The final 10 competitors vying for a spot in the sudden death rounds were Mike Iaconelli, Kevin VanDam, Boyd Duckett, Ish Monroe, Mike McClelland, Takahiro Omori, Kevin Short and Ott Defoe from the Selects.

“These lakes up here have a lot of largemouth only and smallmouth only,” Duckett said. “You need to discover pretty quick what the primary species is.”

Like the anglers from Elimination Round 1, anglers like Chapman were able to spot the birds feeding and identify schooling fish as a strong place to start their day.

Short was the first to land a fish, but his catch was quickly followed by Duckett, who quickly caught two fish off a bridge.

The weather, a bit clouded over early in the day, made many of the anglers have to reconsider exactly how they would change their strategy to catch fish.

“Major League Fishing is a numbers game,” Iaconelli said. “It’s nice when you catch a big one, but it’s a finesse fisherman’s dream.”

Fishing behind Duckett, Iaconelli was able to catch a few fish in Period 1.

“It’s a good sign that we came behind, with this soft stick bait, little wacky rig, and caught a nice keeper so that’s a positive sign this bait is doing something special,” Ike said.

Many of the anglers also struggled with catching bass, rather than pike and perch in the lake.

Short found success frogging off the points covered in buggy whips and some underwater vegetation.

As analyst Marty Stone pointed out, anglers like VanDam and Iaconelli, who are able to dial in on patterns quickly, were rewarded greatly as the day went on.

Iaconelli and Defoe both had success fishing the shade off the docks in their respective fishing locations. Iaconelli said he was switching up his baits, moving between a jig and swim bat based on what he saw the fish doing.

KVD almost took the day in the end, where he was throwing his Strike King KVD deep diving jerk bait.

At the conclusion of the competition, it was Iaconelli, VanDam, Hackney and Defoe who made the cut, moving on to the Sudden Death Rounds.