1 . TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT SUPER TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY OPTIMA BATTERIES Mississippi River July 29-Aug . 1 , 2020 |
Tom Monsoor is a legend on the Mississippi River . He ’ s also a legend with a swim jig , which he used to secure his second tourlevel win with FLW and his first on his home fishery .
Utilizing his signature bait – a Humdinger Tom Monsoor swim jig with a Yamamoto Swim Senko trailer – Monsoor targeted gravel bars and drops with vegetation on them until late morning on day four when his fish vanished and the crafty vet “ just went fishing ” to land some key upgrades .
Monsoor had to earn his win , dueling with a stacked field of pros from both the Pro Circuit and Bass Pro Tour to edge out Jacob Wheeler by nearly 2 pounds .
2 . TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT SUPER TOURNAMENT Lake Erie Aug . 11-14 , 2020
In the final Super Tournament of the 2020 season , Justin Lucas
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proved he ’ s one of the best smallmouth anglers on the planet . The Bass Pro Tour standout , fresh off a win at Sturgeon Bay , went headto-head with the likes of Jacob Wheeler , Josh Bertrand and Scott Dobson to catch 79-2 worth of Great Lakes smallies .
Edging out Wheeler by just 1 ounce , Lucas needed every bit of his 19-10 on day four , which he caught using the Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Flat Worm he helped design . Lucas bounced around Kelly ’ s Island and Gull Island using his electronics , looking for fish . It didn ’ t produce many bites ( he only caught seven or eight keepers a day ), but it produced the right bites .
With rough water being a big issue for most of the field – especially pros who ran all the way to Lake St . Clair – Lucas stayed put in Lake Erie to catch his winning fish , primarily poking around Gull Island Shoal and Kelly ’ s Island Shoal near the Canadian border .
3 . TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT TITLE PRESENTED BY TOYOTA Sturgeon Bay Aug . 24-29 , 2020
After a nine-year hiatus from tour-level tournament fishing ,
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California pro Rusty Salewske announced his return with authority in earning the first-ever Tackle Warehouse TITLE Champion ’ s belt .
Despite a slow start , Salewske tallied 61-10 in the Knockout Round of the MLF-style championship event and backed it up with 48-11 on the final day to snag the victory from Bradford Beavers . It took some last-minute heroics , as Salewske landed the winning smallmouth with just 12 minutes left . You can read more about his win on page 26 .
4 . TOYOTA SERIES SOUTHEASTERN DIVISION Wheeler July 30-Aug . 1 , 2020
Wheeler Lake can be stingy in July , but sometimes all you need is a tin boat , some skinny water in which to use it and some fish that love to live shallow . Just ask Kip Carter , who used that winning formula to earn his 51st top 10 and fifth win in FLW competition by getting shallow with a Dirty Jigs buzzbait and a white swim jig to catch his 41-14 over three days .
Carter knew he ’ d have to fish in a lot of different creeks to find the winning fish , so he used his aluminum tunnel hull rig to bounce
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around in those creeks when it was sunny and calm before plying some flats when the conditions changed .
5 . TOYOTA SERIES NORTHERN DIVISION Lake Erie Aug . 18-20 , 2020
Before Kurt Mitchell finished fourth in the Tackle Warehouse TITLE presented by Toyota at Sturgeon Bay , he honed his smallie-catching tools on Lake Erie with an impressive win as the only angler in the field to average more than 20 pounds a day .
Carrying a 6-pound , 1-ounce lead into the final day , Mitchell worried he left the door open for the competition in weighing in just 15-8 , but it was more than enough for the win .
Targeting areas with a rock jetty and some hard spots , Mitchell employed a drop-shot tipped with a Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm and a Ned rig with a cut-down Yamamoto Senko to catch his winning fish .
6 . TOYOTA SERIES WESTERN DIVISION California Delta
Aug . 19-21 , 2020
Few names are more synonymous with the California Delta than Ish Monroe . It comes as no surprise ,
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