MLF pro Bobby Lane topped the Knockout Round with 60 scoreable bass totaling 95-4 to lead the 10 anglers heading into Wednesday's Championship Round on Missouri's Table Rock Lake.

MLF pro Bobby Lane topped the Knockout Round with 60 scoreable bass totaling 95-4 to lead the 10 anglers heading into Wednesday's Championship Round on Missouri's Table Rock Lake.

The only things that could shut down the Table Rock Lake bite for Major League Fishing® (MLF) pro Bobby Lane were Mother Nature and sundown. The Florida pro would probably still be catching Ozark Mountains bass at a record pace if impending darkness didn't finally end competition at the Bass Pro Tour Berkley Stage Six Presented by TrueTimber.

Despite nearly five hours of delays in competition due to heavy wind, rain and lightning, Lane finished the Knockout Round with 95 pounds, 4 ounces, obliterating the existing Knockout Round weight record of 67-14 and breaking the single-day weight record of 89-5 set by Josh Bertrand just three days ago. Lane also established a new record for scoreable bass for the day with 60.

"It's almost ridiculous to think that I caught 60 fish for over 95 pounds," Lane joked as he started his tackle prep for Wednesday's Championship Round. "I caught 'em and caught 'em and caught 'em like there was no end. I'm not sure it's quite sunk in yet, but what a cool record to break."

Lane's performance secured him a spot in his first 10-angler Championship Round of the 2019 season. 

Working Through the Weather

The morning looked like it would belong to Andy Montgomery. Taking advantage of the shad spawn and a fierce spotted bass bite brought on by the approaching storm front, Montgomery connected with 31 fish in Period 1 for 47-5. That was part of a period in which 480 fish hit SCORETRACKER® for 782-5 (both Bass Pro Tour records). 

Defoe is Latest Record Breaker as He Dominates Elimination Round on Table Rock!

(Left to right) MLF pros Alton Jones Jr. (fifth place), Josh Bertrand (second), Ott DeFoe (first), and Cody Meyer (third) wrapped up their Elimination Round in style and will be heading to Tuesday's Knockout Round. 

Another day, another record at the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Berkley Stage Six Presented by TrueTimber on Table Rock Lake.
  

Ott DeFoe pushed his two-day weight total to 133 pounds thanks to 54-14 in today's Group B Elimination Round, and while that fell just short of Cliff Pace's record of 134-11 from the day before, DeFoe was still able to mint a new record with 91 bass caught during his Shotgun and Elimination rounds.

MLF NOW! live stream analyst Marty Stone summed up the week perfectly in the waning moments of the broadcast: "It wouldn't be a day at Table Rock if we didn't break a record."

It has become the story during the Shotgun and Elimination Rounds, and both the Knockout and Championship Round records are likely to fall in the next two days if the weather cooperates.

The fishing today slowed down for many in the field, but it was still excellent. It seems Table Rock Lake has set the bar high and even 951 scoreable bass seems like a downturn, which sounds absurd.

Records Continue to Fall During Elimination Round at Table Rock Bass Pro Tour Stage Six

MLF pro Gary Klein was one of 15 anglers who snatched 100 pounds
 or more in two rounds at the Bass Pro Tour

Three days into competition at the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Berkley Stage Six presented by TrueTimber, we're starting to run out of superlatives to describe the bite at Table Rock Lake. Choose your favorite - "stellar" and "outstanding" fit - but "record breaking" is still the most accurate.

Cliff Pace became the most recent record breaker, putting 38 fish on SCORETRACKER® for 60 pounds, 1 ounce on the day, giving the Mississippi pro a two-day total of 134-13 and obliterating the existing Elimination Round record of 105-6 held by Zack Birge. Pace's two-day fish total of 89 is another record. The field combined to catch 407 fish in the first period, and weighed 684-9 (both records).

And while all of the above numbers are impressive, the fact that 15 of the 20 anglers advancing out of the round surpassed the 100-pound mark tells the story of just how prolific this impoundment of the White River has been.

"Of all the years I've been around fishing, I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this as far as sheer volume of fish," said MLF NOW! analyst Marty Stone. "I knew when we came here that this lake was in good shape, but I've never seen a like that's so good from one end to the next. We're looking at where guys are catching fish, and we're seeing anglers who are literally 50 miles apart catching them. It's harder right now to find a place where there's not a fish than a place there is."

Pace was followed by Gary Klein (130-2), Birge (129-11), Greg Vinson (125-12), Aaron Martens (121-15) and Jacob Powroznik (116-15). Jesse Wiggins, Michael Neal, Mark Rose, Fletcher Shryock, Russ Lane, Jeff Sprague, Anthony Gagliardi, Casey Ashley, Dave Lefebre, Andy Montgomery, Fred Roumbanis, Brent Chapman, Randy Howell and Randall Tharp qualified for Tuesday's Knockout Round.

Tharp Escapes Elimination

As has become the daily storyline during Elimination Round competition, the race around the Elimination Line came down to a difference of a single fish. Trailing Jason Christie by 7 ounces entering the final 10 minutes of official competition time, Randall Tharp caught two fish for 2-13 in the final seven minutes, finishing with 94-12 and moving past Jason Christie into 20th. 

Advanced TVA Ledge Fishing with John Murray

Ledge fishing is one of the hottest yet most frustrating bite of the year. Get on an active school of bass it can be the best bass fishing trip of the whole year. Learn from MLF Pro John Murray as he explains advance ledge fishing techniques.
John Murray is a legendary deep water angler with a lifetime of tournament knowledge. Listen as he explains how to up your ledge fishing game.

Bass Elite Fort Gibson Event Postponed Due to Flooding

High lake levels at Fort Gibson Lake, Oklahoma, have caused the postponement of the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah Bassmaster Elite tournament — originally scheduled for May 16-19, until September, B.A.S.S. officials announced.

The tournament will be rescheduled during the “Make-Up Week” of September 16-22, which was previously set aside in case a regular-season Elite tournament had to be postponed.

B.A.S.S. officials made the decision to postpone after flood conditions on Fort Gibson forced the closing of launch and weigh-in facilities at Taylors Ferry North Recreation Area in Wagoner. 

Heavy rain and flash flooding covered much of northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas the first week of May with some of the heaviest-hit areas within the 11,000 square-mile Grand River Basin, and the outlook heading into the tournament calls for more rainy days. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials told B.A.S.S. that conditions on the lake could be expected to worsen in the coming days.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing you and your loved ones a  Happy Mother's Day!

Ledge Fishing Gear Tips with Keith Combs.

If you fish for post-spawn bass then you need to listen up! Keith Combs is one of the very best at figuring out ledge fishing and one of the best with a deep crankbaits. Listen to Shimano pro and BASS Elite angler Keith Combs as he breaks down the correct gear for fishing ledges for big bass.
Keith lite up the Bass Toyota Big Bass tournament on Lake Fork using these same techniques.

Brandon Cobb Wins 2019 Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest with Massive 114lbs!

Canadians Gustafson 5th & Cory Johnston 5^th.

By Bryan Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

 Brandon Cobb takes home the title at Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks and Wildlife Department on Lake Fork after catching an impressive four-day total of 114 pounds. This is his second win of the 2019 Elite Series season.
(Photo: BASS)

Big Bass. Big Stage. Big Dreams. It’s the inspiring mantra B.A.S.S. unveiled before the 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series season, and it perfectly sums up the last two months for Brandon Cobb.

After earning his first Elite Series victory in April on Lake Hartwell in his home state of South Carolina, Cobb caught one big bass after another at Texas’ Lake Fork to amass a four-day total of 114 pounds. It earned him his second six-figure first-place prize of the season on one of the biggest stages in bass fishing — the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

He’s living his dream — big time.

“It’s absolutely been an amazing season for me,” said Cobb, who also earned an automatic berth into the 2020 Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods with the victory. “I had a lot of success on the FLW Tour, but I never could quite put together a win.

“For so many things to go right this season, it’s just been a dream come true.”

Cobb went into the day with nearly an 8-pound advantage over his closest competitor. But after a slow start, he actually lost the lead for a while to Georgia pro Micah Frazier.

Then Cobb, a 29-year-old former college angler at Clemson University, started working the magic that helped him grab the lead during Sunday’s semifinal round with a catch of 37-15.

Cobb put a three-pounder in his livewell at 8:23 a.m. and then added a 4-13 and a 6-5 in the span of six minutes between 9:07 a.m. and 9:13. He added a 3-15 at 9:38 and a 6-2 at 9:43. At that point, he had 24-13 and the tournament seemed to be over.

He kept culling until his five biggest fish weighed 6-5, 6-2, 6-2, 5-10 and 5-12 for total weight of 29-15. All fish were weighed on the water and immediately released.

“It was really boring until you’d run into them,” he said. “Then when you’d hit them, it was amazing.”

Cobb caught the bulk of his weight all week fishing around shallow shellbeds where bass were feeding on spawning shad. His primary bait was a Dual Hardcore Minnow Flat 110 SP jerkbait in ghost pro blue.

“I was basically running points and flats, and the areas I was fishing might be 6 feet deep for 200 yards,” he said. “But the fish, when they were eating, were in 1 to 2 1/2 feet of water up on the tops of the shellbeds.

“I’ve got mud all over me because I had to pick mud off my jerkbait bill just about every cast. I was literally jerking it into the bottom.”

Surface activity always signaled Cobb that the fishing was about to get good.

John Cox Wins 2019 FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga with 83-9lbs!

Spawners, shad spawn and swim jig key to win!

by Justin Onslow

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Shallow water spawners key to Cox win!
(Photo: FLW)

John Cox considers Lake Chickamauga his favorite lake in the country. On Sunday, it cemented itself as the lake that gave Cox his favorite and most memorable win.

With 21 pounds on Championship Sunday and 83-9 for the tournament, Cox won the FLW Tour event on Chickamauga, presented by Evinrude, thanks in big part to a couple trees the nine-year Tour pro forgot about until the waning moments of day four.

“I’m telling you, it was an amazing day,” Cox says. “I can’t believe this. All day I kept going and going. Right at the end… the last ten minutes was just unreal.

“It was last-minute. I don’t know why, it just popped into [my] head, ‘Go to the trees,’ and I went to them and it was unreal. It was the first cast to them.”

The first cast he’s talking about is the cast that almost broke his heart. Cox pulled up to the pair of trees he’d fished so many times before – but not once during this tournament – with the clock ticking on the end of his day. He hooked a big fish and lost it. It might have been a $100,000 fish.

Cox then went to the next tree and landed a 4-pounder. And then right back to the previous tree, where he’d just lost a big one, to land another 4-pounder, which ultimately sealed the deal on his tournament-winning bag.

“I’m not going to lie, when I caught those two fish real quick in the last 10 minutes, I got all worked up,” he admits. “I’m running back and tears are coming out. I felt something. It felt better than any other tournament any time I’ve won before. It was overwhelming. I’m getting chills thinking about it. I’ve never felt like that before.”

And Cox has had some amazing wins. He already has more hardware than he knows what to do with, including trophies from FLW Tour wins on Hartwell and the Red River, as well as an FLW Cup win on Wheeler. But this one just felt different.