2023 AFTCO Bassmater Elite at Lake St. Clair Day 3: Luke Palmer Slips into Lead!

Canadians Gallant 5th, Cory Johnston 25th & Chris Johnston 26th. 

Luke Palmer of Coalgate, Okla., is leading after Day 3 of the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair with a three-day total of 68 pounds, 7 ounces.   (Photo: Seigo Saito /BASS

BASS PRESS RELEASE

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. — Boat problems are a regular annoyance for Elite Series anglers but had Luke Palmer not suffered mechanical issues during practice for the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair, he might have driven past the spot that has yielded over 22 pounds each of the past three days.   The Coalgate, Okla., pro landed 22 pounds, 11 ounces on Semifinal Saturday to take the lead with a three-day total weighing 68-7. He leads Arkansas rookie Joey Cifuentes III by 12 ounces and Japan’s Taku Ito by 13 ounces.   “It is weird for me to be leading a smallmouth deal,” Palmer said. “I’ve done well at Champlain. This place, we came here for the 2019 AOY Championship and I sucked. We came here in 2020 and I ended up 60th. I didn’t understand it. I was just doing stupid stuff.”

2023 AFTCO Bassmater Elite at Lake St. Clair Day 2: Ito Leaps into Lead!

Canadians Gallant 5th, Chris Johnston 29th. Cory Johnston 46th & Gustafson 59th

By Christopher Decker 

BASS Press Release

That is how Japan’s Takumi Ito described catching 25 pounds, 8 ounces on Day 2 of the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair, claiming the lead in the process with a two-day total of 47-4.

 

The 2021 St. Lawrence River champion, who landed 21-12 on Day 1, leads Arkansas pro Joey Cifuentes III by 10 ounces and Oklahoma’s Luke Palmer is third with 45-12. With his performance Friday, Ito has now secured the Day 3 cut in every single northern smallmouth Elite Series event he has competed in.

 

“It was an awesome day,” said Ito, who speaks limited English. “I don’t know why, but many fish come in my boat. It was a crazy day.”

 

Ito said he caught almost 20 smallmouth over 4 pounds on the day, including a 6-2 smallie that took over the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament.

 

“I dropped my bait down, and (it bit) just like that. It is easy,” Ito said.

 

Ito’s Day 2 bag, which now leads the race for VMC Monster Bag of the Tournament, wasn’t something he thought was possible coming into the event. He was expecting 19 or 20 pounds would be a good day.

 

Unlike a lot of anglers who are moving around vast areas on the trolling motor, Ito has been bouncing from spot to spot with his outboard. He noticed the smallmouth hanging around several types of cover, including rock, sand and grass.

 

“It is isolated,” he explained.

 

Ito has caught bass in a variety of depths, from 8 feet all the way out to 15 feet, and has noticed crawfish and gobies floating in his livewell.

Lester Notches First Bassmaster Win At Southern Open On Kissimmee Chain

Brandon Lester of Fayetteville, Tenn., has won the 2022 St. Croix Bassmaster Southern Open at Kissimmee Chain with a three-day total of 51 pounds, 2 ounces.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Steady productivity paved the path to success for Bassmaster Elite Series pro Brandon Lester, who tallied a three-day total of 51 pounds, 2 ounces to win the St. Croix Bassmaster Southern Open on Kissimmee Chain of Lakes.

Recording his first Bassmaster victory, the pro from Fayetteville, Tenn., placed 13th on Day 1 with 14-13, added a second-round limit of 18-1 and earned his Championship Saturday berth in second place. With a final-round limit of 18-4, Lester edged Joey Cifuentes of Clinton, Ark. (48-12), who led the first two days.

 

Lester won $52,500 and earned a berth in the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk, to be held in Knoxville, Tenn., March 24-26.

 

“There were 225 hammers fishing this event — I feel like this is harder to win than an Elite Series tournament,” said Lester, who was fishing his 114th major tournament with B.A.S.S. “I’ve been close; I’ve finished second here, I’ve finished third here, I have I don’t know how many Top 10s in the Opens. I love fishing these events and it feels really good to finally pull one off.

 

“Now the Classic qualification is off my mind the rest of the year. I couldn’t be happier because it was just announced that the (2023) Classic will be in my home state of Tennessee.”

 

All three days, Lester locked down to the lower Kissimmee Chain waters and split his time between Lake Kissimmee and Cypress Lake. The latter yielded most of his weight and dominated his final-round productivity.

 

“Cypress had a ton of hydrilla; this is the first year with this much grass in it,” said Lester, who now has 22 Top 10 finishes with B.A.S.S. “When I went in there in practice, I noticed right off the bat that I was seeing empty beds everywhere. That was the whole key to me winning this tournament, there’s no doubt.

 

“I knew they were bass beds and I knew that with that many beds around and a warming trend coming, those fish would be coming in — and they did.”

2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Tour St. Lawrence River Day 2: Cifuentes Claims Lead with 43-03lbs!

Canadian Erik Luzak 9th

Consistency key to Cifuentes climb into the lead. 
(Photo: MLF)

TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT

Press Release

Many anglers figured it’d take at least 20 pounds a day to compete for the win in the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers event on the St. Lawrence. And after Day 1, 14 anglers had eclipsed the mark, with nine more within a pound of it to get the Savage Arms Stop 6 Presented by Abu Garcia off to a rollicking start.

Today, the number hitting the magic 20-pound mark got chopped hard.

Only six bags over 20 pounds crossed the stage today, and only five anglers have averaged that now for two days (six if you count Miles Howe being 1 ounce off).

It was a day of surviving strong, cold-front winds and some fickle smallmouth, and Joey Cifuentes survived the best to the tune of 18-14 today to get him to 43-3 for the event.

“Today was tough with the wind,” said the man many call “Cowboy.” “The fish were not biting really well. You want to bring your bait naturally with the current, but the wind was so bad and going against the current you couldn’t.

“Regardless, I’m on top and fishing Day 3. So, I’m pumped.”

Cifuentes is fishing deep humps in the Clayton area and got off to a strong start this morning with a pair of 4-pounders to get him around 17 pounds by the time he left his main area.

From there, he started trying different things, even going shallow to fish for largemouth at one point. While no green fish helped, he bounced around enough to keep culling up a few ounces at a time.  

Based on the rest of the field, the move shallow was the right call, as the majority of the bigger bags today came up shallow, especially once the sun popped out later in the day. That said, the majority of Cifuentes’ weight has come from those deep humps, and he admits it’ll be hard to leave them the rest of the event.

“I’m kind of zoned in on the deep deal,” Cifuentes said. “I just don’t know if my area is going to replenish. So, I’m going to start there [on Day 3], but I need to expand there. I’m going to have to find some new stuff. That’s just my gut.”

Fortunately, he feels he has plenty of new stuff to hit, as he has a number of areas and patterns from practice that he dabbled in today that produced fish. Still, the potential of his main area will play big in his mind.

TOP 10 BELOW

2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Tour St. Lawrence River Day 1: John Cox Smacks 24-12Lbs for slim lead!

Cox continues stellar year, Cifuentes ounces behind.
(Photo: MLF)

TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT

Press Release

Catching 24 pounds, 12 ounces of smallmouth in a day is a big deal. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime bag for most. The type of bag that should’ve put distance between John Cox and the rest of the field by a decent margin.

It didn’t. Not even a little. Welcome to the St. Lawrence River.

While Lake Ontario often steals the show for tournaments in the area, Day 1 of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers event showed that the river is hardly a slouch in terms of quality.

Aaron Britt cracked 20 pounds on the nose and didn’t make the Top 10 (he’s in 14th). And Todd Walters’ 18-pound bag squeaked him into the top 30.

So, circling back to Cox, yes, he had an incredible day; the best day of smallmouth fishing he says he’s ever had. However, it’s just a day here, and he knows it, especially since it was so unexpected.

“It’s crazy,” Cox said. “Both days of practice, I was like, ‘This is the worst practice I’ve ever had.’ Day two was so bad I loaded up at noon, went back to the hotel, took a nap, and then came back out at 5 and got a couple more bites.

“I don’t know why today was so different. I really just wanted to catch five because you don’t want to not catch five at this place. And I caught seven and they were just all big ones.”

If this story from Cox sounds familiar, it should. The man rarely has good practices and often finds things on the fly. Yet, it’s a pattern that routinely works for him, which should worry the rest of the field.