Clausen Survives Roller Coaster Ride into the Knockout Round

BRANSON, No. – Luke Clausen began the first Elimination Round of Bass Pro Tour Stage Seven in 17th place and ended the day in 18th. While at first glance it looks like he merely held the pace to advance to Tuesday’s Knockout Round, that’s only part of the story.

The Washington pro endured a day that included him falling to 27th place, breaking a trolling motor, and swapping boats, only to move back on the right side of the cut thanks to a late-evening rally.

He laughs about it now, but it was an extremely stressful situation at the time.

What Happened

At 3:24 p.m., Clausen realized he had an issue with his equipment and made a call to MLF managers to see if he could get a replacement boat.

While waiting for the swap, he was able to catch two scoreable bass by idling to areas and drifting.

“Of course, where I was there was not a puff of wind to help push me along,” he said.

Within 45 minutes, Clausen was in a new boat and landed his biggest fish of the day shortly after. That 3-pound, 4-ouncer helped turn his day around for the positive.

An Unfamiliar Boat

Clausen estimates that it took 10 minutes to swap his gear from one boat to another, and he left behind several things he needed.

“I grabbed all of the rods on my deck and started frantically grabbing boxes and bags of plastics,” he said. “I forgot my leader line and had to get back in my boat, and then I had to go back again because I forgot my phone. I also didn’t have any of my pliers or line cutters. It was just the little things that we take for granted when we are in our boats.

“The fish came up schooling around me later, and I had nothing to throw at them. I also reached for a soft plastic bait and decided against using it because I didn’t have any more of them and was worried I would start catching fish with it and have none left.”

All the while, the clock was ticking, and Clausen was slipping down SCORETRACKER®.

The MLF backup boat also had a different brand of trolling motor, and the switch was on the opposite side that Clausen was accustomed to.
“Out of instinct, I kept stepping in the wrong spot and thinking there was something wrong with this one, too,” Clausen joked. “For the last few hours, I was stomping on the pedal and not moving.”

Old School Approach

Another aspect of this predicament was not having his own electronics full of his waypoints and detailed mapping cards.

Adding to that was the lack of DownScan technology to locate bass below the boat around the submerged brush. This eliminated his offshore fishing, so Clausen decided to simply go fish down the bank.

He was able to land eight bass for 14-12 in the last 55 minutes of competition by using a Z-Man TRD on a Ned Rig. This sealed the deal and gave him one more chance to tame Table Rock Lake.

“It was the only way I felt I could fish efficiently and still have a chance to catch enough fish to move up into the Top 20,” he said.

Boat issues are part of the game from weekend club tournaments to the Bass Pro Tour. Luckily for Clausen, he was able to turn the situation into something positive.

“I’m thankful to MLF for providing a boat to me, or I wouldn’t have made the cut,” Clausen admitted.