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In a year of firsts , records , big fish and memorable moments , these stories stood out
By Mitchell Forde
IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY that the 2023 Major League Fishing tournament season started off with a thunderclap when Texas pro Hayden Heck dropped five largemouth weighing 28 pounds , 11 ounces on the scales at Sam Rayburn Reservoir at the first Phoenix Bass Fishing League event of the year in early January . Little did we know that Cody Pitt would one-up him less than a month later with a 39-15 megabag in the second Cowboy
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Division tournament of the young year , just up Highway 96 from Rayburn at Toledo Bend .
From there , the compelling stories would continue to flow . The sport ’ s G . O . A . T . ( Greatest of All Time ) announced his retirement from the game he had dominated for 26 years . Big bass were prolific throughout the MLF 5 and Bass Pro Tour circuits . Tournament participation was high and first-time champions flourished at all levels of competition . There were literally hundreds of interesting storylines that kept us intrigued throughout the season that was , but we challenged our editors to pick 23 of their favorites .
Here are 23 stories we loved in 2023 .
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Ebare lands first ( and second ) wins JAN . 27
Few , if any , anglers have been as hot in recent years as Dakota Ebare . From 2019 through 2022 , the young Texan logged an astounding 15 Top-10 finishes in MLF competition , including four in his first seven Bass Pro Tour events . The one thing that eluded him , however , was a first-place trophy . Ebare rectified that by winning his first tournament of 2023 at a Toyota Series
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PHOTO BY MATT BROWN |
event in late January on Sam Rayburn Reservoir , sacking up more than 32 pounds on the second and final day . He didn ’ t stop there ; about a month later , Ebare returned to the winner ’ s circle with a wire-to-wire victory at Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 2 on Clarks Hill Lake . Ebare would keep the momentum rolling , notching four more Top 10s in BPT competition and finishing fifth in the Angler of the Year race . In all , he pocketed more than $ 375,000 in winnings on the season . |
Chris Lane beats buzzer at Kissimmee Chain FEB . 18
Viewers of the MLFNOW ! livestream knew what Chris Lane didn ’ t as the seconds ticked down at B & W Trailer Hitches Stage One Presented by Grundéns : If the bass he boated with less than two minutes remaining in the Championship Round weighed more than 4 pounds , 12 ounces , he would pass Mark Davis atop SCORETRACK- ER ®. The scale read 5-5 . But it wasn ’ t until after the “ lines out ” call that Lane learned he ’ d erased an 11-8 final day deficit to the Hall of Famer and won the first event of the Bass Pro Tour season — to which he reacted with a disbelieving “ You ’ re kidding me !” followed by a signature “ Powwwww !” The last-minute cull , which boosted Lane ’ s Championship Round bag to 26-1 , put an exclamation point on a wild final day , which also saw him hand-line a bass to the boat after his reel malfunctioned .
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