Crankbaiting with BASS CLASSIC CHAMP and crankbait legend Paul Elias

Paul Elias won the 1982 BASS Classic on a crankbait and he has never looked back. Learn from the master on how he selects his tackle to make cranking easier and more effective. Southern boys if you love ledge fishing, deep water cranking is a must. Northern guys who want a big smallmouth need to be casting one. So, why not learn for the Paul Elias the true crankbait master.

2017 BASS Southern Open Harris Chain of Lakes Day 1: Marty Robinson Takes Lead over 200 Pros.

Star studded field descend on Florida

By Andrew Canulette

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Florida bills itself as the “Fishing Capital of the World,” and the Harris Chain of Lakes is one of its crown jewels.

Robinson leads with 23-11lbs on Day 1.
(Photo: BASS)

On Thursday in the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Southern Open No. 1, the acclaimed Florida fishery showed off a bit – for mid-January, at least.

From the time Alabama pro Deron Patrick started the 3 1/2-hour weigh-in with a 16-pound, 2-ounce limit, until the last of the field of 400 checked in, a steady stream of fish came across the stage. It made for an impressive display and for a momentous first day in the first Bassmaster tournament of the 2017 season.

Bassmaster Elite Series pro Marty Robinson of Lyman, S.C., had the heaviest bag among the 200 boating anglers, with five bass that weighed 23-11. The total gave him a narrow lead in the three-day tournament being held on this 80,000-acre network of lakes.

But he wasn’t the only one who was successful Thursday. Thirty-three pro anglers boated at least 15 pounds of bass, and eight of those bags weighed more than 20 pounds. Closest to Robinson are Hunter Shryock (second place, 22-1) and former Elite Series pro Ken Iyobe (third, 21-14). Others catching 20 pounds or more were fishing legend Paul Elias (fourth, 21-12); Justin Lucas (fifth, 21-11); Jordan Lee (sixth, 21-0); John Pollard (seventh, 20-11); and Chris Heath (eighth, 20-8).

Legendary Angler Paul Elias Joins TEAM BASS CAT!

Bass Cat is pleased to announce the addition of Paul Elias to their 2017 Pro Staff. Elias, a member of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame since 2012 continues to set tournament records competing at the sport’s highest level well into his 60s.

Since first competing in a Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) competition in 1976, Elias has consistently been a trendsetter, titleholder, and record setter. He has six Bassmaster wins, including the 1982 Bassmaster Classic, and has amassed over $1 million in B.A.S.S. wias innings. Additionally, his resume includes two FLW wins and nearly $400,000 in earnings from that circuit. Along the way, he’s qualified for 16 Bassmaster Classics and five Forrest Wood Cups, while introducing the world to techniques like “kneeling and reeling” and the Alabama Rig. At a 2008 Elite Series tournament on Falcon Lake, he set the all-time four-day weight record with a total of 132 pounds, 8 ounces.

Bassmaster Elite Alabama Charge Day 2: Hite At Top

Battle Over the Dam. Davy Hite Takes a Slim Lead

Pickwick Lake — Florence, Ala

April 6-10 | Weigh-ins at 4 p.m. CT

Deb Johnson
Bassmaster.com
Bassmaster.com Press Release

Davy Hite Take The Lead.
(Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

It can be tough to do when the honey hole is small and within sight of other anglers, but Davy Hite and Keith Poche have learned how to work side-by-side over the first two days of the Alabama Charge on Pickwick Lake.

Hite pulled 42 pounds, 15 ounces, out of the two-man spot, enough for first place on Thursday and up from second place in the Bassmaster Elite Series' third stop of the season. Poche was 1 pound, 2 ounces behind the leader with 41-13. Poche improved his position from seventh place.
In contrast to the top two, Bobby Lane landed third place by going solo in shallow water about 20 miles downstream from where Hite and Poche are working a rocks-and-current area just below Wilson Dam. Lane had 40-5 over two days, up from 10th and now in range of the winner's circle.
Paul Elias and Jared Lintner stayed in the top five Thursday. Elias had 39-10, again for fourth place, and Lintner fell from third to fifth with 39-8. Day One leader, Denny Brauer, fell to sixth place with 37-12.
Hite said he had to discipline himself to stick with his section of the hot spot, a 20- to 30-yard stretch he worked all day Thursday for six bites.
"I promise you, at 10 o'clock I had one in the livewell, I'm thinking, 'I won't even cash a check at this pace,'" he said.
Not panicking and abandoning the hole to go to his second spot, 30 miles away, was the best thing he could have done. He felt he had to stay to protect what he had.
"I started there today because I felt I had to claim my little area. I kept thinking about going down (to his secondary spot), but people kept leaving, and that's when I made my hay, so to speak."
He boated four largemouth and one smallmouth. A sixth fish broke off in the rocks, and Hite lamented the loss as a potential winning fish.

Bassmaster Elite Alabama Charge Day 1: Brauer Bests Them All

Brauer Battles to the Top on Day 1

Pickwick Lake — Florence, Ala

April 6-10 | Weigh-ins at 4 p.m. CT

Deb Johnson
Bassmaster.com
Bassmaster.com Press Release
FLORENCE, Ala. -- Denny Brauer's five largemouth were not unusual on Wednesday. Trick was, his five included a 7-pound, 12-ounce lunker and four look-alikes, enough bass to be boss for the day at the Alabama Charge on Pickwick Lake.

Chasing smallmouth in the fast tail water will be a 
factor. (Photo: James Overstreet BASS)

Brauer, with 23-10, was just 2 ounces in front of Davy Hite, who had a mixed smallmouth-largemouth bag that went 23-8. Brauer was also 8 ounces ahead of Jared Lintner's 23-2 worth of largemouths. Those three put a little distance between themselves and Paul Elias, fourth with 20-11, and Matt Herren, fifth with 20-10.
The leaders in the Bassmaster Elite Series' third stop of the season successfully targeted largemouth bass on a lake known for its smallmouth. A rough estimate by observers was that 90 percent of Wednesday's bass were largemouths, a flip from the 2010 event, when many more smallmouth bass -- about 75 percent of the total -- were brought to the scales.
Brauer, the 1997 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year and champ of the 1998 Bassmaster Classic -- just one of his 16 Bassmaster career wins -- said he didn't expect the weights to be as high as they were.
"I attribute that to the prespawn, rather than to the postspawn when we were here last year," Brauer said. "Some of the fish are as fat as any I've seen. It's a very, very healthy fishery and the timing could not be better."
Brauer targeted largemouth by flipping and pitching, using stout equipment to pull them out of heavy cover.
"Nothing special," he said. "Just covering a lot of water, trying to get one or two of the right bites, which I did. That's the key in a tournament like this. I had one in practice over 8 (pounds) so I knew the possibility existed there for a big bite."

Running the flooded timber and shoreline cover
will also be a factor. (Photo: Rob Russow BASS)

Brauer said he would have locked up into Wilson Lake to get away from fluctuating water levels of Pickwick, but with the lock closed for repairs, he had to figure out how to work around the swelling, then falling levels.
A drop in water might help him Thursday when he tries to repeat his pattern and go for at least one big bite of the day. Despite the fact he's sharing water with many other anglers, he'll go back to the same area and try to repeat his first day.
"I don't know another way to catch a big bag right now than what I'm doing," said Brauer, who lives in Camdenton, Mo.
Hite, two-time AOY and 1999 Classic winner from Ninety Six, S.C., said he ran up and down the lake several times, hitting spots up near the Wilson Dam for smallmouth, then down the lake for largemouth.
"I had two groups of fish, and unfortunately they were a long way from one another," he said.
On the lower end of Pickwick, he fished what amounted to private water, but it was the reverse up near Wilson Dam, the smallmouth community hole.