QUALITY AND QUANTITY
Here are the largest fish caught during
Stage Three, which took place for five
days on Lake Fork before shifting to Lake
Athens for the Championship Round:
10-8 – Justin Atkins
10-4 – Jason Christie
9-15 – Randall Tharp
9-9 – Keith Poche
9-8 – Bryan Thrift
9-6 – Ott DeFoe (Lake Athens)
9-5 – Brandon Coulter
9-2 – Jason Christie
9-0 – Dustin Connell
In Alabama, FLW’s top pros didn’t
catch as many real giants when they
APRIL-MAY 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM
MLF and FLW pros put on some
impressive displays in mid-March at the
Bass Pro Tour event at Lake Fork and
Lake Athens and the Tackle Warehouse
Pro Circuit event at Lake Martin.
However, they were performances of dif-
ferent sorts.
On the first day of the Bass Pro Tour
General Tire Stage Three presented by
TrueTimber at Lake Fork, Jason Christie
caught a pair of giant bass – a 9-pound, 2-
ounce fish and a 10-4, which set a new
Bass Pro Tour record for largest fish ever
scored.
The very next day, Justin Atkins one-
upped Christie with a 10-8 bass that now
stands as the record.
“I sure hope it lasts a little while,”
Atkins said that day. “This place just has
gigantic fish, and they are moving up to
spawn by the minute. I hope the record
holds up for more than just a day.”
It stands for now, even though a
handful of other pros threatened Atkins’
record with fish in excess of 9 pounds.
squared off on Lake Martin, but they
caught just about everything else. In the
first two days of fishing, the 150-angler
field caught 299 limits. Actually, they
caught 300, but David Wootton failed to
notice that one of his keepers escaped
his weigh bag while he was exiting his
boat on day two, and he wound up
weighing in only four keepers.
Big fish, lots of fish – whatever it is you
prefer to see in a bass fishing tourna-
ment, it was on display in March. You
can read more about Ott DeFoe’s win at
the Bass Pro Tour Stage Three on page
64. The Lake Martin Pro Circuit event will
be featured in the next issue.
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