Becker cracks 100 pounds to grab Day 1 lead at the St. Lawrence River

Matt Becker finished the first day of Stage Seven atop SCORETRACKER® with 30 bass weighing 106 pounds, 7 ounces. Photo by Tyler Brinks. Angler: Matt Becker.

August 6, 2024 • Mitchell Forde • Bass Pro Tour

MASSENA, N.Y. — High expectations greeted the Bass Pro Tour field as it launched onto the St. Lawrence River for Minn Kota Stage Seven Presented by Humminbird. During the first day of qualifying for Group A, the famed smallmouth factory didn’t disappoint.

Fish hit SCORETRACKER® in both impressive size and numbers, with 16 anglers eclipsing the 50-pound mark. Leading the charge was Matt Becker, who landed 30 scorable smallmouth for 106 pounds, 7 ounces — easily enough to claim the top spot on the leaderboard, 26-2 ahead of Nick Hatfield in second place.

“This place is incredible,” Becker said of the St. Lawrence. “Just the amount of smallmouth in there is absolutely insane.”

Full results can be found here.

Becker tapping a unique bite

With the Bass Pro Tour’s every-fish-counts scoring format bringing a unique wrinkle to this popular tournament venue, one of the primary questions competitors had to answer was how much to prioritize quantity of bass versus quality.

Becker went ahead and led the way in both categories. Not only were his 30 scorable bass the most caught by any angler Tuesday, he also earned an extra $1,000 by catching the Berkley Big Bass, a 5-8. That was one of nine smallmouth he boated that weighed at least 4 pounds.

With bites not hard to come by for most of the field, Becker said searching for bigger fish was central to his strategy.

“That’s kind of what I focused on, I wanted to catch that better quality,” he said. “You’re going to always get the bites, but if you’re around that better quality, you can rack up the weight in a hurry. So, that’s what I kind of focused on was areas where I know I can get a little bit better quality, and it worked out perfect today.”

Becker triggered the fish in those areas by “doing things a little bit different” than most of his competitors. While he didn’t want to reveal many details, he said he stumbled on this presentation during a past Toyota Series event on the St. Lawrence and expanded on it during practice. He thinks standing out from the heavy tournament traffic on the river helped generate some of those bigger bites.

“It’s a really, super unique deal, and I really don’t think anybody else is fishing the way I am as far as presenting their bait,” Becker said. “So, I’m excited about it, for sure.”

Group A leader Matt Becker also scored the biggest bass of the day with a 5-8. Photo by Tyler Brinks

Becker started the day strong, racking up 23-5 on eight fish in the first hour after lines in. After hovering near the top of the standings for the rest of the morning, he separated himself from the pack with a furious flurry between 12:50 and 1:50 p.m. During that hour (which included a 15-minute period break), Becker boated nine fish totaling 36-11.

“It was the right place at the right time, and it was fresh — nobody had fished there yet today,” he said. “I could pretty much call my shot for about that hour there. And there was a lot more there with them that, once I caught a couple, they kind of got spooked. So, I’m definitely excited about revisiting some of those areas.”

With more than 50 pounds between his total and that of 11th-place angler Zack Birge, Becker plans to use Group A’s second day of qualifying to explore new water. He thinks having that opportunity will be important as he tries to keep tabs on the river’s dynamic brown bass.

“In my experience on this river, the fish are constantly changing, so staying on top of them is really key,” he said. “I felt like I was pretty dialed in today, but by two days from now or by the weekend for the Knockout Round, things could be totally different.”

With his spots in REDCREST 2025 and Heavy Hitters now assured, Becker has adopted a win-or-bust mindset for the regular-season finale. He knows how to close the season with a flourish, having won both Stage Seven on Saginaw Bay and clinched the Angler of the Year award in the final event of 2023. He’s also won a Toyota Series event that launched out of the St. Lawrence in 2017.

That experience combined with his strong start has him cautiously optimistic about his chances of contending for a second straight walk-off win.

“I’m as confident as ever with this place and what I’m doing,” Becker said. “I feel like I have it really dialed in right now, and I could literally just call my shot today. But, like I mentioned, the smallmouth like to change. These Northern fisheries, they have such a short summer that one week of time is a huge amount of time in their summer pattern, so things change really fast. But I feel good about today, and I feel like I have enough experience here that I should be able to make the right adjustments going into the weekend.”

What’s next for Stage Seven

The 39 competitors in Group B will get their first chance to light up SCORETRACKER® on Wednesday. Group A will then return to the water on Thursday with 10 bids to Saturday’s Knockout Round up for grabs.

There’s extra on the line this week in addition to the trophy and $100,000 payday for the tournament winner. This marks the last chance for anglers to secure spots in REDCREST 2025 on Lake Guntersville and Heavy Hitters on Smith Mountain Lake, as well as to earn invitations to return to the Bass Pro Tour next season. We’ll have full coverage of all the important developments throughout the event on MajorLeagueFishing.com, plus on-the-water action will be streamed live on MLFNOW! Thursday through Sunday from 7:45 a.m. ET until 4:30 p.m. each day.

Fishing Clash Angler of the Year

By the end of this week, the season-long battle for the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title and the $100,000 that comes with it will have a winner. Two of the remaining contenders took the water in Group A in Alton Jones Jr. and Dustin Connell. While both are in the mix to qualify for the Knockout Round and thus keep their hopes alive of claiming the trophy, they each have some work to do — and will need some help from points leader Jacob Wheeler.

After the first day of qualifying, Jones sits 10th in Group A with 58-0. Connell isn’t far behind him with 50-13, which has him 16th. With Jones entering Stage Seven 19 points back of Wheeler in the season-long standings and Connell another 16 behind him, both anglers almost certainly need to make the Knockout Round to have a shot at catching Wheeler. They’ll also need Wheeler to finish outside of the Top 20 for the first time in his past 11 regular-season BPT events. Wheeler will take the water with Group B on Wednesday.

Fishing Clash, an interactive 3D fishing simulation game played by over 80 million people worldwide, is the official AOY sponsor of the Bass Pro Tour, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, Toyota Series and Phoenix Bass Fishing League. You can download Fishing Clash for free in the App Store and on Google Play or log on to www.fishingclash.game for more information.