CONROE, Texas – The Major League Fishing format preaches “every fish counts”. However, some fish count more than others, and that was definitely the case during Wednesday’s Shotgun Round of the MLF Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two presented by Favorite Fishing.
The bites were hard to come by for most of the anglers, but some MLF pros made the few bites they had count. Five anglers landed fish over 5 pounds, and all of them are above the Elimination Line.
Andy Montgomery is one of those five anglers. He finished in second behind Jordan Lee, but reeled in the biggest fish of the day at 9 pounds, 6 ounces just before time ran out in Period 1.
“It was incredible, my heart was beating so fast,” Montgomery recapped. “I thought he was a 5-pounder so I tried to boat-flip him but when I got him close to the boat I knew he was close to 10 pounds.”
Jared Lintner finished the day inside the Top 20 in sixth place thanks to a 5-12 that carried him. Lintner is new to the MLF format and is still perfecting his strategy, but the search for big bites is something Lintner has always focused on.
“I’m from California where you can’t really fish for 3-pounders,” Lintner explained. “If you want to win tournaments out there, you need to go after big ones, and that’s what I’ve usually done. In MLF I’m fishing for bites, but I’m also fishing where I would expect a big one to be.”
“I bass fish to catch big ones. I’m not going to change my game for this format. I would rather catch one 5-pounder than five 1-pounders. Hopefully I don’t have to adjust that strategy to succeed, but so far so good.”
-Randall Tharp
Another angler who rode a big fish to the Top 20 was Randall Tharp. The Florida native only reeled in six bass during Shotgun Round 1, but averaged 3-6 per fish. Tharp, also a newcomer to MLF, has made it clear that his focus on the water is on the quality of his fish instead of the quantity.
“I bass fish to catch big ones,” Tharp said. “I’m not going to change my game for this format. I would rather catch one 5-pounder than five 1-pounders. Hopefully I don’t have to adjust that strategy to succeed, but so far so good.”
The bite was also tough for Shin Fukae, but he made the most of the bites he had. Fukae’s six fish totaled 17-10. Fukae landed a 5-10 that helped push him into ninth place and in a comfortable position heading into the Elimination Round.
“That big fish was really just a lucky bite in the morning,” Fukae said with a grin. “I really had a tough day the rest of the time. I think I might try to fish the afternoon bite on Friday.”
Brett Hite was able to land a 5-2 that put him in 16th place and 2-11 ahead of the current Elimination Line. While he didn’t reel in the number of fish that he wanted, that 5-pounder was a nice silver lining for an otherwise difficult day.
“I was really happy with that fish but I’m not getting a lot of bites,” Hite detailed. “Everyone is really kind of grinding it out. I don’t really care if it’s big or not, I’ll just take whatever is biting at this point.”
Group A takes the water Thursday for Elimination Round 1 that begins at 7:30 a.m. CT. Only the Top 20 out of the 40 anglers in each group will move on to Saturday’s Knockout Round. Watch MLF NOW!beginning at 10 a.m. CT on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MLF app.