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3 Lures B. Lester Thinks Can Win the Classic
Brandon Lester is fishing his 6th Bassmaster Classic, and yet the super-likeable God-fearing family man from Tennessee doesn’t have a lure sponsor. So, there’s no bias, no sponsor-satisfying commercial slant to his opinion on three lures that could win the 51st Bassmaster Classic on Lake Ray Roberts.
“There’s a 70% chance this Classic will be won in less than 10-feet of water around flooded bushes, but there’s still a 30% chance a deep water post-spawn spot could play a major role too, so I’m giving you two shallow lures and one for the deep stuff,” says Lester on the eve of the 2001 Classic’s final practice day.
5/8-ounce jig – “This particular one is from Dirty Jigs and I dress it with a Zoom Big Salty Chunk. When you’re dealing with a crazy amount of flooded bushes and cover, you need a little heavier jig to cover more water. Plus, with 77-degree water I like my lure to fall a little faster, so I prefer a little heavier jig,” says the Team Toyota pro.
Big Creature Bait – “I truly believe a big creature bait gets bites from bigger fish. It’s one of my all-time favorites. It’s bulky, it’s invasive, and it looks like a lot of the prey bass eat — from bluegill to crawdads. I’ll rig it with a Mustad Grip Pin flippin’ hook and a 3/8-ounce Mustad tungsten weight on 25-pound Vicious fluorocarbon line, and cover a lot of water,” he says.
Deep crankbait – “This one is just to keep ‘em honest. Again, I’m not counting on deep schools to win, but I will check a couple spots I found in practice in that 12 to 18-feet deep zone, and a crankbait always seems to get bites from the bigger bass faster than dragging a jig or worm around,” concludes Lester.
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Arey’s Midseason Turnaround
Matt Arey is feeling good as he prepares for his second appearance in the Bassmaster Classic on Lake Ray Roberts here in the Lone Star State. The Team Toyota pro is coming off of four solid finishes on the Bassmaster Elite Series, including a top five finish a few weeks ago on Neely Henry and back-to-back checks here in Texas prior to that.
Arey is fishing well and mentally in tune, exactly how you’d hope to be feeling heading into the biggest event of the season. But if you had talked to Arey just a couple months ago you would have gotten a completely different impression.
“Just a few short months ago I felt a little lost out there on the water if I’m being honest,” Arey said. “I had two of the worst finishes of my career in Knoxville and at Pickwick and mentally I was just in a weird place. For the first time in years I found myself having doubts in practice and never felt quite right.”
After finishing a disappointing 72nd at Pickwick Lake, Arey said the only positive thought he could muster was getting home to see his wife and daughters.
As usual, Arey’s girls lifted his spirits and allowed him to focus on what he could do to bust the fishing downturn he’d been living in.
“We’ve all watched guys go through slumps but foolishly I think I believed I was too far in my career for it to happen to me,” the 14-year pro admitted. “Of course that’s not true. Slumps can happen to anyone at anytime and I’m convinced it’s about 95% mental. “
Heading into the Sabine River Elite Series event, a notoriously fickle and tough-to-crack fishery, Arey talked to his travel mates Scott Martin and Scott Canterbury to try and help himself out of his rut.
After consulting with several respected peers, Arey ultimately decided that for better or worse… he was just going to have to put his head down and fish his way through it.
“Gerald Swindle put a video up on his Instagram about losing and learning,” Arey recalled. “The video was for his fans, but I watched it and it hit home. I texted Swindle and told him thank you. Told him I needed to hear that video.”
It turns out a little R&R with family, time to reflect, and motivation from fellow anglers did the North Carolina family man a lot of good. Arey turned things around at the Sabine River with a solid 36th place finish, before backing it up with a top-20 result at the big bass factory of Lake Fork.
Arey has now fished well enough to work himself back in contention to qualify for his third Bassmaster Classic in 2022 and is riding some momentum into his second trip to the Super Bowl of bass fishing.
“I’m not going to tell you I’ve completely turned things around, the first part of this season proved to me just how fragile a fisherman’s brain can be,” Arey laughed. “But I’m fishing with confidence again and I feel like I’m moving in the right direction.”
Rough days on the water, bad tournaments, and slumps are bound to happen when it comes to bass fishing. Whether you’re a rookie or a seasoned tournament veteran, you are going to fail and leave the lake mad sometimes.
Instead of letting those shortcomings seethe and simmer in your head, learn a lesson from your failures, cut yourself some slack and keep moving forward.
“Don’t be afraid to reach out to your peers and simply fish way your way through it,” Arey offered. “It might take two weeks or it might take a year but if you keep your mind right and work hard, things will turn around. I think that’s true whether it’s fishing or we’re talking life.”
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Shin Fukae Wins Group B at Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Stage Four at Lake Chickamauga
DAYTON, Tenn. (June 6, 2021) – While most of the anglers on Lake Chickamauga were throwing standard summer-time Tennessee River baits – big crankbaits, big jigs, big worms and big spoons – Japanese pro Shinichi Fukae proved Monday that sometimes finesse is best. Fukae caught 24 scorable bass totaling 79 pounds, 6 ounces to win the two-day Qualifying Group B round at the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour B&W Trailer Hitches Stage Four Presented by ATG by Wrangler at Lake Chickamauga in Dayton, Tennessee.
Fukae’s two-day total of 37 bass weighing 114 pounds, 2 ounces earned him the round win by a 20-pound, 12-ounce margin and advances him straight into Wednesday’s final-day Championship Round of competition. The six-day showcases 80 of the best bass anglers in the world competing for a purse of more than $805,000, with a top prize of $100,000 going to the winner.
Day 1 leader General Tire pro Edwin Evers of Talala, Oklahoma, caught a two-day total of 30 bass weighing 93-6 to end the round in second place, and reigning REDCREST Champion Dustin Connell of Clanton, Alabama, finished the round in third place with a two-day total of 21 bass weighing 75-5.
The remaining 38 anglers – 19 from Group A and 19 from Group B – will now compete Tuesday in the Knockout Round, where weights are zeroed, and the anglers compete to finish in the top eight to advance to Championship Wednesday. Wednesday’s Championship Round will feature Group A winner Jason Lambert, Group B winner Fukae, and the top eight anglers from the Knockout Round competing in a final-day shootout for the top prize of $100,000.
“It was a little bit hard to catch (them) the first day, and I had no idea where I was going to start today,” Fukae said. “I chose this area in the morning, and that was the super-right decision for me. I caught 79 pounds and finally made a Championship Round. I am so happy for that and I am ready to go right now.”
Fukae has battled through plenty of adversity this week, not only on the water but off of it as well. His father-in-law passed away just a few days ago in Japan, and his wife Miyu, who has been by Shin’s side since he first came to the United States in 2004, is back in Japan mourning with her family.
“Thank you so much to my wife, for letting me fish,” an emotional Fukae said in his post-game interview. “She has been in a super-tough situation the last two or three days. I want to try to help her, but she told me to just concentrate on fish and don’t think about other things. But, of course, I can not do that. I worry a lot. I talked to her yesterday. She is so strong. My father-in-law helped me from the sky, today, and I thank him so much.”
According to the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard, the Japanese pro caught his fish on two main baits Monday – a Ned Rig and a soft-body swimbait. However, Fukae credited his Lowrance units as being the main reason that he had so much success, Monday.
“The most important thing for me, today, was my Lowrance ActiveTarget,” Fukae said. “I can see where the fish come from, what depths the fish are at, and that was the key to me making the Championship Round.
“I also used Shimano rods and Shimano reels, and YGK fishing line, the most famous braided line in the world,” Fukae went on to say. “I used their sinking braided line, which was very helpful because the wind was blowing hard and it made the line really drift a lot. So, the sinking line really helped me today.”
The top 20 pros in Qualifying Group B that now advance to Tuesday’s Knockout Round on Lake Chickamauga are:
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John Soukup Adds Another NPFL Trophy to the Case with the Win on the Harris Chain of Lakes.
“One thing people don’t know about me; I spent the last 13 years on a grass lake flipping like 4 days a week. This week I practiced offshore but I could never make it happen. By default, I went to the bank and it turns out the big ones like big weights.”
Big bass do like big weights and Soukup’s 7-pound, 6-ounce lunker anchored his second 20-pound bag in a row. Like other, Soukup employed a reaction style bite in the morning opting for a chatterbait to catch his fish. Once the sun came up, Soukup would pull out the big stick and go to work.
“I used my electronics to be my eyes under the water. I was punching a 1.5-ounce weight with a Big Bite Baits BFE Creature and a Trick Stick and a ¾-ounce weight to hit the edges of the Kissimmee grass. I was using 25-pound Sunline Meter fluorocarbon and the big fish just stop it, there is no bite. On Day two, I did catch two key fish and I tried the frog today for a little bit but I went back to the Denali 7’ 8” Denali IN 3 Series XH Flipping stick.”
With two wins now on the NPFL trail, Soukup proves he can win under any conditions. Utilizing his electronics helped seal his victory on Lake Eufaula and now this Florida win will keep Soukup within the top five in the Progressive AOY Standings with just three events remaining.
“I was fishing around guys in Big Harris all week and the key to getting the bigger bites flipping was understanding the fish and bait. When it was calm, you have to have needlefish and bluegills. If there was some chop, you had to be in an area with balls of shad. That’s where the electronics came in as I could see the bait fish. Every day I fished new water and rotated some of the better stretches.
I want to thanks The Bass Tank, XPress boats, Yamaha, Denali Rods, Sunline, Big Bite Baits, Spro, Gamkatsu Hooks, and Daiwa Reels and all of my sponsors.”
Jake Boomer
Jake Boomer began the day as the leader on the Harris Chain with 40-pounds, 7-ounces. With his limit of 13-pounds, 12-ounces, Boomer rotated between offshore and shallow bites to finish in 2nd place with a total of 54-pounds, 3-ounces. Boomer was reluctant to share too much information too soon despite leading both of the first two days. With a very specific game plan, any additional pressure on his sweet spot would have changed to protectory of the week.
“My biggest concern was that I was fishing an extremely popular area on a grass flat across from Johnson Point. They had sprayed most of the grass but I had located two smaller isolated patches that had not been sprayed. I would cast a crankbait around and check the grass that came back on the trebles. I could see how dense it was on the Humminbird 360 and there were some key fish there.”
Speaking of “key fish,” after only catching two 3-pounders in a few casts in practice. On day one, Boomer was able to wrangle a 6.5 and 4-pounder to anchor his first day catch. On day two, two more giants later in the day kept the Spokane Valley, WA angler in the top spot going into Showdown Saturday. Although day three yielded no more big bites on the grass flat, Boomer knows how important that sweet spot was for his tournament.
“I knew that spod had them but it got harder and harder every day. In practice it was easy to get bit, but each day it seemed like you had to be even more specific. I tried to keep it quiet cause one angler going through there and this event is way different for me. On day two, I got three bites, and I had to change the chatterbait or they wouldn’t eat it. I got one on a Strike King Thunder Cricket, one on a Jackhammer, and one on a Stealth Jackhammer. I only could get 2-3 bites a day and you had to have the perfect cast. You could tell they were smart and used to pressure. Those fish carried me for the event, and I wouldn’t have even had a shot without that grass bed.”
Boomer also rotated through flipping grass and had isolated brush piles as well. The pressure on those areas with lots of competitors and locals around, took its toll. After several guys watched him catch a 6.5-pounder on the second day, the leader never got another bite there the rest of the event.
“On the final day, the sun actually came out but we didn’t have the wind we were supposed to. I stuck with my ‘junkin’ plan and flipped with everyone else. I caught a 6-pounder flipping, it wasn’t on live, I caught it just after the stream went down and that was the $20,000 fish – it anchored my whole day. I fished behind guys all three days.”
Pressure on the Kissimmee grass also caught up with not only Boomer but several of the top ten guys. Boomer opted for a heavy weight and with lot of guys flipping senkos, he opted for a smaller bait – a Jaboom Baits Beaver Ballz.
“I didn’t name that bait to be clear,” laughed Boomer. “That smaller profile and bigger weight was key to getting some of those grass fish. I could see them up in the mats and the quick fall would trigger them. The other thing was, when you flipped in there, if you hit the grass, you may as well reel it up and move on. They were so smart but that last day I really needed a big bite and I caught that one.”
Boomer had two rods this week and both the chatterbait and flipping presentation were using his own Alpha Angler rods.
“I threw the chatterbaits on the Alpha Chatterbound 7’2” rod with a 7.0:1 reel and 20-pound P-Line fluorocarbon. The flipping deal was an Alpha Heavy Hitter, 7.5:1 reel, 50-pound Suffix Performance Braid and a ¾-ounce weight. It was an awesome week.”
Keith Carson
Starting the day in the 10th spot, Keith Carson added 16-pounds, 15-ounces to his total for a three-day total of 50-pounds, 4-ounces. Carson worked the shallows of the Harris Chain combining a flipping bite and topwater bite to finish in 3rd place.
“My plan coming into this event was to fish Kissimmee grass like a lot of guys but the wind blew and they just didn’t bite. I ended up leaving to find some calmer water and went to catch 12-pounds and survive and cut a check.”
Fishing pockets and creeks on the South end of Lake Harris, Carson mixed between flipping a Berkley Creature Hog and buzzing a Berkly Wind Up across shallow grass to catch his fish.
“That worm is kind of something different and it really fired them up. It’s a reaction bite compares to slower topwater baits and they have only a second to decide if they want to bite or not – they smash it. I had about 40 bites a day but only hooked 10 to 12 bass.”
With a low catch ratio comes lots of swings and misses. Carson will take it as his goal of 15-pounds a day this week tuned into almost 19-pounds on day one, 14.5-pounds on day two, and almost 17-pounds on day three.
“I kept rotating creeks every day and covering water. I was throwing that worm on a 7’ 6” Abu Garcia Fantasista with a high speed Revo Premier reel spooled with 40-pound Berkley X5 braid. It’s absolutely huge to have a top ten finish before headed to the Texas and Lake Lay Roberts to fish the Bassmaster Classic.”
Bryant Smith
With his lowest weight of the week, Bryan Smith caught 13-pounds, 6-ounces on the final day to finish the event in 4th place with a total weight of 5-pounds, 4-ounces. Utilizing a mix of techniques, Smith capitalized on his bites and fished his strengths this week for a top five finish.
“I fished the same area today and first thing this morning I got fortunate to pull up to fish busting shad. I picked up a Strike King swim jig and went to work around that Kissimmee grass. I caught 3 keepers quick and one good one.”
When the bite died, it was back to business with the crankbait. Smith spent all three days starting his morning covering water with a Strike King 1.5 squarebill crankbait. Targeting hard targets shallow, the Roseville, California pro would get a solid limit before getting back to the flipping bite.
“I was basically fishing docks, walls, and cypress trees with that crankbait and it was frustrating as you had to make multiple casts. Every now and then you could get one to get it but it was great to have that to start each day. I was able to finish my limit this morning on the crankbait but the flipping bite totally died on me.”
Smith opted to spend his event in Harris fishing shallow after the offshore bite yielded lots of small fish in practice.
“I do similar stuff on Clear Lake back home and I am just very comfortable with it. I tried fishing offshore but after catching only small fish, I opted to stay shallow all week. For the squarebill, I went with a bigger rod this week – a Dobyns Champion 764CB with 15-pound fluorocarbon. We are in the land of the giants and I wanted to have as much control over the bigger fish and that longer rod allowed me to do it.”
Nick Prvonozac
For the Progressive AOY Leader Nick Prvonozac, the first two days of competition will be easy to forget about. Weighing in bags of 14-pounds, 2-ounces and 13-pounds, 2-ounces, Prvonzac smashed 21-pounds, 12-ounces on the final day to finish the event in 5th place.
“The first day, I had 14-pounds but I lost two big ones and easily could have had 19-pounds. Day two, I fished the day stuff but I got in a bad rotation. I spoke to some other anglers who were fishing some of the same areas and it seems like they caught them before I got there.”
Third time is a charm, right? The Warren, Ohio pro kept his cool and went back to work on day three in a big way. Starting shallow with a chatterbait to begin each day, when the sun came up around 11AM, Prvonozac got to flipping and broke 20-pounds for the first time this week.
“Today, I did the exact same thing, same rotation, and I didn’t lose any fish. I stayed in Harris all week and was using the chatterbait and flipping a Yum Christie Craw. Today I had a 6-pounder, a 5-pounder, and another one that was around 4-pounds.”
With AOY on his mind, Prvonozac set a goal before the event and rallied in a big way to take some of the pressure off. After landing in the 20’s on the leaderboard after the first couple days, a big Showdown Saturday was an answered prayer.
“I was thinking about AOY for sure. I just wanted to stay within check range and not bomb. If you finish in the 50’s or 60’s against these guys, there is no way. I was thinking before the season that the top 20 in each event would probably get it done. This week, I prayed a lot and the lord blessed me. I am headed to Pickwick after the event and I’ll get to work again. I have a little history fishing offshore there and I am looking forward to it.”
David Gaston
David Gaston began the day in second place and adds 8-pounds, 5-ounces today for a three-day total of 48-pounds, 7-ounces to finish in 6th place. Although today was the slowest of all three days , Gaston is happy how the week played out.
“I was making the trip to Lake Griffen all week and it was about an hour. I scrapped my practice and went shallow to throw a frog. The first two days I had some chop on the water and those big fish just ate it. Today, I had one big bite and lost it, and ended with 5 rats. I anticipated a breeze today and when I got down there it didn’t blow at all. I am happy to finish where I did after practice.”
See the Full Leaderboard, here.
Best of the Rest:
7th Dale Prinkey 47-Pounds, 9-Ounces
8th Robby Frazier 47-Pounds, 9-Ounces
9th Bryan Tyler 47-Pounds, 6-Ounces
10th Joel Willert 46-Pounds, 11-Ounces
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Jason Lambert Earns Qualifying Round Win at Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Stage Four at Lake Chickamauga
DAYTON, Tenn. (June 6, 2021) – Pro Jason Lambert of Michie, Tennessee, overtook Day 1 leader Russ Lane of Prattville, Alabama , early in Period 1 Sunday and never looked back. Lambert boated 17 bass on the day totaling 60 pounds, 8 ounces, to win the Qualifying Round for Group A at the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour B&W Trailer Hitches Stage Four Presented by ATG by Wrangler at Lake Chickamauga in Dayton, Tennessee.
Lambert’s two-day total of 34 bass weighing 109 pounds, 13 ounces earned him the win by a 22-pound, 1-ounce margin over Lane, who finished the round in second place with a two-day catch of 26 bass totaling 77-12. The reigning Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) Berkley pro Jordan Lee of Cullman, Alabama, boated a two-day total of 20 bass weighing 73-13 to end the round in third place, while his brother, Matt Lee, also of Cullman, Alabama, finished in fourth place with a two-day total of 20 bass for 59-12. Rounding out the top five is Berkley pro Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Alabama, who caught a two-day total of 16 bass weighing 59-1.
The top 20 anglers from Group A will now enjoy an off day, while the 40 anglers in Qualifying Group B will complete their two-day Qualifying Round of competition on Monday. The Knockout Round, featuring 38 anglers competing to finish in the top eight, will take place on Tuesday. Wednesday’s Championship Round will feature Lambert, Monday’s Group B winner, and the top eight anglers from the Knockout Round competing in a final-day shootout for the top prize of $100,000.
“I was sitting in third coming in to today, and my objective was to go out and have a good first period,” said Lambert, who qualified for his first career Championship Round on the Bass Pro Tour. “If I did, I knew that I would have a good chance to win the round. That happened, we got ahead in the first period, and we never looked back.
“I ended up with a little more than 60 pounds today,” Lambert continued. “It wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be – especially in the afternoon – but this morning is what mattered. What was really cool for me, though, was catching them the way I want to catch them. Not only the way I want to catch them, but on the stuff that I’ve designed like the Hardcore (Bullet) Crank 7+, a crankbait that we worked very hard on to get put together just right, and the Kitana Stagger (Scrounger) Head with a (Castaic) Jerky J. Catching them the way you want to catch them, on the stuff you built to catch them, is really cool.”
With six career victories on the Tennessee River in MLF competition – two FLW Tour (now Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit) wins on Kentucky Lake, one Toyota Series win on Kentucky Lake and three Phoenix Bass Fishing League wins on Pickwick Lake – Lambert is known to be a tournament-closer on the ledges, and he will absolutely be one of the favorites heading into Wednesday’s Championship Round.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back out there for the Championship Round on Wednesday,” Lambert went on to say. “I’ve just got to go out there and catch them again. I think I’ve got just as good of a shot as anyone.”
The top 20 pros from Qualifying Group A that now advance to Tuesday’s Knockout Round on Lake Chickamauga are:
1st: Jason Lambert, Michie, Tenn., 34 bass, 109-13 – ADVANCES TO CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
2nd: Russ Lane, Prattville, Ala., 26 bass, 77-12
3rd: Jordan Lee, Cullman, Ala., 20 bass, 73-13
4th: Matt Lee, Cullman, Ala., 20 bass, 59-12
5th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 16 bass, 59-1
6th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 20 bass, 51-1
7th: Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., 16 bass, 51-0
8th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 19 bass, 50-14
9th: Mark Rose, Wynne, Ark., 14 bass, 50-12
10th: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 17 bass, 50-5
11th: Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., 14 bass, 48-15
12th: Cliff Pace, Petal, Miss., 16 bass, 48-9
13th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 18 bass, 47-6
14th: Roy Hawk, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 16 bass, 44-7
15th: Jesse Wiggins, Addison, Ala., 17 bass, 43-1
16th: Matt Becker, Finleyville, Pa., 12 bass, 42-13
17th: Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., 14 bass, 40-8
18th: Ish Monroe, Oakdale, Calif., 14 bass, 40-4
19th: Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., 14 bass, 35-13
20th: Scott Suggs, Alexander, Ark., 10 bass, 35-8
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
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