Josh Bertrand’s Top 5 Moments from Record-Breaking Shotgun Round
BRANSON, Mo. – Shotgun Round 1 of the Berkley Stage Six Presented by TrueTimber was memorable in many ways for MLF pro Josh Bertrand. The Mercury pro steamrolled the 40-man field with 59 Table Rock Lake bass, for 89 pounds, 5 ounces, eclipsing the Bass Pro Tour records for fish caught in a round and heaviest single-day weight.
Here are Bertrand’s Top 5 moments from his record-breaking day:
1. First Fish of the Day: Bertrand was confident about connecting with plenty of fish on Table Rock Lake going into the day, but after 15 minutes of competition with no scoreable bass to show for it, Bertrand started to experience a few nerves.
“I figured I was around quite a few fish in practice and was excited to start real quick, but after you fish for 10 to 15 minutes with no bites on this lake, no matter what, a little bit of doubt creeps in,” Bertrand admitted. “Catching that first fish (at 6:54 a.m.) made me feel like ‘Okay, now I’m good.’ I felt like I could just put my head down and get to work.”
2. Second Period Slumber: Bertrand experienced a second-period hiccup in his day’s average of a fish every 7.6 minutes: the Arizona pro started Period 2 with four fish in 75 minutes, and slipped a few places down SCORETRACKER®.
“Man, that second period, I lost a few fish and started to slip down SCORETRACKER® – I knew I had to settle down, but it’s not as easy as you think it is to just sit down and calm yourself down,” Bertrand admitted. “You need to get some actual momentum to truly calm down, and I had a good 30 minutes there where nothing was going well. I was losing every fish, and not getting many bites.”
3. A Weather Update: MLF Production moved an MLF NOW! live stream camera to Bertrand once it became obvious that he was going to challenge the Bass Pro Tour record books. The commentary provided by the camera-boat driver upon arrival with the camera made Bertrand laugh.
“It was cool that they were putting a camera on my boat, but as the guy rolls up on me, he says ‘Hey, we brought you a camera. And there’s a tornado watch.’ We were laughing about that all afternoon.”
4. Taking a Shot at the Record: Bertrand knew he was having a stellar day, but he didn’t know exactly how stellar until MLF cameraman Mark Pelizzoni informed him that he was two fish short of the single-day fish-catch record.
“I still had an hour to go at that point, and at first it wasn’t a big deal to me, but then I thought to myself ‘I have to get this record, that would be a pretty cool thing to do,’ Bertrand said. “Once I thought about it a minute, I knew I wanted to break that record.”
5. The Record Fish: Bertrand wanted to break the single-day weight record with an impressive fish, and had a shot at doing exactly that in the final minutes of the competition.
“I was really hoping to catch a 4-pounder to break the weight record,” Bertrand admitted. “I hooked a good one and lost it, so I missed my chance at that. “I got to the point where I needed a 1-3 to break the record and caught a 1-4 spotted bass. It wasn’t a 4, but hey, we’re still talking about it today, so that 1-4 wasn’t so bad.”
Bertrand will be back on Table Rock on Monday for the second Elimination Round of the Bass Pro Tour Berkley Stage Six Presented by TrueTimber.