Canadians: Chris Johnston 12th, Kung 30, Gustafson 43th, Cory Johnston 44th & Gallant 48th
 |
Alabama's Andrew Loberg remains in the top spot on Day 3 of the Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller with a total of 51 pounds, 6 ounces. (Seigo Saito/ BASS)
BASS Press Release
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — There have been very few constants during this week’s Lowrance Bassmaster Elite Series at Lake Tenkiller, but Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series rookie Andrew Loberg continues to make all of the right moves.
The California native landed 15 pounds, 9 ounces on Semifinal Saturday, increasing his three-day total to 51-6. Loberg has never trailed this week, opening the tournament with a 17-9 limit of largemouth before catching 18-4 on the second day. After only being separated by ounces after Friday’s weigh-in, the gap between him and second-place Keith Combs is now 3-13.
“It has been a really cool week. Nothing has set in,” Loberg said. “I’m just fishing the way I like to fish. It’s not like I have one hole I’m sitting on. I just wake up in the morning, launch the boat, buzz around and hope for the best.”
If he can hold the lead, Loberg will become the third rookie to claim an Elite Series trophy this season. Two of his roommates, Paul Marks and Tucker Smith, are responsible for those wins. The winning recipe in the house, he remarked, includes Cheez-Its, Pop-Tarts and fruit snacks.
Loberg has won two Toyota Series events in his West Coast career, but an Elite Series win would be the top accomplishment of his young career.
“I’m still in grind mode,” Loberg said. “All I’m thinking about is catching five more good ones.”
The weather continues to be unpredictable in eastern Oklahoma. Several rounds of thunderstorms moved through Friday night, bringing the lake levels up several inches in the process. Then, an intense line of storms moved through late Saturday morning and hung around during the early afternoon hours.
While earlier forecasts indicated a quieter Sunday, more inclement weather is now expected to impact the region overnight and into official tournament hours. The conditions, however, have played into the hands of the anglers fishing in shallow water, including Loberg who has spent most of his tournament fishing in less than 6 feet of water.
“It went up a quarter of a foot from yesterday at least,” Loberg said. “You run down the lake and there are waterfalls everywhere. So, it will probably be a lot higher (tomorrow).
“In practice, there was so much water, and you had to find certain banks that didn’t have water behind them. Now I’m finding water that has flatter and shallower pockets that the fish can move into.”
The 31-year-old, who now calls Grant, Ala., home, started the tournament with around 30 rods on the deck expecting to mix in shallow and deeper patterns. As the tournament has progressed, he has whittled it down to five or six rods. A Texas-rigged flipping bait was his go-to on Semifinal Saturday, but moving baits like a ChatterBait, a swim jig and Lucky Craft 1.5 crankbait have also come into play.
The upper section of the lake has produced the bulk of his weight, and while he has a seven-mile region of the lake dialed in, Loberg has been fishing new stretches of flooded bushes every day. In fact, several of his best bites from Day 3 all came from cover he had not yet fished this week. He has noticed the baitfish have been moving around and the bass seem to be moving out of the thickest cover.
“It is a pattern and something I can run, but the sketchy part is, it’s not like I have one (confidence) hole,” he explained. “I just launch the boat and have to figure it out.”
Loberg repeated his morning routine on Semifinal Saturday, opening the day by landing a limit around marina slips that were harboring a shad spawn. Moving baits have been key to triggering those bites.
“I didn’t get that one bonus fish there this morning,” Loberg said. “I scratched out a pretty small limit and then had to fish a bunch of new water.”
From there, Loberg moved around the upper end of the lake fishing flooded bushes with his flipping bait.
After those hefty storms moved over the lake in the early afternoon, Loberg caught two 3-pound largemouth in a 15-minute span just after 1:15 p.m., bolstering his bag and increasing his lead over the field. His final upgrade, a 2-10 according to BassTrakk, came with just 15 minutes before check-in time.
“I went to a stretch where I lost a big one this morning and got those two key bites flipping,” Loberg said. “It is good to know there are more fish moving up into those areas. But there was definitely a little window in the afternoon.”
After landing bags of 15-15 and 19-2 the first two days, Combs suffered his worst day so far on Day 3, landing a limit weighing 12-8. Still, the Huntington, Texas pro remains in second place with a three-day total of 47-9. The three-time Bassmaster champion has landed mostly largemouth, but several smallmouth have entered his livewell too.
“Andrew has a good lead,” Combs said. “Each day (of this tournament) is a different day, and totally different than practice. Today, the lake came back up and things I was really excited about after yesterday’s big bag just never materialized. You would think with all this weather they would just choke a bait, but they were barely getting it.
“The guy who reads the conditions the best and makes the best decisions is going to win this tournament.”
Combs started on a shallow offshore area and landed several smaller keepers before moving to a rock point. There, he caught a 2 1/2-pounder and filled out his limit, but also lost a 4-pound largemouth that would have bolstered his bag.
“I thought it was going to be a really good day,” Combs said. “After that, it stopped. I couldn’t get anything going anywhere I went. I probably caught 30 2-pounders yesterday. Today I wasn’t even getting bit.”
Watching the water go up, Combs decided to flip for a while, but did not find much success. As the afternoon wore on, he moved back to some of his better rock stretches and landed four quality bass in the last hour of the day.
“It is random,” he explained “I noticed there are times I can go down a good bank and not catch them and then come back an hour or two later and catch four or five nice fish. There’s a lot of small shad where I’m fishing, but I’ve been picking crawfish out of my livewell.”
Springville, Ala., pro Wes Logan jumped into third with a three-day total of 46-2. The Elite Series champion opened the tournament with 14-12 before landing 15-13 and 15-9 the next two days. Logan has also been fishing in shallow water, landing a mix of spotted bass and largemouth.
“When it started raining, I ran to where I thought the better-quality bass were. They were biting when I got there. I caught two nice ones right when I started fishing there,” he said. “I didn’t realize how many people were fishing in the same general area. I went up there earlier today and saw a bunch of people running around.”
Logan added that some of his better bites came around “off the wall stuff,” a product of trying to avoid areas his fellow competitors had just picked apart.
“I was watching where people weren't fishing,” he said. “I go over there and see if there would be anything a bass would be on. It has worked so far. But I’m going to have to have two 5-pounders to have a chance tomorrow.”
Louisiana’s Logan Latuso anchored his 16-7 Day 3 limit with a 4-10 largemouth, claiming Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Day honors and launching him into the Top 10. South Carolina’s Bryan New leads the overall Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament race with a 5-1 largemouth he landed on Day 2.
Combs holds the Rapala CrushCity Monster Bag of the Tournament with his 19-2 Day 2 limit.
Wisconsin pro Jay Przekurat leads the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race with 598 points, but he leads second-place Chris Johnston by only 3 points. Neither angler made the final day cut at Lake Tenkiller. Illinois pro Trey McKinney is third with 585 points, but could make the gap tighter if he moves up from seventh place on the final day. South Carolina’s Patrick Walters is fourth with 553 points followed by Indiana's Bill Lowen in fifth with 547 points.
Marks currently leads the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year race with 514 points followed by Smith in second with 451 points and Easton Fothergill in third with 435 points.
The Top 10 anglers will launch from Chicken Creek Boat Ramp beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT tomorrow morning and check-in at 2:30 p.m. Weigh-in will begin at 3 p.m. at the Cherokee Casino in Tahlequah. The winner will earn the $100,000 first-place prize and a coveted blue trophy.
Bassmaster LIVE coverage of Championship Sunday at the Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller will be available on FS1 from 8 a.m.-Noon with afternoon action to follow on FOX from Noon-3 p.m.
The Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller is being hosted by the Oklahoma Ozarks Tourism Association.
No comments:
Post a Comment