Murray, Reese roll to Knockout Round win
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. — The Team REDCON1 duo of longtime friends John Murray and Skeet Reese picked up right where they had left off Tuesday at the Bass Pro Shops Summit Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches.
After catching fire in the final period of Tuesday’s Elimination Round match on Headwaters Lake, Team REDCON1 found itself on a new fishery for the first day of the Knockout Round – Florida’s famed Stick Marsh. But the West Coast natives managed to keep their momentum and the strong spinnerbait bite that worked so well at Headwaters rolling.
Murray and Reese caught 46 bass weighing 87 pounds, 2 ounces to become the first team to advance to Friday’s Championship Round. Also advancing, representing Team Lucas Oil, are Britt Myers and Terry Scroggins, who caught 22 bass weighing 54-6 to end the day in second place. Team Knighten Industries – Brandon Coulter and John Hunter – finished third with 19 bass weighing 39-3 and was eliminated from competition.
Match 2 of the Knockout Round is now set for Thursday, with the top two teams set to join Team REDCON1 and Team Lucas Oil in Friday’s Championship Round. This event is the fourth and final General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops event of the 2024 season.
“That was one heck of a day,” Reese said in his postgame interview. “I hope that everyone at home enjoyed that today, because we sure as hell did. I’m not even sure how many fish we caught, but I know it was a lot. To be out here competing with one of my best friends on the planet, this week has already been such a blast.”
After Murray found the spinnerbait bite on Tuesday afternoon, he picked up the old school bait again on Wednesday and, after a brief morning lull, went to work. Murray threw the spinnerbait for most of the morning and boated eight keepers. He then switched to a speed worm in the afternoon and added another 10 scorable bass before picking up the spinnerbait again late in the day and boating three more. All but one of the 25 scorable bass that Reese weighed in came on a junebug-colored swimming worm.
“John and I just kicked butt together as a team today” Reese said. “We’d get on the grass lines, and I’d be throwing the worm on the inside line and John would be chunking the spinnerbait on the outside.”
“With the little bit of wind, it created a diamond ripple on the water, and with the little bit of clouds that we had, they were really eating the spinnerbait today,” Murray said. “There isn’t as much grass here as there is in Headwaters, but it didn’t seem to matter – they were biting for us.”
This Summit Cup event means a little bit more to these West Coast buddies and longtime travel partners, as Murray is fishing what could be his final MLF Cup event.
“This is likely going to be John’s last Cup event with us – he’s heading off to fish the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, so we really wanted to finish with a bang on this one,” Reese said. “Now that we’ve made the finals, we’ve got a shot. And coming in, that’s all we wanted and cared about – we wanted to have a shot at the end. It’s been a really great event so far, and hopefully we can come out here on Friday and send John out with the W.”
While Team REDCON1 got out of the gates fast and occupied the top spot on SCORETRACKER® for most of the day, Team Lucas Oil started a bit slower. Midway through the second period, Myers and Scroggins found themselves virtually even with Coulter and Hunter when a couple Florida giants showed up.
Flipping a jig into a clump of bulrushes, Myers connected with an 8-9, which easily earned Berkley Big Bass honors for the day. Just five minutes later, Scroggins added a 5-1. That gave the duo a sizable cushion over the elimination line that they would maintain for the rest of the day.
The other two contestants in Friday’s single-day sprint for the trophies will be determined Thursday during the second Knockout Round match. Catch all the action on the MLFNOW! livestream from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET at MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and Rumble.