Meyer’s First-Period Big Fish Carries him to Elimination Round Win

Photo by Josh Gassmann

January 22, 2019 • Joel Shangle • Select Events

ARDMORE, Oklahoma – Throughout his 11-year career, Northern California bass pro Cody Meyer has made a name for himself – and a darn good living – by coaxing numbers of fish to bite with a finesse worm. But on a dead-slow day on Lake Murray in Ardmore, Oklahoma, it turned out to be a good thing that Meyer’s finesse approach sometimes produces quality as well as quantity.

Boosted by a 6-pound, 11-ounce giant that bit a Strike King finesse worm early in the day, Meyer caught three fish for 12-3 to notch a win in Elimination Round 3 of the 2019 MLF Summit Select. It was the fewest fish Meyer has caught in a competition round in his brief MLF career, but easily enough to win the round and advance to Sudden Death.

“Dude, that was a BRUTAL day, but a win is a win,” Meyer admitted after the round, as he slugged down a Sqwincher in the heavy Oklahoma heat. “I’m pretty sure this is the first time in my career that I can say I won anything with only three bites. I’ll take it, though.”

Meyer’s big fish – one of five 5-plus-pounders recorded in three days of Elimination Round competition on Lake Murray – turned out to be enough to win the round outright. Marty Robinson finished second with 5-8, Jordan Lee finished third with 5-7 and Brandon Palaniuk squeezed into Sudden Death with one fish for 4-4. James Watson, Russ Lane, Scott Suggs, and Jason Lambert failed to advance.

Bites were few and far between
Meyer got off to a strong start, putting his 6-11 on SCORETRACKER midway through Period 1. He didn’t connect with another scorable largemouth until the last 30 minutes of Period 2, when he hooked a 4-1 to boost his lead to 7 pounds over Robinson. Meyer finished his day with a 1-8 in the third period.

“That was just one of those days where you knew you probably weren’t going to get many bites, so every chance you got was going to be critical,” Meyer said. “That lake looked like it could have some pretty big fish in it, so I wasn’t totally shocked to catch a 6 … but I was pretty happy about it.”

NOTES: Meyer’s big fish was one of only 11 fish recorded on SCORETRACKER for the day, but also one of the biggest ever recorded in MLF Select competition … three rounds of Elimination Round competition produced limited bites for the 24 Select anglers competing: an average of only three scorable bass per angler.