spawns. Sometimes it’s not so much the
flurries that get my attention as do the
sudden lulls. At Lake Conroe last year,
the fish-catching pace was fairly consis-
tent, but I remember several midday
funks during the week where activity
was nil for an hour or so – like every bass
in the lake got the memo that the
kitchen was closed.
For years in pro tournaments, anglers
left the ramp, fished and weighed in, and
no one really knew when they caught
their fish. But now, with SCORETRACKER
and other resources like the FLW Live
Leaderboard, we can see, literally minute-
to-minute, swings in fish activity. Because
anglers on the Bass Pro Tour know when
their competitors catch fish, they’ve
already become adept at using real-time
information to their benefit in tourna-
ment strategy. Pros such as Ott DeFoe,
Jacob Wheeler, Jordan Lee and Michael
Neal recognized SCORETRACKER’s value
immediately in the real-time scoring for-
mat. They learned pretty quickly that you don’t want to be running down the lake
when the SCORETRACKER is blowing up.
However, lulls provide a prime opportu-
nity to explore new water or try other
lures without getting behind.
Even some pros who did not take to
SCORETRACKER immediately have
learned to embrace it. Bass Pro Tour
points champion Edwin Evers admits
that initially he didn’t care to hear
SCORETRACKER updates in his ear
every five minutes. Now, he can’t get
enough of it. He wants to know about
any changes at all times because it pro-
vides valuable information about the
overall fishing rhythm of the day.
One thing is for sure: Real-time scor-
ing in tournaments represents another
opportunity to learn about bass and
their daily habits. In the coming years,
we should be able to use the fish-catch
data from these events to generate
charts illustrating the definitive peaks
and valleys in each fishing day to better
understand the flurries and the funks.
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM 21
scoring began to truly uncover the
lakewide ebb and flow of tournament
fishing days. In those events, marshals
called in weights in real time on VHF
radios. Pro anglers were the first to real-
ize the daily radio traffic would some-
times go from quiet to an all-out five-
alarm blaze in a matter of minutes. The
intensive radio flurries would last 15 to
30 minutes before squelching back
down to normal levels.
I remember having conversations with
pros about this phenomenon following
TTBC events, but I was still skeptical until
I was given SCORETRACKER at the very
first MLF Cup in 2011. Since then, I’ve
spent thousands of hours with SCORE-
TRACKER in my hand at MLF Select, Cup
and Bass Pro Tour events, watching as
fishing activity waxes and wanes through-
out the day like coastal tides.
Sometimes, there are logical explana-
tions for it. At the Bass Pro Tour event
on Smith Lake in 2019, there is no doubt
the flurries were tied to morning shad