Klein and Duckett Happy with Top 10 Finish
CONROE, Texas – The Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour field is filled with young rising stars (Jordan Lee, Zack Birge, Brandon Palaniuk just to name a few). However, during the Huk Stage Two presented by Favorite Fishing, it was two of the more experienced pros who made the most noise.
Major League Fishing co-founders Gary Klein (ninth) and Boyd Duckett (third) both finished inside the Top 10 on Lake Conroe thanks to their solid week-long performances. After a rough time in Stage One, both Klein and Duckett were both all smiles after Stage Two.
“Anytime you make the Top 10, you have to feel good about it,” Duckett said.
“I fizzled out a little bit but if I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t change anything,” Klein recapped. “We have a lot of hammers in this group so to make a Top 10 puts a smile on my face.”
Klein and Duckett may have a few more gray hairs than most of their fellow anglers, but that doesn’t mean they still can’t hang around with the best of them.
“In this format it’s really intense,” Duckett said. “It’s high paced and it’s really been fun for me and Gary. It gave us both a lot of confidence for the year. I got a third place so I know I can still beat some of them.”
Klein had a difficult time getting a bite all day, hence his ninth-place finish. Still, he made sure to keep an eye on his buddy Boyd.
“I was watching that leader board all day,” Klein said. “All of the guys are my favorite but it was fun to watch Boyd try to make a run at it.”
Duckett and Klein made it to Sunday’s Championship Round by finishing in the top two spots in the Knockout Round. The two hope to make that into something of a habit.
“The way we ended up in the Knockout Round was pretty special,” Klein said. “That’s going to be our goal for the rest of the season is to try to finish one of these things ranked one and two at the end.”
“I want to get a win really bad, me or Gary,” Duckett said. “All you can do is keep hammering.”
For Klein, MLF is he and Duckett’s brainchild. The long-time friends have come a long way from formulating the idea of MLF in a pickup truck in an empty parking lot in 2009. While the finish Sunday was not what he wanted, he takes pride in the fact the two are building something for the future of fishing.
“A rewarding thing to me is to see something being built for the younger anglers,” Klein explained. “They’re going to be the ones that benefit from it years down the road. It’s important to me and I want to give it my all to make sure that we get it right.”
The MLF Bass Pro Tour returns with Stage Three on March 26 from Raleigh, N.C.