CONROE, Texas – Competition Groups A and B for the MLF Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two presented by Favorite Fishing will look very similar to viewers who followed the action last week at the Kissimmee Chain season opener. As a matter of fact, they’re exactly the same.

MLF announced the official pairings for the Stage Two event on Lake Conroe, Texas (Feb. 12-17): Groups A and B will remain exactly the same, but the competition schedules will be flip-flopped. That means that the anglers in Group B who fished Days 2 and 4 for their Shotgun and Elimination Rounds in Florida will have first crack at Conroe on Day 1 next Tuesday.

“That’s purely for fairness of competition,” said Steve Core, MLF’s Director of Competitions. “We have to make it even, so everybody has a chance to fish the first day.”

The groupings and schedule didn’t seem to affect the competition much in Kissimmee: Group A’s Top 10 anglers caught 154 fish in their Shotgun Round, with Randy Howell’s 49 pounds, 12 ounces leading the group. Group B’s Top 10 caught 177, with a top weight of 56-0 (Marty Robinson).

But Howell, for one, says that a Day 1 draw is almost always favorable.

“(Fishing Day 1) can matter for sure,” Howell says. “Mostly in a situation where someone on Day 1 could deplete your fish if you’re fishing Day 2, if you were to happen to find the exact same spot or the exact same small school of fish, or the same area with bedding fish. There’s no way of knowing it happened, but it could make fishing slower than you’d expect on Day 2.”

Competition groups will be determined by seedings after the Conroe event.