2019 Bass Pro Tour B&W Trailer Hitches Stage One: Randy Howell Take the Lead with 49-12lbs!

Randy Howell is the first leader of the BPT.
(Photo: BPT)

Randy Howell worked the grass flats of Lake Kissimmi and Toho to gain the lead on Stage 1 of Group 1. Group 2 will start tomorrow with 40 new anglers. Thursday will be elimination day where the Top 20 anglers from each Group will advance into the weekend.

Angler	Qualified	Total Weight Caught
Randy Howell	1st	49 - 12
Ish Monroe	2nd	40 - 13
Zack Birge	3rd	36 - 09
Gerald Spohrer	4th	35 - 04
Ott DeFoe	5th	34 - 14

Chris Johnston Wins the 2018 FLW Tour Harris Chain Tournament with 79-06lbs!

Gustafson finishes 2nd! 
by Curt Neidermier

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Johnston with help from buddy Gustafson claims first win!
(Photo: FLW)

There might be no better rivalry in international sports than that of the U.S. versus Canada. And this week, we’ve seen two showdowns between the friendly border nations that ended in dramatic fashion. First, it was the U.S. women’s hockey team defeating Canada in an overtime gold-medal game that ended early Friday morning at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Sunday, it was Team Canada taking the first- and second-place spots at the end of a wild day of fishing that saw several lead changes at the FLW Tour event presented by Lowrance on the Harris Chain.

When it was settled, Ontario’s Chris Johnston stood atop the podium for his first FLW Tour win with a four-day total of 79 pounds, 6 ounces. Johnston edged out his friend and countryman Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson by 2 pounds, 6 ounces.

“You couldn’t ask for anything better; two Canadians up here,” says Johnston. “We’re buddies. We’re going to go home happy and back to some snow and ice. It’s a vacation down here, coming to Florida, and for us to finish one and two, what more could you ask for?”

2018 FLW Tour Harris Chain Day 2: Chris Johnston Grabs Leads with 45-04lbs!

Gustafson 16th, Richardson 37th, Cory Johnston 105th
by Curt Neidermier

FLW PRESS RELEASE

It didn’t take long for Chris Johnston to get the action started during day two of the FLW Tour event presented by Lowrance on the Harris Chain this morning. Nor did it take long for him to rile up the weigh-in crowd. Johnston was one of the first to cross the stage, dropping more than 25 pounds in the weigh basket to take the lead with a two-day total of 45 pounds, 4 ounces.

Canadian Chris Johnston rockets to lead with 25lb limit.
(Photo: FLW)

Yesterday, Johnston went to Griffin in the morning and caught three of his five keepers there, then finished in Harris. With an early check-in time today, he figured he’d be better off avoiding lost time in the lock and staying in Harris, which is the lake where the field takes off from each morning. 

Smart decision.

“It started right off the bat this morning,” he says. “I went to the spot where I finished yesterday.”

Shortly after takeoff Johnston hooked a tiny bass – we’re talking 4 inches. As he was winding it in, the bass suddenly started fighting back and ducked under the boat. Johnston called for the net, just in case, and when his co-angler dipped the net into the lake he came back up with a 6-pounder. 

“The 6-pounder ate the small bass and the bait,” Johnston says. “They were both in the net, so that was crazy.”

Crazy, maybe, but definitely a good omen, as Johnston quickly landed a limit of bass.

His strategy was to park his Ranger on a 300-yard-long stretch of 12-foot-deep hydrilla packed with shad and pick it apart with a reaction bait.

“It’s definitely key to get them early in the hydrilla,” he says. “I think there’s a little bit of a shad spawn in the morning.

“I’m fishing a main-lake weed edge. There’s a little bit of an indentation in it, and there’s some wind blowing into it. I just hit the Spot-Lock [on the Minn Kota Ultrex] and sat there.”

Johnston caught about 30 bass without moving the boat. That was partly based on playing defense to keep other anglers off, and partly because he was dialed in on an isolated group of fish. He’s hoping this weekend he’ll be able to work up and down the edge more to try and locate more groups of fish. 

Most of his action came on one bait, which he declined to name, but he did make a big upgrade in the hydrilla at 9:30 with a key bait switch.

“That bite died, so I threw a ‘Trap in there and caught an 8-6.”

It was 10:30 until Johnston finally pulled the plug on his honey hole. He spent the rest of the day running some old water and hunting for a bonus kicker, which he got in the form of a 4-pounder that let him cull up to his final weight.

Bradley Dortch Wins 2017 Walmart FLW Tour Harris Chain with 72-09lbs!

JT Kenney 2nd with mega limit
by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Rookie FLW Tour pro Bradley Dortch of Atmore, Ala., seems to have a knack for the postspawn time of year when bass are retreating off beds and headed “out” to their late spring haunts. Last May, Dortch won his first Costa FLW Series event on Lake Wheeler by putting himself in front of bass that were leaving beds due to rising temperatures and falling water.

Dortch surpasses Cox and Kenney with rattle bait.
(Photo: FLW)

Dortch used that same postspawn strategy during the FLW Tour event presented by Ranger on the Harris Chain to take home his first Tour win Sunday with a five-bass final day limit of 22 pounds, 2 ounces that pushed his four-day total to 73 pounds, 9 ounces, good for a 1-pound, 13-ounce margin of victory over runner-up JT Kenney.

“I don’t know what to say, this is crazy,” Dortch says. “This is something I’ve been dreaming and working toward for years. It’s a dream come true – I can’t even believe I won it.”

After an unseasonably warm winter where Harris Chain bass got a head start on the reproductive process, the FLW Tour arrived just in time to catch the tail end of the spawn. While others took the headlines early in the event by sight-fishing, Dortch bet that the postspawn train would be coming down the track if he just waited them out at stations located on the outsides.  

Chris McCall Wins the 2014 Rayovac FLW San Rayburn Event

Story by Kyle Wood 

FLW Press Release

In tough conditions and an even tougher bite there can be no better tool for an angler than experience. That’s where Chris McCall of Brookeland, Texas, comes into play. McCall consistently put fish in the boat this week to bring home his second Rayovac FLW Series title on Sam Rayburn with a two-day total weight of 33 pounds, 15 ounces.

Despite snow and cancellation of Day2, McCall was able to
figure out San Rayburn to win. (Photos: FLW)

McCall started his week with a solid limit of fish that weighed 14-8 to put him inside the top 10 despite the wind, rain and falling temperatures. As a winter storm rolled in and temps plummeted under freezing, Rayovac FLW Series officials decided to cancel day two of the event for safety of the anglers. This led to the decision to fish all 112 pros and 112 co-anglers today to decide the champion.

“I’m pretty grateful of the weather this week,” said McCall. “I think it helped me out. I fish tournaments on Rayburn basically every weekend and most of the time I can’t even get to the spots I want to fish because they are so crowded. But this week I got on spots that you just normally can’t.”

Being that the 43-year-old pro has such vast experience on Rayburn he didn’t feel the need to practice much.

“I fished a tournament out here last Saturday and another one on Sunday and did all right,” said the Texas pro who has 11 top 10s on Rayburn with FLW competition. “I went out for a little bit on Monday morning and tried some silly stuff on Wednesday but I pretty much knew what I wanted to do.”

McCall knew it would be one of the toughest tournaments he has fished when throwing traps has been in play. With this in mind he decided to make a milk run of areas he knew would produce the best.

“I fished the same 10 spots each day. The first day I had about 12 bites and was able to narrow down the heart of every spot for today. Basically, I was fishing around 20 miles up the lake by the 147 bridge in a square between four creeks. I focused on the outside grass edges in 5 to 8 feet of water. I was keying in on the main points on these spots where the drains were. The fish were up in the drains further on Thursday but the water temp dropped about 8 degrees today so those fish pulled back out some.

Traps plus a jig helped put enough bass in the well for McCall.

“I didn’t change anything up today from the first day. I caught my first fish around 8:30 this morning and that gave me hope that they would bite some. Once the water warmed up around 11 o’clock it was on. I caught a bunch of fish after that and around 1:30 I put a 6-pounder in the boat. I never thought I had a chance to winning when I started the day. But I ran into Jay Yelas (who started the day in second) around 2:30 and he said he had 1 fish and I thought that I might have a chance.”

McCall’s limit was one of only 15 brought to the stage and his weight of 19-10 was the second largest to hit the scales and secure the win by over 2 pounds.

His primary bait was the Rat-L-Trap. He had six different Rat-L-Traps tied on in a variety of colors including red, white craw and gold. McCall threw those on 17-pound fluorocarbon on a heavy action rod with a 6.1:1 gear ratio. He also caught some fish on a 6th Sense squarebill and a Santone football jig with a Gambler craw trailer.