LA CROSSE, Wis. — We’re in the final period of Day 1 of REDCREST Presented by Venmo, and have seen some interesting movement around the Top 20 on SCORETRACKER®. Fred Roumbanis has been the big mover of the day, jumping out of 29th place in Period 1 to the Top 5 in the final period. You can watch the final lap of the Shotgun Round on the MLF NOW! live stream with Chad McKee, JT Kenney, Marty Stone and Natalie Dillon, calling the action right here.
2:25 p.m. CT – Down near the Elimination Line there are still plenty of anglers with a shot at cracking the Top 20. Wesley Strader currently owns the final spot with 29-15. Cody Meyer and Ott DeFoe are both within one scoreable bass of overtaking Strader for the final spot. There is still another day of fishing left, so obviously nothing is set in stone.
-Mason Prince
1:33 p.m. CT – It’s Zack Birge’s Shotgun Round to lose right now. Birge is now more than 17 pounds ahead of second-place Jeff Sprague. Birge has found a spot with plenty of vegetation and is throwing a red frog. That unique color has proved the right choice as he has landed a total of 41 bass for 64-11. There is 90 minutes remaining in the Shotgun Round.
-Mason Prince
1:03 p.m. CT – Mike Iaconelli and Fred Roumbanis are two of the biggest movers of the day. Both anglers ended Period 1 below the Elimination Line but have gradually worked their way up SCORETRACKER® throughout the day. Roumbanis was once as low as 29th place and Iaconelli as low as 25th. Currently, Ike sits in fourth place followed by Roumbanis in fifth.
-Mason Prince
12:48 p.m. CT – Brandon Palaniuk has done a masterful job of finding fish behind a couple of pretty good anglers. Palaniuk started the third period fishing the same spot where Zack Birge and Michael Neal made hay early in the day: on the inside of a small island that Palaniuk hovered on the outside of all morning long. The Idaho pro made big moves on SCORETRACKER® in Period 2 after Birge and Neal moved on, but he did it in a way that was totally different than the other two.
Both Neal and Birge worked a frog and swim jig to great success, but Palaniuk spotted what he identified as a rock pile on his Humminbird 360 and fired a crankbait over it. The result: seven scoreable cranking bass in 30 minutes.
MLF photographer Jesse Schultz watched it all go down: “It’s not a totally obvious spot. There’s so much grass here, everything looks good, but Palaniuk found something different. There’s been a lot of fish caught around this island today.”
–Joel Shangle & Jesse Schultz
12:07 p.m. CT – What a difference a fish makes. Jacob Powroznik has been near the bottom of SCORETRACKER® all day long, but after catching the biggest bass of the day at 4-1 he is now into the Top 20 and above the Elimination Line for the first time today.
-Mason Prince
11:51 a.m. CT – Coming into REDCREST, a lot of the talk was about which baits would perform the best on the Upper Mississippi River. By all indications, frogs, crankbaits, and jigs of all kinds seemed to be the weapon of choice. However, Todd Faircloth has shown in the first two periods that a jerkbait might be the silent killer. The Texas pro has done much of his damage with a jerkbait near boat docks. He is now into eighth place.
-Mason Prince
11:30 a.m. CT – Don’t look now, but here comes Brandon Palaniuk. With a crankbait in hand, Palaniuk has rocketed up SCORETRACKER® into fourth place with 32-6. A 3-9 has been Palaniuk’s biggest bass of the day.
-Mason Prince
10:58 a.m. CT – After a slow first period, Fred Roumbanis has started to pick it up in the second period. The Arkansas pro has now moved into 10th place and above the Elimination Line. He is currently fishing an area where the vegetation is plentiful and the MLF NOW! crew just made they comment that there is no doubt that he has a frog in his hand.
10:33 a.m. CT – Marty Stone and JT Kenney just broke down how Jeff Sprague has been able to grab the lead. He is currently fishing an area near Goose Island that has all different kinds of cover including laydowns and boat docks. However, Stone and Kenney pointed out that the biggest thing that Sprague has been able to take advantage of is the different currents coming off of the island. The Texas pro has been reeling in a mixture of smallmouth and largemouth which has given him a 3-pound lead over Michael Neal.
10:21 a.m. CT – Wesley Strader and Todd Faircloth are within a long cast of one another, but doing totally different things. Strader is fishing outside of a marina, in the main channel, throwing a reaction bait. Faircloth is just inside the marina, fishing docks. Totally interesting to see two such differing techniques from anglers so close to each other.
-Tyler Brinks
10:19 a.m. CT – Jacob Wheeler is fishing the main river, moving quickly, swapping baits frequently, and pitching to targets. His casting precision is phenomenal. Wheeler just finished up on a riprap bank, and then pulled his trolling motor and raced across the river to his next spot. We’re on to other anglers.
-Tyler Brinks
10:16 a.m. CT – Birge and Neal have fished within site of each other almost all morning, both switching between a frog and a swim jig. Power-Poles down, fishing slow. Birge hasn’t left this island all day long, and why would he? There’s duck weed and eelgrass all around.
-Jesse Schultz
10:02 a.m. CT – Stephen Browning ended Period 1 on top of SCORETRACKER® and he has stayed there through the first 15 minutes of Period 2. The Arkansas pro has used a vibrating jig to get most of his bites around varying forms of cover. However, he has yet to catch a scoreable bass in Period 2.
-Mason Prince
9:35 a.m. CT – There are quite a few anglers who spent Period 1 working the maze of tributaries on the bottom end of Pool 8, and most of them were moving fast. Ott DeFoe worked one side of a small island while Greg Hackney worked the other side. The current is running hard here, and there are plenty of locals around. This area seems to be a hotspot.
-Tyler Brinks
9:08 a.m. CT – Kevin VanDam just gave us an update on Greg Hackney’s game plan during the first period. Hackney started off on an area that he really liked with plenty of bait fish. He hit it hard in the morning so now he has backed off of his main spot to let the fish replenish. VanDam says Hackney will hit that main area once again when the sun gets higher in the afternoon. Currently, Hack Attack is set up around some current looking for some bites.
-Mason Prince
8:48 a.m. CT – Jacob Wheeler caught two quality bass back-to-back along what looked like a concrete bridge. But the story is Zack Birge as the Oklahoma pro continues to flirt with the lead. Birge just caught a 3-11 that moved him into first place above Andy Morgan. It was the first fish over 2 pounds that Birge has reeled in today.
-Mason Prince
9:29 a.m. CT – We’ve spent an enjoyable morning watching current leader Zack Birge … right alongside his biggest fans. Birge’s family – including his daughter Emma and wife Kristina – have a front row seat on the Upper Mississippi. Birge’s daughter is happily playing in the sand, and yelling “Yay Daddy!” whenever he hooks up. Birge has been alternating rods, but he’s stuck to the same spot all morning.
–Tyler Brinks
8:12 a.m. CT – Jacob Wheeler just said on camera that it was time he made the switch to his trusty buzzbait. The switch has seemed to pay off for the Tennessee pro as he has now moved into eighth place and 5-13 behind leader Zack Birge. Wheeler is definitely one of those pros that the 29 other anglers do not want to see figure it out here in La Crosse. He caught four bass in a 10-minute span for 7-11.
–Mason Prince
7:56 a.m. CT – Zack Birge remains your leader and Kevin VanDam–who is reporting from the water–just told us that Birge is on a point with some steady current. That is what has been the combination to give Birge a 15-ounce lead over Michael Neal.
–Mason Prince
7:38 a.m. CT – Takahiro Omori just shot up SCORETRACKER® thanks to a 3-14 smallmouth. It was only Omori’s third fish of the morning but it helped him in a big way as it is the largest bass of the day so far. Jacob Wheeler is fishing along some riprap and has had a little success. The Stage Seven champion has only caught two scoreable bass for 2-3.
–Mason Prince
7:28 a.m. CT – The small pocket Neal and Birge are sharing is producing as both have caught five fish in the first fifteen minutes of fishing. The current is running through the pocket and into the main river, a pinch point as Marty Stone described in the preview story. Birge is poled down fishing a big tree and Neal is slowly moving down the bank just behind Birge. Palaniuk continues to work down his grass line and is close by while Birge hooks up with another.
–Tyler Brinks
7:26 a.m. CT – Brandon Palaniuk is cranking a point in the main river and he has company from a local in an aluminum boat using bobbers and catching bluegill. Just off to Palaniuk’s right is Birge and Neal in a small pocket.
–Tyler Brinks
7:10 a.m. CT – Michael Neal has found some early morning success thanks to an area near the shoreline that has some duckweed and tall grass. He just lost a pretty good sized bass but in typical Neal fashion he shook it off and went right back to casting a topwater.
–Mason Prince
7:00 a.m. CT – I spoke with Jeff Sprague before he set out this morning for launch. The Texas pro told me he was not going to go with the rest of the pack and idle for 12 minutes. Instead, he chose to go the opposite direction and search for his own patch of real estate as the second boat to set out behind Edwin Evers. While he wouldn’t tell me where exactly he was going, he did tell me that he felt confident he would not have any issues getting stuck due to those low water levels we have seen some anglers struggle with in practice.
–Mason Prince