PHOTO BY KANYAN KLEIN putting it all together
On the day of the installation , Texas Parks and Wildlife Department staff joined the MLF FMD , Invitationals pro Kyle Cortiana and Bass Pro Tour anglers Brent Chapman and Greg Vinson to construct and deploy the habitat . TPWD provided its state-of-the-art hydraulic habitat barge for precise deployment of the structure , and Hammer Equipment of Jasper , Texas , provided a Kubota B3350HSD tractor to aid in transporting concrete blocks and the habitat down the ramp and onto the barge .
The first three hours of the morning were spent constructing the MossBack products ; once they were all completed , we marked the four preselected locations and used the tractor to load individual pieces onto the barge . The barge can precisely deploy two cubes at one time , ensuring they are next to each other . All four locations were marked by TPWD , and the GPS locations will be available on their habitat maps of Sam Rayburn .
This habitat was put to immediate use the following week , when 150 Invitationals anglers launched and weighed in at Umphrey Family Pavilion . Drew Gill won the event a three-day total of 69-6 . There were 305 five-fish limits weighed in , with a total of 1,525 bass across the event . Those fish cumulatively weighed 4,237.06 pounds , with the average fish running 2.63 pounds . The biggest fivefish bag was Marshall Hughes ’ whopping 38-7 , and the big fish of the event was Cole Breeden ’ s 11-12 .
MLF pros Brent Chapman , Greg Vinson and Kyle Cortiana chipped in to create the Bass Recovery Zone at Sam Rayburn .
PHOTO BY KANYAN KLEIN
Those numbers illustrate the productivity of this big-fish factory and the importance of fish recovery in keeping it that way . All fish weighed in during the tournament were immediately placed into MLF live release boats and released throughout the cove near the newly installed Bass Recovery Zones .
MossBack Fish Habitat was deployed around Umphrey Family Pavilion , a popular tournament weigh-in location .
This project highlights an extraordinary ability for MLF to ensure that every fish has the best possible chance to recover following our events and demonstrates Minn Kota ’ s and Kubota ’ s hearty support of the fishing community .
building the bubba data set
Sam Rayburn was also important for the MLF FMD as we started to expand our data-sharing efforts beyond the BPT and onto the Invitationals . In the past , the FMD has been able to provide state agency biologists with the species , weight , habitat type , GPS location , time and date for every fish caught in any Bass Pro Tour event or others contested under the catch , weigh , immediate-release format . This data collection and sharing is unparalleled , but until this season was only available when MLF officials could be present in anglers ’ boats , manually entering the data into SCORETRACKER ®.
For traditional weigh-in events , we ’ ve only been able to provide states with the daily fivefish total bag weight per angler and the biggest individual fish weighed in — the standard for the industry until MLF introduced SCORETRACKER ®. This season , we have the potential to utilize a
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