4 . |
5 . |
||||||
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE PHOTO BY COBI PELLERITO |
6 . |
PHOTO BY JOSH GASSMANN PHOTO BY KORY SAVAGE |
7 . |
|
4 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . SOUTHERN DIVISION Santee Cooper Lake April 7 – 9
Dangerous winds shortened the Southern Division event on Santee Cooper to just one day , giving Bryan Cook of Vance , South Carolina , his second MFL win on the fishery by virtue of a 28-pound , 9-ounce megabag . That stringer edged out that of Matt Wieteha by 3 pounds , 7 ounces .
Cook had multiple patterns in his arsenal ( being a local with vast knowledge of the fishery ) and all of those patterns aided him in catching his winning bag . First , Cook pitched around a wacky-rigged Yamamoto Senko to target shallow prespawn fish and fill out a solid limit . Then , he turned to grass lines to flip up some upgrades with a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver before finishing the job with a Terminator spinnerbait and a Z-Man / Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer .
|
5 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION Lake Texoma April 7 – 9
Early April was an especially windy period across the country , and as was the case at Santee Cooper , Southwestern Division anglers only had one day of fishing to decide the Toyota Series event on Lake Texoma .
Days 1 and 2 were cancelled due to dangerous wind conditions – the first time the first two days of an event had ever been cancelled in MLF competition – meaning Day 3 was a winner-take-all full-field shootout . When the dust settled , Rick Harris of Del Rio , Texas , earned his first MLF win in 12 events with a bag of 21-13 .
Harris was the last person who thought he ’ d win at about 11:30 when he still had zero keepers in his livewell . At that point , he made a move to a steep , rocky bank and added a couple quality fish on a spinnerbait and a homemade jig . He then moved
|
to some bedding fish he marked during practice , catching one before getting ready to head back to check-in . Instead of firing up the motor , Harris saw a bass under a dock walkway swirl on his jig , so he made another cast and caught a 2-pounder . One more cast later , he had its mate ( a 6-11 female ) in the box and a trophy waiting for him back at weigh-in .
6 . BASS PRO TOUR GENERAL TIRE HEAVY HITTERS PRESENTED BY BASS PRO SHOPS Lake Palestine April 9 – 14
In the postgame interview after accepting the heavyweight belt and $ 100,000 check that came with winning General Tire Heavy Hitters in East Texas , Tennessee pro Ott DeFoe joked about buying a second home in the Lone Star State . Based on his tournament winnings in Texas in the past two years alone , the DeFoes ’ second home could be a doozy .
|
DeFoe wrapped up his fourth win in Texas since 2020 by gritting out a four-fish day in the Championship Round . Fortunately , those four fish were all the right size : DeFoe finished with 16-6 , just 12 ounces ahead of Justin Lucas with 15-10 . Two of those fish ( a 3-10 and a 4-10 ) came in the last 35 minutes of the day , propelling DeFoe from the bottom half of SCORETRACKER ® to the win .
DeFoe spent the week sight fishing , using a 1-2 punch of a 4 1 / 2-inch swimbait on a Tokyo rig and a Texasrigged Bass Pro Magnum Fin-Eke Worm follow-up to get them to bite .
7 . BUILDERS FIRSTSOURCE PATRIOT CUP PRESENTED BY GUARANTEED RATE Lewisville Lake , Eagle Mountain Lake , Lavon Lake April 9 – May 14
It ’ s not often in MLF Cup competition that an angler truly dominates an event , but Stephen Browning did just that .
|