2018 Bassmaster Elite Classic Bracket Day 1: Boom Boom Bested them with 16-01lbs!

Only 12 remain

By Brian Brasher

BASS PRESS RELEASE

 

Fred leads stingy bracket format tournament.
(Photo: BASS)

The first round of the Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster Classic Bracket on Carters Lake was a one-day tournament to determine the seeding for three separate competitions that will each send an angler to the 2019 Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.

With that one-day tournament in the history books, the stakes will now get higher every moment until the Classic Bracket concludes Friday.

After Tuesday’s opening round, 15 anglers were allowed to weigh their five biggest bass with the Top 12 advancing to the upcoming three-day, bracket-style competition. The anglers qualified in the following order: 1. Fred Roumbanis (16 pounds 1 ounce), 2. Greg Vinson (13-10), 3. Keith Combs (12-6), 4. Ray Hanselman Jr. (10-0), 5. Chris Lane (9-12), 6. Gerald Swindle (9-10), 7. Mike McClelland (9-0), 8. Chad Pipkens (8-8), 9. Adrian Avena (6-13), 10. Shin Fukae (6-11), 11. Dustin Connell (5-5) and 12. Scott Rook (5-4).

Marty Robinson (4-12), Takahiro Omori (1-15) and Bill Lowen (0-0) were eliminated.

“Today’s goal was just to advance,” said Hanselman, of Del Rio, Texas. “I just wanted to try and fish clean and make sure I made it into that Top 12. I figured a little something out (during Monday’s practice round), and it helped me today. But there aren’t a whole lot of places to do it on this lake.”

Starting Wednesday, the weights will go back to zero, and six matches will be held from 8-11 a.m. ET, pitting No. 1 vs. No. 12, No. 2 vs. No. 11 and No. 3 vs. No. 10. Then during the afternoon session from 12:30-3:30 p.m., three additional matches will pit No. 4 vs. No. 9, No. 5 vs. No. 8 and No. 6 vs. No. 7.

Gussy Becomes Elite

Jeff "Gussy" Gustafson will be moving to the Bassmaster Elites for the 2019 season. 

\Here's his official announcement. 

gussyoutdoors

Back in 2012 my friend Don Nelson who owned Krugerfarms.com asked me if I wanted to fish some pro bass tournaments and I told him it was a dream of mine. For sure!
I fished the four FLW Tour Opens, had a great season and qualified for the FLW Tour.
It’s been an amazing six years fishing the FLW Tour, I’ve learned a lot, made some amazing friends and had a lot of fun!
I was recently invited to fish the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2019 and I have accepted the invitation! It was a tough decision because I love the folks at FLW, especially the amazing media team but this is an opportunity that I’m very excited about so I’m going for it!
It will be hard separating from all of my buddies that I’ve become close with at FLW, especially @brandon_mcmillan_fishing !!!
I can’t wait to get to Florida in February and start this new chapter! 

Jared Lintner Wins 2018 BASS PRO SHOP Bassmaster Open Championship with 37-00lbs!

Lintner Off to Classic!
By Craig Lamb

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Lintner's win earns him a spot in 2019 Classic!
(Photo: BASS)

Dialing into the details was the ticket to victory for Jared Lintner, winner of the 2018 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Opens Championship on Table Rock Lake.
 
Linter of Arroyo Grande, Calif., added 10 pounds, 15 ounces of bass today to push his winning total weight to 37 pounds for three days of fishing. Brandon Lester of Fayetteville, Tenn., took second \with 34-11, and Derek Hudnall of Baton Rouge, La., was third with 34-1. Bobby Lane Jr. of Lakeland, Fla., was fourth with 32-7, and Scott Suggs of Alexander, Ark., took fifth with 32-3.  
 
Weather was a key factor throughout the three-day tournament. A chilly rain on Friday was braced by sunny, unseasonably warm weather on Thursday and Saturday. The best fishing occurred during the worst weather, when the bass were most active in the low-light conditions.
 
Everyone, especially including Lintner, knew the bass were in the fall transition, moving from deep to shallow water.
 
“I knew the bass were moving shallow, just not enough to put together a reliable pattern,” he said.
 
When the bites began Lintner, took note. He discovered greater concentrations of bass holding on steeper tapering shorelines used as migration routes.
 
“It started replicating itself so I went searching for similar areas,” he explained.
 

2018 BASS PRO SHOP Bassmaster Open Championship Day 1: Mark Rose Leads with 15-09lbs.

Cool weather heats up fishing

By Craig Lamb

BASS PRESS RELEASE

Mark Rose eye Championship crown. 

Fishing without any preconceived idea of a game plan is paying off for Mark Rose, who took the lead at the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Opens Championship on Table Rock Lake.

Rose, of West Memphis, Ark., caught a 5-bass limit weighing 15 pounds, 9 ounces, to earn first place ahead of Caleb Sumrall. The New Iberia, La., angler took second with 15-1, while Tyler Rivet of Raceland, La., claimed third place with 14-6. Jared Lintner of Arroyo Grande, Calif., is fourth with 12-14. Ed Loughran III, of Mechanicsville, Va., is fifth with 12-12.

Transition. That word best describes fishing conditions this week on Table Rock. The transition occurs when fall cold snaps prompt the bass population to migrate from deep to shallow water, where the fish feed on roaming baitfish. The bass are moving shallower each day, posing a greater sporting challenge to this tournament. Keeping track of those moving bass is the goal.

“When it’s transition time that makes it tougher, but I’m the most instinctive fisherman that I know of,” said Rose. “It’s what I like to do the most.”

The fundamental of being instinctive is rooted in fishing with an open mind. Rose caught fish from the shoreline out to 35 feet deep, playing off the textbook conditions in play this week. He intentionally skipped the optional scouting period prior to the tournament.

“Table Rock and all these Ozarks lakes are very conditional,” he explained. “The patterns are textbook, very black and white, and you catch bass in shady areas during sunny conditions, on moving baits under cloudy skies.”

Canadian's New All-Time Tournament Big Bass?

Matt Belzil (l) and Jason Clay(r)  and win the Barrie Bassmaster 
Simcoe event with 29.0lbs sporting a 8.35 lb giant kicker!

Coming later this week
Learn all about this pending new Canadian record smallmouth.

(Photo: Derek Strub)

Jeremy Lawyer Wins Costa FLW Series on Lake of the Ozarks with 46-03lbs!

Topwater and Jig Top on Ozark

by Kyle Wood

FLW PRESS RELEASE

New locations and topwaters key for Lawyer win.
(Photo: FLW)

Forgetting the past can be a hard thing for a bass fisherman to do. But for Jeremy Lawyer, it proved to be the right decision.

When Lawyer left the dock this morning for the final day of the Costa FLW Series event on Lake of the Ozarks presented by Evinrude, he was in fourth place and just 2 pounds, 8 ounces off the lead. Being that the top-10 weights were so close, the general consensus was that whoever caught the biggest limit on the final day would likely be crowned champion.

Lawyer hauled in a rare limit on Saturday worth 13-12 – also the heaviest of the day – and it proved to be more than enough to earn him his first FLW Series win with a total of 46-3 and $88,500 in winnings.

Fishing off instinct instead of history was the biggest key for the Sarcoxie, Mo., pro this week, and really for the entire season.

“Earlier in the year before the first Central Division event on Table Rock I erased all my waypoints there and had a good finish,” Lawyer says. “I just got a new Ranger before coming [to Lake of the Ozarks] and I didn’t transfer any of my waypoints over. You can get in trouble sometimes when you try to fish history and I just wanted to go fish what looks good and what’s right for the conditions.

“I’ve fished a lot of tournaments up here and have a lot of history and you can get stuck in a comfort zone, so I figured without my waypoints I wouldn’t have the pressure to try and fish that stuff. Sure, you remember good stretches of bank, but I wanted to be able to fish free. Really, fishing the (FLW) Tour has helped build my confidence to just fish because most of the lakes we go to I don’t have any history on.”

It all started this week when Lawyer ran to a stretch he hadn’t practiced on in the Gravois Arm and started catching fish flipping a prototype JaKKed shaky head (it will be his signature series jig) with a Zoom Magnum Trick Worm. He would then go on to cull up to 14-7 thanks to a River2Sea Whopper Plopper.

Keep Florida Fishing Applauds Congressional Passage of America’s Water Infrastructure Act

Important Everglades Restoration Legislation Moves to the President’s Desk

 Keep Florida Fishing®, (KFF) an advocacy arm of the American Sportfishing Association, today praised the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives for passage of the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (S. 3021). The Act, which incorporates the biennial Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), includes authorization of the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Storage Reservoir project and requires an expedited review of how Lake Okeechobee levels are managed under its regulation schedule. The legislation also supports restoration of the Kissimmee River and requires the development of a Harmful Algal Bloom technology program. All are important components that will help address South Florida’s water quality issues.

The U.S. House previously approved the compromise legislation on September 13th, the bill now heads to the President’s desk for his signature.

“Thank you to everyone who has contacted their representatives to support WRDA. This legislation is crucial to reducing the ongoing estuary discharges and algal blooms affecting the state. Passing WRDA is a monumental step in restoring the Everglades and providing clean water for our fisheries, and we greatly appreciate the leadership of Florida’s Congressional Delegation in securing its passage. We will continue to work with Congress to ensure that sufficient funding is available to carry out the Act’s provisions,” said Kellie Ralston, Southeast Fisheries Policy Director of the American Sportfishing Association.

New Daiwa Tatula 100 with Ish Monroe

The Daiwa Tatula reels are one of the best selling reels in recent years. Listen to MLF and 2018 BASS Elite Champ Ish Monroe as he explains why the Daiwa Tatula 100 might be the best one made yet.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING CANADA!

Wishing you and your family a very wonderful Thanksgiving!