2023 Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Clark Hill Lake Day 1: Ebare Sacks 23-13 for Lead!

Dakota Ebare stayed red-hot on Day 1 at Clarks Hill. Photo by Charles Waldorf.

Sean Ostruszka

MLF Press Release

APPLING, Ga. – Everyone thought Clarks Hill would surprise people this week. It didn’t disappoint, in more ways than one.

Talking to dozens of pros after Day 1 of Toyota Stop 2 Presented by Lowrance meant getting dozens of contrasting perspectives on what all is happening at the second event of the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals. Is the water rising or falling? Yes. Is the water warming or cooling? Yes. Is it better to fish deep or shallow? Yes. Anglers are truly that confused and all over the map about what they think is happening on the fishery.

It seems the only things anyone can agree on are that the fish do want to move up and spawn in short order and that Dakota Ebare is fishing at a different level than everyone else in this event. Continuing his torrid streak over the last year, Ebare sacked up 23 pounds, 13 ounces to take the lead by more than 5 pounds over Travis Harriman. To put that in perspective, Miles Howe sits 5 pounds back of Harriman and he’s in 35th place.

Top 10 BELOW

2022 Bassmaster Elite Series Event On Lake Oahe Day 2: Chris Johnston Takes Over Lead!

 

Chris Johnston of Otonabee, Ontario, is leading after Day 2 of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Oahe with a two-day total of 37 pounds, 12 ounces.(Photo: Seigo Saito/BASS)

BASS PRESS RELEASE

MOBRIDGE, S.D. — Chris Johnston’s primary spot on Lake Oahe doesn’t look particularly special, but it holds big smallmouth that have lifted him to the lead at the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Oahe with a two-day total of 37 pounds, 12 ounces.

 

Entering Day 2 in seventh place with 18-15, the Otonabee, Ontario, native caught 18-13 Friday and holds a 7-ounce lead over second-place Austin Felix and a 10-ounce lead over third-place Patrick Walters.

 

“I’m thrilled with it,” Johnston said. “I caught them all right where I caught them yesterday. I had them by about 9:30. There’s not a lot of fish there and I wasn’t seeing many left. But after I caught them yesterday morning, I didn’t see any fish. So, some new ones moved up today and I was able to catch them.”

 

While the north wind raced across Lake Oahe the entirety of the day, creating rough and wavy conditions, the 2021 St. Lawrence River Elite champion caught a limit quickly using mostly the new Spro CJ Smasher as well as a couple of other baits. A key adjustment, however, led to two big bites late in the morning.

2022 Bassmaster Elite Series Event On Lake Oahe Day 1: Card Grabs Lead with 21-10lbs!

Canadians Gustafson 4th, Chris Johnston 7th & Cory Johnston 58th

Brandon Card of Salisbury, N.C., is leading after Day 1 of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Oahe with 21 pounds, 10 ounces. (Photo: Seigo Saito/BASS)

BASS PRESS RELEASE

MOBRIDGE, S.D. — Capitalizing on several different flurries throughout the day, Brandon Card landed 21 pounds, 10 ounces to claim the Day 1 lead at the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite on Lake Oahe.

 

The Tennessee native turned North Carolinian holds narrow advantages of 1-4 over Georgia's Drew Cook in second and 1-5 over South Carolina angler Patrick Walters in third. With his Day 1 bag, Card exceeded the biggest bag weighed at the 2018 Elite Series event on Oahe, a 20-11 sack brought in by Clifford Pirch.

 

“I didn’t know how good it was going to be. I had high hopes, and it turned out to be a lot better than I thought,” Card said. “It was weird. I had several flurries, but then lots of just nothing. There were hours of no bites and then several in a row. It was like there were small little feeding windows.”

 

With a rotation of baits, Card caught quality bass that were consistent in size, with his biggest smallmouth weighing 4-14.

 

Despite seeing miles of dead water, Card located six or seven areas in practice that held decent schools of smallmouth. One of those areas produced most of his action on Day 1, while he didn’t end up going to another of his better areas.

 

Fishing what he called “pretty deep,” Card landed a limit early and culled several times throughout the day.

2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Tour St. Lawrence River Day 3: Cifuentes Leads with 67-05lbs!

Canadian Erik Luzak 44th

Cifuentes' 7-pound lead keeps him in driver's seat 
going into the last day. (Photo: MLF) 

TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT

Press Release

Smallmouth derbies usually come down to ounces. Joey Cifuentes seems to have no intent on letting that happen in the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by Bad Boy Mowers event on the St. Lawrence.

For the second time in three days, the man many call “Cowboy” cracked the 24-pound mark at the Savage Arms Stop 6 Presented by Abu Garcia. Day 1, it was 24-5, and after 18-15 yesterday, he ponied up 24-2. The result is 67-5 total and a staggering 6-pound, 12-ounce lead over Cody Pike in second place.

“[Two bags over 24 pounds in three days] is unbelievable,” said Cifuentes. “I don’t even know what to say. I’m in hog heaven as we say in Arkansas.”

That’s an understatement considering the pigs he’s catching this week, as both big bags had fish over 6 pounds in them. But here’s the scary part about today: Cifuentes didn’t make a cast on his area he caught all his weight the previous two days.

He had been fishing deep humps near Frontenac, but he decided to expand and start in some new water near Clayton. The first spot produced the 6-pounder, and everything just clicked from there.

“After that big one, I hadn’t fished shallow all week,” said the Arkansas pro. “I decided to try it and went to a shallow spot where I’d seen some fish swimming around in practice. I caught a pair of 5s. Then I went back out deep and caught a 3-pounder and a 2.5-pounder. After that, I got gas and left to run back up.”

However, despite already having a solid bag, leaving as early as he did allowed him to stop and bounce to fish his way back. Most of it was fruitless, but right near takeoff he had one more area he wanted to try. He was rewarded with 4- and 3-pounders to pad that lead even more.

Kyle Hall Wins 2018 Costa FLW Series Northern Division 1000 Islands with 68-11lbs!

Bad weather forces anglers to river only. 

by Kyle Wood

FLW PRESS RELEASE

With the top 10 confined to the St. Lawrence River for the final day of the Costa FLW Series Northern Division event at the 1000 Islands, the fishing was much tougher than days one and two. That didn’t matter much to Kyle Hall, who weighed another 18 pounds, 10 ounces to finish off a wire-to-wire win with a total of 68-11. Presented by Navionics, the last event of the Northern Division season paid the young Rio Vista, Texas, pro $45,700 for his efforts.

Hall’s summer vacation up north couldn’t have worked out any better. After fishing in the Bassmaster Open a month ago at Champlain, his friend Dakota Ebare convinced him to stay north and hop in the FLW Series event. Now, the 1000 Islands is his new favorite place.

“I can’t believe that happened,” Hall says of the win. “I put a lot of work in for this tournament and it feels awesome to win.”

While Hall’s extended time in the north country no doubt helped him find the juice, it was also pivotal for learning how the fish set up in the river.

“I put most of my time in on the river,” says Hall. “I knew there would likely be a day like today where the lake would be off-limits and I really thought the river was more consistent. I could get bit on the lake and it would be a 5-pounder, but the rest of the school would leave. On the river, I could catch a 5-pounder and there’d be more with it.

“Learning how the fish would set up in the current was huge,” continues Hall. “I found a school of fish in practice and I would go back to them every day to see how they set up in different wind directions and different weather. It showed me they wouldn’t leave the spot, but they may slide deeper or shallower.”

Current breaks along the main river channel in anywhere from 20 to 40 feet were the deal for Hall. He fished about 20 different breaks, sometimes hitting certain ones multiple times throughout the day. Additionally, he says he hit at least 15 spots in the lake on day two – which can be chalked up to nerves getting the best of him.

2018 BASS Elite St. Lawrence River Day 1: Matt Lee Smashes 27lbs!

52 limits of bass over 20 Pounds!

By Thomas Allen

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Matt Lee on coarse to breaking 100lbs.
(Photo: BASS)

Giant limits of smallmouth bass exceeded expectations during Thursday’s opening round of competition as Matt Lee of Guntersville, Ala., weighed a tremendous 27-pound, 12-ounce limit of smallmouth bass to take an early lead at the Huk Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River presented by Black Velvet. 
 
Lee’s staggering limit, anchored by a behemoth 6-7 smallmouth, is the heaviest single-day smallmouth limit in Bassmaster Elite Series history. 

With so many big smallies coming in, it’s worth mentioning that a four-day total consisting of only smallmouth topping the 100-pound mark has never been caught during an Elite Series event. That record could be set at Waddington this week as 52 five-bass limits exceeding the 20-pound mark were brought to the scales Thursday, and seven of them topped 25 pounds.

That’s an unprecedented number — and nothing short of impressive. 
 
A first-place prize of $100,000 will go to the winner after four days of competition — and since Lee has never claimed an Elite Series victory, he is looking to expand his lead during Friday’s second round. He can also earn more valuable points in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.

This tournament marks the conclusion of the 2018 regular Elite Series season. The Top 50 anglers in the points race will advance to the AOY Championship scheduled for mid-September on Georgia’s Lake Chatuge.
 
“What an amazing day,” Lee said. “Things literally went perfectly for me today, and that seldom happens in this sport. On every spot I fished today I caught a big one, and plenty of them. It was amazing.”
 

2017 Walmart FLW Tour Beaver Lake Day 1: Cody Meyer Leads with 16-01Lbs

Gustafason 36th, Richardson 66th, Cory Johnston 82th & Chris Johnston 105th.

by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Imagine trying to shoot a game of pool on a table that rises a foot or two while you’re drawing back your cue to take a shot. Each time you draw for a shot, the table comes up.

Cody stays deep for lead.
(Photo: FLW)

That’s a little bit what fishing has been like for the 165 pros and co-anglers this week at the FLW Tour event presented by General Tire on Beaver Lake. Each day they get on the water, the targets they fished the day before are gone – submerged underwater.

Since practice started on Sunday, Beaver Lake has come up some 8 feet. Since the pros last saw the lake on Tuesday’s practice day, the water has come up more than 4 feet. The rising water creates a moving target that’s hard to hit when everything is in a state of flux.

While the ever-increasing water level has thrown many pros for a loop, Californian Cody Meyer only chuckles at the “epic rise.”

Meyer cut his teeth fishing lakes out west like Shasta and Oroville, where water can rise 10 to 15 feet in a day. What’s happened in eight days on Beaver Lake can occur in 8 hours on Meyer’s home waters.

Maybe that helps explain why Meyer is leading after day one with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 1 ounce. Meyer’s limit included three smallmouths and two largemouths.

“I’ve fished tournaments out west where the spot I started on in the morning was under 10 feet of water by weigh-in,” Meyer says. “So this is not that much of a shock to me. One thing I’ve learned when a sudden rise happens, especially out west, is that the fish generally stay at the depth they were in as the water rises.”

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These baits swim with limited side-to-side action and body roll to maximize diving depth and reduce angler fatigue when retrieving. Single cadence rattle for low frequency sound that penetrates further yet is not overpowering.

A Late Fall Must for Trophy Smallmouth Bass.

You need these baits.
By Luigi De Rose

The JACKALL Squirrel DD is a top choice for cold water. 

Deep diving jerkbaits are a must for late fall trophy smallmouth bass fishing. If you looking for these minnow baits, you might have to move pass the bass fishing section and over to the walleye one in the tackle store. Often, these deep diver plugs are considered walleye baits but they're lethal on trophy sized smallies. Don't expect them to glide and dance like short billed baits. These deep divers are ideal for more sluggish action as they remain deep. 

Here are a few to remember:

Jackall Squirrel DD

Rapala X Rap 

MORE BELOW

Drop-Shot Rigging Options

Here is a quick video I did for Ontario OUT OF DOORS magazine. It explains how to rig a drop shot.

Casey Ashley Wins the 2014 FLW Tour Lake Hartwell Event.

Texan Redington wins co-angler title, $25,000

FLW Press Release

SENECA, S.C. – Pro angler Casey Ashley of Donalds, S.C., brought the largest stringer to the scale on Sunday – for the third time in four days of competition – to win the Walmart FLW Tour at Lake Hartwell presented by Ranger Boats. Ashley weighed in a five-bass limit worth 15 pounds, 10 ounces to win the $100,000 prize after leading wire-to-wire in the four-day event that showcased 176 of the best bass-fishing professionals in the world.

Casey went wire to wire to win this event by 15 pounds!
(Photos: FLW)

Ashley’s four-day total of 20 bass weighing 68 pounds, 5 ounces gave him an impressive 14-pound, 8-ounce margin of victory over second-place finisher Livingston Lures pro Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., whose four-day total of 20 bass weighed 53 pounds, 13 ounces and earned him $30,000.

“This week has been magical,” said Ashley, who earned the first Walmart FLW Tour victory of his career. “I’m not taking away from any major tournament that I’ve won, but it really means a lot to win at home. When you win at home, everybody you know is here. A lot of times my family gets to travel to my closer tournaments, but at home everybody gets to be there. A lot of them were out on the water watching me. I think the whole town of Donalds is here. It’s just an awesome feeling.”

Ashley said that he concentrated his efforts this week fishing the lower end of Lake Hartwell in the clear water. He targeted deep brush piles from 25 to 40 feet deep.

Live from KBI: Report from the water

By Luigi De Rose
(If there are some errors forgive me! I am getting burned out and I have not had a decent sleep in almost a full week.) 

Fishing with Eagles

With only one day of practice left, the KBI has not been kind to many. Local and visiting anglers are complaining. The lake is massive and much of it looks great for largemouth but they don't live there. New comers can waste a lot of time is zero to show for it. The areas that do have buckets, have had weak results. Smallmouth are grouped into 2 categories: smelt eaters and resident bass. The smelt eaters roam the big water and sometimes come up onto structure to eat. The resident fish are typical smallies that live where smallies live. We are focus on them all and have had mix results.

Being a tournament I cannot tell you much at the present moment. We have some patterns going but we are not killing them. The water temp dropped by 10 degrees over the last week. Some areas are still in the mid 60F water temps. This has put a lot of the bass into a time warp. Hopefully, they will sort themselves out. The huge problem is that tournament anglers like myself probably passed over tons of bass but didn't know it because the fish are in a bad funk.

We have 3/4 of a day of practice left and we will try some new places and expand on current patterns. It rained today which is a first. This might alter the usefulness of what we found today. The local weather says the three tournament days should be cool, sunny and not much wind. But, everyday around noon the winds pick up and the clouds roll in; they say that this is typical. What do I know? I'm new here.

One interesting thing here is the wildlife. In Kenora there are whitetail deer everywhere. They run through the parking lots of Canadian Tire and Walmart. Plus there are eagles everywhere.

Come back for more photos and details!!

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2013 Walmart FLW Grand Lake Day 2: Jason Christie Still Leads!

by Gary Mortenson
FLW Press Release 

GROVE, Okla. – For the most part, the changing landscape of the FLW Tour event on Grand Lake has been a sight to behold. Water levels have shifted somewhat dramatically, starting off nearly 4 feet above normal pool and then receding steadily with each passing day. The muddied up waters that greeted anglers upon their arrival have slowly given way to more gin-clear conditions throughout significant portions of the lake. Throw in the fact that anglers witnessed sunny and calm conditions today, in stark contrast to the overcast skies and medium winds on day one, and it’s obvious that anglers have had much to process throughout this tournament.

Jason's first of the day. The high water has kept many
bass in the flooded shoreline cover.
(Photos: FLW)

However, given all of the significant changes anglers have had to battle through this week, the one constant appears to be the standing atop the leaderboard. For a second day in a row, pre-tournament favorite and Rayovac team pro Jason Christie of Park Hill, Okla., has dominated the headlines. Bolstered by a total, two-day catch of 40 pounds, 10 ounces, Christie took a 5-ounce lead after yesterday’s competition and inflated it to nearly 3 full pounds after Friday’s weigh-in.

And although Christie – who considers Grand Lake to be his hometown water – had attempted to argue at the start of the tournament that the conditions left him with no local advantage, the results say otherwise. Christie is clearly on top of his game. And he’s now obviously the man to beat.

“Twenty pounds a day, I’ll take it,” said Christie. “I’m where I wanted to be.”

While weights were down across the board in Friday’s competition, including Christie who recorded nearly 2 pounds less than yesterday’s catch, the Oklahoma pro still managed to haul in the day’s biggest stringer in either division with a whopping 18-pound, 14-ounce stringer.

“I have three different patterns going on in three different sections of the lake,” said Christie. “And I’m using all three patterns each day. I have about 1,000 places on this pond, but it has to be the right deal. A stretch that was good today might not be good tomorrow. The water levels are starting to stabilize and there’s still plenty of fish. But you have to be in the right place at the right time. Believe it or not, I’ve never fished a four-day tournament here and I’m learning just like everyone else.”

While Christie lost two nice fish today, he basically chalked it up to the way he’s fishing.

2013 Walmart FLW Grand Lake Day 1: Christie and Houston Land One & Two!

by Gary Mortenson
FLW Press Release

GROVE, Okla. – Heading into the first day of FLW Tour competition this week, the big story was the overwhelmingly muddy conditions of Grand Lake and how it would affect the field’s ability to find clean water in an attempt to land bountiful stringers. However, by the time day-one weigh-in had concluded, the big news was focused squarely on the personalities that dominated the leaderboard.

Jason has been on a hot streak! This could his third win this year.
(Photo: FLW)

Standing in first place was Rayovac team pro Jason Christie of Park Hill, Okla., who parlayed a total catch of 21 pounds, 12 ounces into the overall lead. But sliding into second place, a mere 5 ounces behind Christie, was none other than larger-than-life television personality and fishing legend Jimmy Houston of Cookson, Okla.

The all-Oklahoma one-two punch proved, not surprisingly, to offer up a series of distinct contrasts to the delight of bass-fishing fans everywhere.

2013 Walmart FLW Lewis Smith Lake Champion: Brent Ehrler Wins with Deep Bite

Tennessee’s Tidwell Wins Co-Angler Title, $20,000

10.Mar.2013

FLW PRESS RELEASE

JASPER, Ala. – Keystone Light pro Brent Ehrler brought the largest stringer to the scales Sunday – for the third time in four days of competition – to win the Walmart FLW Tour on Lewis Smith Lake presented by Evinrude. Ehrler weighed in a five-bass limit worth 14 pounds, 11 ounces to win the $125,000 prize after leading wire-to-wire in the four-day tournament that showcased a full field of the best bass-fishing professionals in the world.

Brent controlled tournament from start to finish fishing
deep with a Yamamoto Senko.
(Photo: Brent Ehrler)

The Redlands, Calif., native weighed in 20 bass totaling 60 pounds, 9 ounces throughout the four days of competition. Second-place pro Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va., weighed in 20 bass totaling 53 pounds, 5 ounces, giving Ehrler the win with a decisive 7-pound, 4-ounce margin.

“This was one of the toughest tournaments that I have ever fished,” said Ehrler, who became only the third angler in FLW history to surpass $2 million in career earnings with his win on Sunday. “I was so stressed out; I was waking up at 2 or 3 a.m. every morning thinking about where I was going to fish that day. Fortunately, I was able to catch a couple of big ones off of a couple of areas where I knew they lived. They were very tough to catch, though.