COLUMBIA, South Carolina – While Chris Lane methodically plinked his way to a 5-pound victory in Elimination Round 3 at the 2018 Challenge Select in Columbia, South Carolina, the five anglers who finished behind him – Michael Neal, Keith Poche, Brandon Palaniuk, Casey Ashley and Todd Faircloth – spent the final hour of the day swapping spots on SCORETRACKER.

“Welcome to Major League Fishing,” Palaniuk joked afterward.

Neal gets the nod

Neal finished in second place with 14 pounds, 5 ounces. His ascension to the second spot was especially notable. The East Tennessee pro had flirted with the Top 4 cutline throughout the day, struggling through a sluggish first period before identifying a pattern in Period 2.

He had focused the entire first period on the Lake Murray shoreline opposite the launch ramp, catching two fish for 4-3 on topwater, but then shifted his attention back to the grassy shoreline on the launch-ramp side to start Period 2.

Out came the spinning rod, 3/16-ounce drop-shot weight and 6-inch Big Bite Baits Finesse Worm, which he pitched along the edge of the grass.

The change paid off as Neal logged two fish for 3 pounds in a 22-minute span midway through the period, and then another 1-9 just before the period break to put himself back into the mix for a Top 4 finish heading into Period 3.

“It took me awhile to get on that pattern,” Neal admits. “Once I figured out that I needed to be fishing the (grass) edges, I stayed within a half-mile area and worked the drop-shot.”

Neal caught one more fish on the drop-shot (a 2-7) early in the final period, but then noticed fish schooling near a hazard buoy midway through the period and switched to a pearl white 5-inch Big Bite Jerk Minnow. The result: two fish in four minutes and an additional 3-4, which pushed him up the SCORETRACKER leaderboard to second place and advanced him to Sudden Death.

“The drop-shot had kinda gone dry on me when I saw those fish schooling right out in front of my boat,” Neal admits. “It’s a good thing they did, because those last two fish are what got me into the next round.”