THE TOURNAMENT REPORT
1.
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
1.
2.
PHOTO BY JOE BRANCH
1. MLF BASS PRO SHOPS
HERITAGE CUP PRESENTED
BY BERKLEY
Henderson Bay (Lake Ontario)/
Lake Skaneateles/Cayuga Lake
July 29–Aug. 3 2019
Jacob Powroznik spent
the Elimination and Sudden
Death rounds of the
Heritage Cup (on Lake
Ontario’s Henderson Bay
and Lake Skaneateles,
respectively) targeting
schooling smallmouths.
During the Championship
Round on Cayuga Lake, it
was all about making
adjustments to find the right
school of largemouths.
The Virginia pro had himself
a day on Cayuga thanks
in part to a big school he
found taking refuge in a
clean spot in some 10-footdeep
offshore grass on a
25- to 30-foot-deep ridge.
Employing a drop-shot
tipped with a hand-poured
worm or a V&M Flat Tip
Worm, Powroznik finished
his day with 28 fish for 57
pounds, 2 ounces (both best
for the round), all while fishing
near Aaron Martens,
who finished in second
place, 6 pounds, 2 ounces
behind him.
Powroznik landed his
biggest fish of the day – a 4-
3 – in the last 10 minutes of
competition, which helped
give him the cushion he
needed over Martens to finish
the job.
The Heritage Cup was
Powroznik’s first-ever MLF
Cup event, though he’s had
some good experiences with
Cayuga in the past, having
fished two events on the
central New York fishery
prior to the Heritage Cup
and turning in a top-10 finish
in each. Still, Powroznik
wasn’t familiar enough with
the fishery to run to a spot
and start catching them
(with no practice period or
foreknowledge of the competition
waters), making his
dominant win all the more
impressive.
Powroznik qualified for
the 2020 General Tire World
Championship with the win.
2. MLF SQWINCHER PATRIOT
CUP PRESENTED BY VENMO
Fort Gibson Lake
Sept. 23–28, 2019
There aren’t too many
people capable of showing
up to a brand-new body of
water and dominating the
way Mark Rose did in the
2020 Patriot Cup. The
Arkansas pro had never
been to Fort Gibson before,
but that didn’t stop him from
doing work from lines in to
lines out, tallying 25 fish for
41 pounds, 1 ounce and taking
home the victory by
nearly 16 pounds.
Rose, a former FLW Tour
Angler of the Year, led from
the onset and maintained a
double-digit lead over second-place
finisher Jordan Lee
nearly all day. He had nine
more fish than Lee and more
than double over anyone else
in the Championship Round
field. Brent Ehrler finished
third with 12 fish for 20
pounds, 4 ounces.
To catch his fish, Rose
found a narrow creek where
he was able to flip up bass
after bass using a black and
blue Strike King Rage Twin
Tail Menace Grub around
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FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | JUNE-JULY 2020