REDCREST 2019: Ehrler’s “Silent Assassin” Approach Led Him to Season-Long Success
LA CROSSE, Wi. – Maybe it was the head-to-toe black garb – from his flatbill to his Chuck Taylors – that allowed him to slip like a ninja through the 2019 Bass Pro Tour schedule. Maybe it was the quiet, laid-back demeanor.
However he did it, Daiwa pro Brent Ehrler made his first cast into Lake Toho on Jan. 29, and, like smoke, poof, reappeared on the other end of the season in third place in the Race for the Points Championship. Not that he went unnoticed – it’s hard to be missed when you collect three Top 10s in eight events – but Ehrler played the role of the “lurker” all season long while Edwin Evers and Jeff Sprague touched off fireworks in their season-long battle for the points title.
“I call him the ‘silent assassin’ – I’ve watched Brent Ehrler do that for years,” said MLF NOW! analyst Marty Stone. “He’s always had that humble, quiet personality. He never has to tell you how good he is, he just goes out and shows it. If you let him hang around, he will win.”
He almost did exactly that in the final lap of the 2019 season. Ehrler entered Stage Eight in Neenah, Wisconsin in sixth place in points, an almost insurmountable 58 points behind Evers and 55 behind Sprague. By the time the fog cleared on Green Lake on the final day of the 2019 regular season, Ehrler had finished third in Stage Eight and crept to within 9 points of Sprague and 19 points of Evers.
Continued Success in 2019
It was a strong finish by an angler who has been a habitually strong contender in season-long points races since he won the Forrest Wood Cup after only his second season on the FLW Tour.
“Ehrler is just always there and he’s always capable of winning with so many different techniques,” Stone said. “There are very few people who I’ve ever watched that have the ability to win every single time he picks up a rod. He proved it again this year.”
Ehrler acknowledges that his 2019 season was a success by almost all measures. Almost. It’s hard to miss the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” in his voice when he talks about the single day during the eight-event season – his Shotgun Round in Stage Three Raleigh, in which he weighed only six fish on Falls Lake – where he “just wasn’t quite as dialed in,” according to Ehrler.
But that was Ehrler’s only dip below the Elimination Line all season. He recovered quickly from Raleigh, notching a Championship Round appearance at Smith Lake and again in Neenah, reclaiming momentum that he hopes to carry right into REDCREST.
“The thing about Ehrler is that he’s just so good at everything,” Stone said. “There are a lot of guys who will do well when they pick up THE rod and fish THE condition that they’re really comfortable with, but with Ehrler, it’s every rod he picks up.”
Ready for REDCREST
Judging by previous competition results, it would be easy to assume that the Upper Mississippi River is slightly uncomfortable territory for Ehrler. He finished 87th there in the 2016 Elite Series and failed to escape the Elimination Round in the MLF Cup event held in La Crosse that same year. He finished 50th there in 2018.
Ehrler admits that he’s not quite as adept at running a pattern on a river system like the Upper Mississippi, but is ready for the challenge at REDCREST.
“Just about everything looks good on that river, which can make it hard to identify the right kind of water,” Ehrler said. “I’m going to practice as long and hard as I possibly can, and hope I can find the right areas. I’ll just go and learn every day I’m out there.”