1?
Swindle: A Quantum Smoke HD baitcasting reel with a large spool full of 30-pound braided line to help me cast a Rapala topwater walking bait a long way, and a Shaky Head on a Quantum 6’ 10” Vapor spinning rod were my two star players yesterday.
Q: September is one of the toughest months of the year for bass anglers throughout much of the Southern U.S. – give fans some advice on how to beat bass fishing’s “September Blues.”
Swindle: No matter how hot the weather may be during the day, just remember, the nights are getting cooler, and that means there’s always going to be a few more bass moving shallow each day. So don’t give up on the shallow bite, and also expect to take advantage of schooling fish with a topwater in September too.
Q: You started fishing about half-a-football field away from the official tournament launch ramp yesterday, will you start there again today?
Swindle: Yep, because I know that a lot of local tournaments release bass from this ramp, so I’m not ashamed to fish for bass that have already been caught, I’m just putting myself in a high-percentage patch of water to start the day.
Q: What was your best position as a high school football player for the Locust Fork Hornets?
Swindle: I played a little bit of everything, but cornerback was probably my best position.
Q: Will the Alabama Crimson Tide go undefeated this season, and win another National Championship?
Swindle: Yes.
Q: Baker Mayfield helped the Cleveland Browns get their first win in 635 days last night. What do you think about that?
Swindle: Yea, I saw that, but I’m still not a Mayfield fan.
Hackney: “You Can Tell Chatuge is a Fishy Place.”
Quantum pro Greg Hackney has every reason to be emotionally rattled to begin competition at the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship today.
His father passed away unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. They were very close friends. And on top of that sadness, Hackney finds himself fighting to make the Bassmaster Classic. He needs a really good finish at Chatuge to assure himself a place in pro bass fishing’s biggest dance next spring.
But the Louisiana pro with auger-like eyes and intimidating confidence is not shaken or stirred. In fact, he’s embracing this little 7,000-acre reservoir with more enthusiasm than most, and celebrating the fact it “fishes way larger” that it looks.
“Here the deal, if you think about it, everybody gets about 2-acres of water to make their first cast into this morning, so that leaves me about 6,900 other acres to go to work in,” reasons Hackney.
“I mean look, to be honest, last year there were 50 of us on 132,000 massive acres at Lake Mille Lacs, Minnesota, and yet there were 25 of us all trying to fish the same small rocky under water bar. But here at Chatuge there’s way more good stuff to fish in my mind,” says Hackney.
“I mean this place has all kind of little creek arms, coves, boat docks, clay points, rocky points, underwater brushpiles, and there’s tons of baitfish living in water from 6” to 60 feet deep – it doesn’t take three days of practice to figure out this is a fishy place,” says the devoted family man, and father of four.
Should anybody doubt there’s plenty of fishable habitat, look no further than the front deck of Hackney’s Phoenix boat where 11 different lures were tied to a mix of both Quantum spinning and baitcasting units.
“It’s obviously going to be kind of a “junk fishing” pattern for me, but also, I think this will be a week to be an opportunist. What I mean by that is, you may be pitching a jig shallow, and all of the sudden fish start busting shad on the surface behind you, so you turn around and take advantage of that unexpected opportunity,” he explains.
By no means is Hackney too naïve to realize this pack of 50 fish-catchin animals hasn’t looked under every proverbial rock in this 7,000 acre pond in search of something different, but his ultra common sense logic dictates that no matter how small Chatuge may be – 50 guys can’t cover it all.
“We know one thing for sure – when I make that first cast today, it will be into a patch of water where nobody else has fished this morning,” concluded the always intimidatingly cool Hackney, even at a time when life has been saturated with unexpected loss and struggle in recent days.
KVD and Casey Ashley Offer Sneak Peek of Lake Chatuge
Two of professional bass fishing’s kindest characters and good friends offer a pre-game look at what to expect at the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship on Lake Chatuge in the mountains of North Georgia.
Q: What will be the biggest challenge to success this week on Lake Chatuge?
Kevin: Consistency from day to day. Fans can expect a lot of flip-flopping on the leaderboard.
Casey: Figuring out something different that everybody else isn’t doing to catch quality fish. Like, everybody knows they’re schooling on topwaters, but what can you do to catch better quality fish right behind a guy on the same patch of water? Plus, it’s fall, so fish are chasing bait, and that scatters them.
Q: What percentage of Day 1 do you expect to be fishing with a Quantum spinning rod/reel?
Kevin: It’ll be about 50/50, spinning and baitcasting.
Casey: I’ll say 40% spinning.
Q: Lake Chatuge is “postcard pretty” – a clean, fairly clear water reservoir, surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Name two other bodies of water you’ve competed on that rival the beauty of Lake Chatuge.
Kevin: Smith Mountain Lake, VA and Thousand Islands, NY.
Casey: Smith Mountain Lake, VA and Clear Lake, CA.
Q: Name four lures the Elite Series field will throw a lot this week on Chatuge.
Kevin: Topwater, swimbait, drop shot, and a shaky head.
Casey: A Spook, a Fluke, drop shot, and a shaky head.
Q: What Elite Series anglers should fans have on their fantasy fishing team this week?
Kevin: Ott DeFoe, Andy Montgomery, Justin Lucas, and Josh Bertrand
Casey: Justin Lucas because he’s on fire and is a great finesse angler, Aaron Martens because he’s one of the greatest finesse anglers that’s ever lived, and Swindle for his junk fishing skills.