ROGERS, Ark. — A few times Saturday, Cole Floyd felt “my hair on the back of my neck standing up.” That’s because Floyd felt like everything might finally be falling into place for him to claim his first Bass Pro Tour win at Yuengling Light Lager Stage 5 Presented by YETI on Beaver Lake.
Floyd, who had to rally just to make the Knockout Round, started the day right where he’d left off. He boated 14 scorable bass for 35-15 in Period 1 alone, quickly shooting to the top of SCORETRACKER® and never yielding the top spot. He added a couple more fish early in Period 2 before switching to practice mode in preparation for Sunday’s Championship Round. His total weight of 44-7 on 17 scorable bass topped Spencer Shuffield by 6-4.
Floyd and the rest of the top nine finishers from Saturday will join Qualifying Round winner Marshall Hughes on Sunday, where the angler who catches the most weight will earn the Stage 5 trophy and $125,000 top prize. Stream all the action on the MLFNOW! livestream from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT at MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and the Major League Fishing channel on Rumble.
Full results can be found here.
Floyd earns extra prep time in pursuit of first win
Almost exactly a year ago, Floyd ignited a hot streak that put him in exclusive company on the Bass Pro Tour. Starting with Stage 4 on Lakes Chickamauga and Nickajack, the Ohio pro rattled off five consecutive Top 10s to close the season en route to a fourth-place finish in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year standings.
Floyd attributed that heater to his shallow-water, power fishing skill set. So, it should be no surprise that he looked for a similar bite during practice on Beaver. He found a productive area in the upper reaches of the White River, but runoff from the storms that rolled through the area prior to Day 1 muddied the waters too much for Floyd to fish there.
When he returned on Friday afternoon and saw that the water had started to clear and continued to rise, he knew it could be special.
“I told my official, ‘Man, we’re about to smash them. I just don’t know if I have enough time,’” Floyd said. “And it was on, man.”
With one period left in the Qualifying Round, Floyd sat in 43rd place, nearly 15 pounds back of the Lucas Oil Cut Line. During Period 3, he blasted 31-1 on 13 fish to advance to Saturday.
Catching all largemouth, Floyd thinks the bass in the area are prespawners. That’s key for two reasons. One, he’s catching big fish. The first four bass Floyd put on SCORETRACKER® Saturday all topped 3 pounds (more than decent for the Arkansas fishery), and he caught two over 4 on the day. He’s also optimistic that they will stay in the area, while new ones could move up overnight.
“A lot of the fish I’m catching are prespawn females – big ones, too – so, that makes me feel better about the situation,” he said. “I feel like there’s some fish coming to me, and the fish are just going to hang around and set up to spawn.”
Quickly putting so much distance between himself and the Lucas Oil Cut Line allowed Floyd to spend the latter two-thirds of the day exploring new water. In fact, the only scorable bass he added in the final five hours of competition was caught by accident – Floyd tried to shake it off, but hooked it anyway.
He doesn’t think he found anything better than the stretches that produced his Period 1 run, but Floyd added a few more spots into his arsenal for Sunday.
“Not very often are you able to do that,” he said. “To end the first period and know I could go and mill around for five more hours, roughly, I knew that was going to be very helpful, especially going into tomorrow and me beating on my main couple stretches.”
Floyd has learned from experience that success in the early rounds of events doesn’t always translate to the final day, so he’s keeping his expectations in check. While he thinks he could have surpassed 60 or even 70 pounds on Saturday, his goal for the Championship Round is 50.
But he didn’t shy away from acknowledging how much a win – which would be his first not only at the Bass Pro Tour level but any national-level event – would mean to him.
“It’d be life-changing, it really would, just to be able to hold up that trophy,” he said. “I just want to win one.”
Wheeler rallies, holds serve in AOY battle
Angler of the Year leader Jacob Wheeler found himself in an unusual position entering Period 3. Fresh off a win at REDCREST, Wheeler sat in 19th place, nearly 10 pounds back of the cut line, through two periods.
In typical Wheeler fashion, it took him less than two hours in Period 3 to stack up 10 scorable bass for 22-10, propelling him to seventh place. That marks Wheeler’s 43rd Top 10 in 65 career Bass Pro Tour events, and it keeps alive his bid to become the first angler ever to win three straight Bass Pro Tour events.
It’s still not a given that he’ll emerge from Stage 5 as the AOY leader, though. Zack Birge, who entered this event just three points back of Wheeler, also made the Championship Round. Third-place angler Drew Gill, who is 14 points behind Birge, cemented another Top 10 as well.
Other notes:
- For the second day in a row, Wesley Strader made a furious charge up SCORETRACKER® to cross the cut line late in the day – and caught the Berkley Big Bass in the process. Strader, who is competing in his 21st career FLW/MLF event on Beaver (the most of anyone in the field), caught just five scorable bass for 9-1 across the first two periods. He boated 10 for nearly 28 pounds in Period 3, including a 5-5 largemouth he caught in the final seconds before lines out. That pushed Strader all the way to fourth place, giving him a shot at claiming his first Bass Pro Tour victory on Sunday.
- Speaking of anglers who are looking for their first BPT win, Shuffield cruised into the Championship Round with ease, holding the second-place position for much of Saturday. The Arkansas native has now knocked out seven Top 10s in his past nine Bass Pro Tour events dating back to last season.