LIVE BLOG: Pace Wins Stage Eight Championship
NEENAH, Wis. — It all comes down to this. We’ve gone from 80 anglers down to 10 for the Evinrude Stage Eight Presented by Tracker Off Road championship. The 10 finalists will hit Green Lake today for their final stop of the Bass Pro Tour regular season. After seven-and-a-half hours of fishing today, only one pro will walk away with $100,000 and the Stage Eight Championship.
Follow along with all the action on SCORETRACKER® all day long.
4:15 p.m. CT – Cliff Pace is the Evinrude Stage Eight Presented by Tracker Off Road champion! Pace caught 47 bass for 81-9 to cruise to his first Bass Pro Tour win. Congrats to Pace on a well-deserved win!
3:09 p.m. CT – Only one hour remains in Stage Eight and it seems as though Bobby Lane is the only angler with a chance to catch Cliff Pace. Pace leads Lane by 6-13. Lane is currently fishing offshore trying to drop-shot his way to a Stage Eight championship.
2:05 p.m. CT – Pace is maintaining his double-digit lead over Brent Ehrler. Ehrler trails Pace by 15-13 with almost two hours remaining. Pace has stayed consistent in catching a bass about every five minutes. That’s a winning formula.
1:25 p.m. CT – It is Cliff Pace’s event to lose right now as he has distanced himself by another 5 pounds, now leading Brent Ehrler by 15-3. Pace followed up a 2-4 smallmouth with a 3-2 to continue his dominance.
1:00 p.m. CT – Make Pace’s lead double-digits now, but there’s a new angler in second place. Bobby Lane has jumped Jacob Wheeler for the spot right behind Pace, but Lane remains 10-8 back. Lane has had success using a jerkbait to catch plenty of smallmouth.
12:45 p.m. CT – Cliff Pace has extended his lead over Jacob Wheeler to 9 pounds, 7 ounces. Pace continues to land smallmouth bass after smallmouth bass to keep distancing himself from Wheeler.
12:15 p.m. CT – That’s the end of Period 2. Here’s where we stand with one period left in Stage Eight:
- Cliff Pace 36-11
- Jacob Wheeler 30-01
- Bobby Lane 26-04
- Casey Ashley 20-10
- Gary Klein 20-01
- Andy Morgan 19-13
- Brent Ehrler 18-11
- Brandon Coulter 15-10
- James Elam 13-05
- Gerald Spohrer 12-04
12:02 p.m. CT – After an hour and 15-minute weather delay, we are back into competition. There will be 15 minutes of fishing until the end of Period 2 at 12:15 p.m. CT. There will be an extra 45 minutes added on to the end of Period 3 to account for the weather delay.
10:45 a.m. CT – There will be a weather delay for an undetermined amount of time due to inclement weather entering the Green Lake area. Stay with us for any updates on changes in time and restart to competition.
10:40 a.m. CT – Morgan has squeezed into a backwater just across County Road A from this morning’s launch location, and it looks like a frog-fishing paradise. Morgan maneuvered his Evinrude-powered Bullet under a short bridge that’s located right next to the freshwater outlet where he caught his first fish this morning. The backwater is matted grass as far as the eye can see, and Morgan is mixing a frog with a punching setup as he picks it apart.
10:11 a.m. CT – Cliff Pace is on the move. The Mississippi is now only 1-3 behind Jacob Wheeler for first place in the Championship Round. Pace has caught four bass in the second period but he is currently serving a two-minute penalty.
10:00 a.m. CT – Period 2 is underway and Jacob Wheeler maintains his lead over the nine other anglers. Cliff Pace is in second place behind Wheeler and needs 6-1 to catch him.
9:33 a.m. CT – At the end of the first period, here’s where we stand in the Championship Round:
- Jacob Wheeler 27-14
- Bobby Lane 20-13
- Cliff Pace 20-11
- Casey Ashley 20-10
- Andy Morgan 19-13
- Brandon Coulter 13-04
- Gary Klein 12-12
- Brent Ehrler 10-12
- James Elam 6-04
- Gerald Spohrer 4-01
9:22 a.m. CT – Bobby Lane has started to make a run towards the top of SCORETRACKER™ as he tries to challenge Jacob Wheeler. Lane landed back-to-back 2-pound smallmouth and is now in second place and 4-11 back of Wheeler.
8:55 a.m. CT – It was about a 30-minute lull for Jacob Wheeler without a scoreable bass, but he has now jumped back into the saddle. The Indiana pro caught three bass over a 20-minute span to extend his lead over Casey Ashley to more than 5 pounds. Wheeler is trying to become the first pro this season to win back-to-back Bass Pro Tour stages.
8:30 a.m. CT – We’re on Casey Ashley, who’s fishing a shallow flat in front of a long row of docks. He’s searching for bedding bass and making casts while keeping his eyes peeled along each side of the boat.
8:23 a.m. CT – Wheeler has his total weight stretched to 16-9, but Cliff Pace is right on his tail coming on strong. Pace made a move to a swimbait that has paid off for him in the past hour. A 3-2 smallmouth has Pace just 1-3 behind Wheeler for the lead.
7:51 a.m. CT – We have a new leader, and it’s not really a surprise to anyone who has paid attention to Major League Fishing. Jacob Wheeler is now leading the field with 11 pounds, 14 ounces so far. Wheeler has had success catching offshore smallmouth, three of which have been over 3 pounds and one over 2 pounds. These quality fish have helped put Wheeler in a position to win back-to-back Bass Pro Tour events to end the season.
7:32 a.m. CT – All three of the guys we’re watching have hooked up with one bass. Wheeler’s was a nice 3-14 smallmouth. He hooked the same fish the previous drop but released it as it was a sight fish that was hooked outside of the mouth, making it non-scoreable.
7:15 a.m. CT – What a great start for Cliff Pace on Green Lake. The Mississippi pro has caught two smallmouth bass this morning and both were over 3 pounds. That’s the kind of start to your day that you want on a relatively unknown lake. He is the current leader at 6 pounds, 6 ounces.
7:11 a.m. CT – Gerald Spohrer raced back to launch to deal with some equipment malfunctions, but after some scrambling by the service crews, he was able to get back out on Green Lake four minutes before lines in. He had planned on hitting the same freshwater bubbler that Morgan started on, but lost out on that chance when Morgan settled down there before Spohrer could get going.
What are the chances? 10 guys fishing today and three of our anglers are fishing the same offshore spot. Lane, Wheeler, and Coulter are all fishing a long, shallow bar that is surrounded by 100 feet of water. There are also 11 non tournament boats fishing this spot. It’s a “community hole” and a big community at that.
7:08 a.m. CT – Andy Morgan has started his morning just 100 yards from the ramp, on a freshwater outflow under the County Road A bridge. He missed one bite on a buzzbait and then connected on his first fish of the day. And a good one: 2 pounds, 15 ounces.
7:03 a.m. CT – It’s sunny and 71 degrees on Green Lake this morning in western Wisconsin, a beautiful start to our Championship Round. Some rain is expected to roll in later in the afternoon, but our pros should remain dry for the most part through the entirety of their round. At just over 7,300 acres, Green Lake is the smallest body of water our 10 pros have seen this week. We say not many numbers of fish in Lake Butte des Morts on Saturday, but a good number of quality bass. Let’s see if the same is the case for Green Lake.