VIEWER’S GUIDE: Long Bay on Fort Gibson Lake the Site for Championship Round
MUSKOGEE, Okla. – The time has come to name a 2020 Sqwincher Patriot Cup Presented by Venmo Champion. Eight anglers are back on Fort Gibson Lake, but this time it’s in a brand new area—Long Bay. With over 54 miles of shoreline and 5,500 surface acres to work with, the eight pros will have every opportunity to find the bites they need to secure a championship.
Water Level Rising Again on Fort Gibson
The pros have been lucky with some favorable weather conditions for much of their time in eastern Oklahoma, but the week has seen a couple of days and nights of heavy rain. That rain has dumped more water back into Fort Gibson Lake, a body of water that MLF analyst Marty Stone says has already seen its fair share of flooding.
“This lake was over 30 feet above full pool earlier in the year,” Stone said. “By the time we arrived in late September, it had fallen to just above 6 feet above normal. These fish have really started to set up on the points and covers. But now, with the heavy rain we had during Elimination Round 2 and Sudden Death Round 1, this lake’s water level is back on the rise.”
These anglers are going to see a lot of the same cover that they’ve seen all week, according to Stone. Pole timber, buckbrush, willow trees and scattered bushes throughout the shoreline make for great places to start looking for bass hugging cover. There are also marinas, boat docks, riprap and chunk rock banks scattered across the bay.
The extra rain has pushed the water level to 9 1/2 feet above full pool. That extra water is sending the Oklahoma bass deeper into the flooded area, according to Stone.
“That’s something these anglers are going to have to adjust to,” Stone predicted. “With all of the changes in conditions these anglers are facing, it may be the same lake, but it’s going to fish differently. It should be the ultimate challenge in this Championship Round.”
The Championship Field
Cody Meyer and Mark Rose enter the Championship Round as the two anglers who won their respective Sudden Death Rounds. Neither has won an MLF event, but they look to be peaking at the right time for a shot at MLF Cup No. 1.
Jordan Lee, Edwin Evers and Aaron Martens all won a Bass Pro Tour event during the 2019 season, so they know what they have to do to win an MLF Cup event. Evers hopes to use his Oklahoma experience while Lee and Martens will try to duplicate their success that they found in their Sudden Death Rounds.
Evers isn’t the only Okie in the Championship Round. Jason Christie comes in as probably the angler that’s most familiar with Fort Gibson Lake. Christie only has a short drive from his home in Park Hill to the ramps at Fort Gibson Lake. He’s definitely a guy to watch come Saturday.
The two Brent’s—Chapman and Ehrler—are the final two competitors in the Championship Round. Ehrler won the first MLF event back on Lake Amistad while Chapman is looking for the fifth major win of his career.
How and Where to Watch
The anglers will fish for three periods in Long Bay on Fort Gibson Lake to try and catch more weight than the rest of the field. The angler on top of SCORETRACKER® after three periods will be the 2020 Patriot Cup champion.
The eight competing anglers bring us the Championship Round on Saturday, May 9 at 2 p.m. ET on Outdoor Channel.
Each new episode of the MLF Cup events will be available on MyOutdoorTV two days after premiering on Outdoor Channel.