2020 FLW Super Tournament on Lake Erie Day 3: Bertrand Reclaims Lead with 62-12lbs

St. Clair vs Lake Erie battle raging

By Sean Ostruszka

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Bertrand capitalized on bumpy day.
(Photo: FLW) 

It’s a numbers game for Josh Bertrand, and the numbers keep lining up so far.

We’ll start with the biggest number – one – as in, he’s back again in first place at the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super Tournament on Lake Erie after slipping from the top spot to fourth yesterday.

He did that with the biggest weight number of the day – 22 pounds, 14 ounces – to give him 62-12 for the tournament, which is a little more than 2 pounds ahead of Jacob Wheeler, who is on a historic tear (more on that later).

And he was able to put up that big number thanks to some dwindling numbers around his main area.

“Every guy that falls off opens more water up,” says Bertrand about sharing water, especially on day two, around the Gull Island Shoal area. “It’s so hard to bounce around and fish a lot of stuff when you’ve got other guys fishing all the same stuff. Yesterday, I was sharing a spot with seven or eight guys. Today, it was three. Tomorrow, it’ll be one or two.”

Now, those were the good numbers. There are some bad ones, though.

For instance, Bertrand continues to struggle to generate many bites in his area. He admits there are less fish in his area than to start, as “a lot of fish have been pulled out.” He’s barely getting enough bites to fill his limit, and he’s only able to do that because he’s maximizing his time on the water.

“I need every minute,” says Bertrand. “When you’re only getting 5-6-7 bites a day, on a good day, it’s such a fragile thing. If I didn’t have six hours to fish, I’d have no chance. I’d come in with two fish for 9 pounds. It would be too tough, if you were fishing for single fish like I am without that time. It’s the only way it works, for sure.”

The other number to watch is the wind speed, especially for tomorrow.

2020 FLW Super Tournament on Lake Erie Day 2: Justin Lucas Grabs Lead with 41-05lbs

Canadian Erik Luzak 115^th.

By Sean Ostruszka

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Another Berkley Flat Worm wonder. Justin Lucas proving he
might be the best smallmouth pro on tour.
(Photo: FLW) 

He thought he had the lead yesterday. Turns out, Justin Lucas just needed to wait a day. Either way, the Alabama pro is dialed in when it comes to smallmouth.

“I think probably about three years ago I really started understanding them (smallmouth),” says Lucas. “I have a lot of confidence when we come up here in the summer.”

After winning the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour event on Sturgeon Bay just a couple weeks ago, Lucas has further showcased that smallmouth confidence here at the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super Tournament on Lake Erie. His 19-pound, 14-ounce bag today pushed him into the top spot with 41-5 for the event, a mere 3 ounces over Jeremy Lawyer.

Yet, things are liable to get very interesting the final two days.

For starters, Lucas, Lawyer, day-one leader Josh Bertrand (fourth), Todd Faircloth (seventh) and a handful of other pros that made the cut are all fishing the same general area around Gull Island Shoal. In fact, five of yesterday’s top 10 started within 75 yards of one another this morning. Considering none of them are getting many bites – Lucas says he only had seven bites and landed just the five he weighed in – many are worried that area could get too much pressure and fizzle out.

Meanwhile, calmer conditions allowed the guys making the run to Lake St. Clair to do so in a little over an hour today as opposed to two hours on Tuesday. The result was some of the bigger bags of the event, with Alton Jones, Jr. (third) and Spencer Shuffield (fifth) both cracking over 20 pounds today to push into the top five, and they’re doing it by catching dozens of fish. To really showcase how well St. Clair fished today, you just had to look at Jon Canada. He didn’t make the run yesterday and caught 8 pounds. Today, he cracked the biggest bag of the event at 24-8 to make the cut.

That could set up a showdown between the Erie and St. Clair pros … assuming the St. Clair guys can make it there tomorrow. With forecasted blustery conditions out of the northeast tomorrow afternoon, it could once again make the long run treacherous (assuming the entire field is allowed to leave Sandusky Bay). And even for pros like Lucas in Erie, the added wind and waves is going to hurt.

Top 10 Below

2020 FLW Super Tournament on Lake Erie Day 1: Bertrand Scores Lead with 22-06lbs

Canadian Erik Luzak 131^st.

By Sean Ostruszka

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Berkley Max Scent flat worm on a drop shot
is a killer again for Josh.
(Photo: FLW) 

Lake St. Clair may have been the main attraction, but it was the undercard that stole the show, at least for today.

Technically, it’s hard to call Lake Erie the undercard considering it was the launch site of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super Tournament. Yet, with how strong St. Clair has been fishing lately – a recent Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine event there had 29 limits over 20 pounds – Erie almost seemed like an afterthought as guys considered making the 100-plus-mile run up past Detroit.

Well, plenty of guys made the run today (and were beaten up for it), but of the seven bags topping 20 pounds today, only one came outside of Erie. And none were bigger than Josh Bertrand’s 22-pound, 6-ounce leading weight. Yet, don’t expect him or anyone else to be singing Erie’s praises just yet.

“I mean, it was not an easy day of fishing to be honest,” says the San Tan Valley, Ariz., pro. “I think I only had seven keeper bites. It was tough, but it worked out perfectly. That’s really the bottom line.”

Really, nothing came easy today regardless of an angler’s decision to stay in Erie or run to St. Clair.

For those that ran, they suffered through a near two-hour boat ride just to make it to the smaller lake, and it sure wasn’t a smooth ride at that. Reports of broken trolling motors and various other boat components were the common theme for those that braved the run thanks to some decent-sized waves. Worse, their reward for their efforts was little fishing time and less-than-stellar fishing. Only Gerald Sphorer (seventh with 20-0) and Tommy Dickerson (eighth with 19-13) can say the run was really worth it. 

As for those that stayed in Erie, largemouth were barely a factor come weigh-in, and the top pros all reported very few bites.

TOP 10 BELOW

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Brandon Palaniuk Wins 2020 BASS Elite on Lake Champlain with 80-01lbs; Johnston 9th.

Palaniuk make big splash in BASS return

By David A. Brown

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Turning in his best performance of the week, Brandon Palaniuk leveraged a blistering afternoon bite to sack up 21 pounds, 6 ounces and win the Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain with a four-day total of 80-1.

This is the fourth B.A.S.S. win for the 2017 Angler of the Year from Rathdrum, Idaho. He earned a first-place prize of $100,000.

After a strong start yielded a pair of 4-pound-class fish by 8:30 a.m., Palaniuk continued catching quality smallmouth throughout the day. A key move and a heads-up response led him to the gold mine that produced a 4-4, a 4-6 and a 4-8 between 12:10 and 1:56 p.m.

“I had one boulder and I shut down before I got to it and as I came off pad, I see a dot on my (Humminbird) Down Imaging and I’m like, ‘Holy cow, that looks like a giant smallmouth,’” Palaniuk said. “I grabbed my rod, threw my bait back before I even dropped my trolling motor.

“The boat’s drifting away, I drop my trolling motor, I pick up and my line’s swimming off. I set the hook and a 4 1/2-pounder goes airborne — way back there. After I caught that fish, I rolled up to the boulder and they were stacked on top of it. Then, every single boulder on that flat in 28 to 32 feet of water had a 4-plus-pounder on it.”

Tom Monsoor Wins 2020 FLW Pro Circuit Super Tournament on the Mississippi River with 42lbs!

At 71 years young, Monsoor tops them all

FLW PRESS RELEASE

A life time of knowledge and skill with a jig provides big win for Monsoor
(Photo: FLW)

Tom Monsoor’s legacy is complete.

Yet, at 71 years old, Monsoor figured he still had one last thing to do to cement his name in the lore of the famous river – win a major tournament on it.

Today, that finally happened, and he took down the best angler in the world to do it. His 12-pound, 10-ounce bag gave him 54-10 for the tournament, stopping Jacob Wheeler’s bid to win back-to-back Super Tournaments. For the win, Monsoor pocketed $125,000. 

“I can’t believe it,” says Monsoor. “Nothing is as cool as winning at home. I’ll remember this forever. This is my legacy right here.”

Along with resetting his own record for the oldest to win a Pro Circuit event – he previously held the record at 68 years old for his win on the Potomac River in 2017 – it was also some redemption from the last Pro Circuit event on his home waters when he finished 105th. Yet, that setback taught him the lesson he needed for this week.

[In 2017], I was on biggest and best fish I’d ever been on,” says Monsoor. “Then the water came up and they were gone. And I didn’t just go fishing. This time I said, ‘I didn’t care what happens. I’m just going to go fishing.’”

That game plan came into play earlier than he thought it would. He originally started the tournament in Pool 7, where he’d marked multiple schools of largemouth in Lake Onalaska. Except, once again, the water on the river had begun to rise and the fish were gone.

Instead of being stubborn, Monsoor simply locked back down to Pool 8, hunkered down in the Black River and “just went fishing.”

Brandon Palaniuk Wins 2020 BASS Elite Lake Champlain!

X-Zone pro Palaniuk wins with 80-01lbs. 
Cory Johnston finishes 9th. 
Details coming.
(Photo: BASS)