Pro Bass Fishing Tourneys – 2022

Well its that time of the year again when professional Bass fishing gets started with a new season. The first BASS event of the season gets started tomorrow. The Southern opens kick off the season on the Kissimmee Chain in Florida. I see that Minnesota have a fair amount of anglers fishing it on both the Pro Side and the AM side. Its great to see a few more Minnesota fishermen stepping up the Bigger events. I believe that there are 4 fishermen either from Minnesota or once from Minnesota who are fishing the Elites this Year. Josh Douglas, Bob Downey, Seth Feider, and Austin Felix.

Here is the list of those from Minnesota fishing this First southern open.

Pro’s
Felix, Austin Eden Prairie
Fiedler, Denny Wabasha
Graham, Connor Minneapolis
Hribar, Andy Lakeville
Leuthner, Brad Independence
Mittelstaedt, Kenny Minnetonka
Parker, Tommy Minnetonka
Smith, Chad Minnetonka
Willert, Joel Prior Lake

Am’s
Booth, Jeremy Albertville
Camarote, Eric Rogers
Dillner, Ryan Isle
Downs, Brandon Eden Prairie
Fellegy, Jimmy Lakeville
Knudsen, Parker Minnetonka
Noland, Lee Madison Lake
Somers, Jeff Crystal
Teneyck, Cal Shakopee
Traeger, Chase Lino Lakes
Traynor, Mack Hanover

Good luck to all the local fishermen this year !!!

Takes a pretty good bucketful of money to fish the Tour. Wish them all well.

fishthumper wrote:

Josh Douglas

Didn’t realize that Josh Douglas qualified for the Elites this season. Thanks

It looks like the Elite schedule kicks off Next Week on the St. Johns River in Florida. The Elite’s also are fishing 2 rather local waters later in the season. New on the Schedule is Lake Oahe in Mobridge SD. and Back again at the Mississippi River in La Crosse WI.

fishthumper wrote:

New on the Schedule is Lake Oahe in Mobridge SD

They had an elite event on Lake Oahe in SD a few years ago, but it was based out of Pierre, not Mobridge.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
Josh Douglas

Didn’t realize that Josh Douglas qualified for the Elites this season. Thanks

Ya. He made it by way of one of the open Divisions last year. Nice to see him make it to the BIG show. Josh is a Great guy who has worked hard to get to this Level – Wish him nothing but great success !!!

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
New on the Schedule is Lake Oahe in Mobridge SD

They had an elite event on Lake Oahe in SD a few years ago, but it was based out of Pierre, not Mobridge.

Oh – Did not realize that. I’ll have to go back and see the results of that one. When I think of Oahe, I don’t think of a Great Bass Lake. Maybe its a better bass fishery than I thought.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
New on the Schedule is Lake Oahe in Mobridge SD

They had an elite event on Lake Oahe in SD a few years ago, but it was based out of Pierre, not Mobridge.

You are correct – They Fished it in early July in 2018. It took 17.5 a day to win. That’s a 3.5 Lb. average. It must be a better bass fishery than I thought. Here is the results:

1 Mark Daniels Jr. 69 – 9 $100,000 $0 $0 $100,000
2 Casey Ashley 66 – 5 $25,000 $0 $1,000 $26,000
3 Clifford Pirch 66 – 2 $20,000 $0 $0 $20,000
4 Boyd Duckett 64 – 11 $15,000 $0 $0 $15,000
5 Dean Rojas 63 – 4 $14,000 $0 $0 $14,000
6 Bradley Roy 63 – 1 $13,500 $0 $1,000 $14,500
7 Jacob Wheeler 62 – 1 $13,000 $0 $0 $13,000
8 Josh Bertrand 61 – 12 $12,500 $0 $0 $12,500
9 Justin Lucas 58 – 3 $12,000 $0 $0 $12,000
10 Brent Ehrler 56 – 6 $11,500 $0 $0 $11,500

Yep, quite a few of those guys aren’t even on BASS anymore. They’ve moved to MLF.

If I remember correctly, drop shots were the primary tactic (BARF). Also, there was only one gas station within 100 miles and it was in Pierre so they could only go as far as one tank of fuel could take them and back to the weigh in.

fishthumper wrote:

You are correct – They Fished it in early July in 2018. It took 17.5 a day to win. That’s a 3.5 Lb. average. It must be a better bass fishery than I thought. Here is the results:

1 Mark Daniels Jr. 69 – 9 $100,000 $0 $0 $100,000
2 Casey Ashley 66 – 5 $25,000 $0 $1,000 $26,000
3 Clifford Pirch 66 – 2 $20,000 $0 $0 $20,000
4 Boyd Duckett 64 – 11 $15,000 $0 $0 $15,000
5 Dean Rojas 63 – 4 $14,000 $0 $0 $14,000
6 Bradley Roy 63 – 1 $13,500 $0 $1,000 $14,500
7 Jacob Wheeler 62 – 1 $13,000 $0 $0 $13,000
8 Josh Bertrand 61 – 12 $12,500 $0 $0 $12,500
9 Justin Lucas 58 – 3 $12,000 $0 $0 $12,000
10 Brent Ehrler 56 – 6 $11,500 $0 $0 $11,500

Big fish of the tournament was a 5lb 6oz Smallmouth.

Carl Jocumsen said (on Dave Mercer’s podcast) that he’s looking forward to Oahe the most this season because he fished it this fall and said it was the best smallmouth fishing he’s ever had. Size wasn’t crazy, couple 5 pounders, but one day he caught over 100 fish.

I believe they chose to go to Morbridge because the majority of anglers were fishing that area of the lake/river and with the lack of gas, it’s best to take off from there rather than Pierre.

They hit Oahe at a time of the year that is really tough the last time they were there from what I heard. From some of the locals I know there they are timing it perfectly this go around. Very unique lake compared to others the Series typically fishes.

FYI if you’re into fantasy sports, http://www.bassmaster.com has a great fantasy setup for the Elites. Pick your best five and you could win a bass boat or tons of other prizes from the large group of sponsors.

Looking at satellite images Oahe looks like very clear water. Is that the case?

The elite’s kick off their season tomorrow at the St. Johns river in Florida. They have been having a rather long cold front, so my guess is fishing is going to be rather tough. unlike in most years, I don’t thing the fish will be spawning. I kind of doubt that they will even be in pre spawn. Looking forward to seeing if Seth can back up his AOY title from last season. Also looking forward to seeing how Josh Douglas can do in his rookie season.

Looks like Bob Downey is off to a great start. He’s in 2nd with 4 fish for around 18 Lbs. That’s a nice bag for the conditions and will be even better with his 5th Fish . Seth has 2 for around 4 Lbs. That’s a slow start, but lots of the fishermen are off to a slow start. The leader is last years champion at this location Bryan New with near 20 Lns.

Bob’s sitting in 1st right now! Fun to see such a great guy kick off his year right!

edit: and now he’s back in second… sounds like he had some engine troubles and had to limp back to the ramp. shucks…

Big bass leader Brandon Cobb with a 9-13. Only fish of the day. Ouch!

Joe Jarl wrote:

Big bass leader Brandon Cobb with a 9-13. Only fish of the day. Ouch!

If your only going to catch one – That’s the right one to catch. that one fish has him ahead of lots of guys who weighed in 5 fish limits.

Couldn’t help but watch a little of the live this morning. Downey was on. First fish was a skeleton. Literally, a skeleton!

Did anyone see the footage of the Owl that tried to snatch the fish as the angler was reaching to grab it. That was crazy. I would have crapped myself for sure. The funny thing is homeowner had just warned the angler to watch out for the owl as it has a habit of grabbing hats off fishermens heads and flying off with them. The angler told the story on stage during the weigh in and said he had the footage on camera. Sure enough they got ahold of the footage and showed it on air this morning.

fishthumper wrote:

Did anyone see the footage of the Owl that tried to snatch the fish as the angler was reaching to grab it.

I saw that. Crazy bird.

Looks like a crazy day of fishing out there today. The local fishermen are looking good.
Downey is still showing in 2nd place even though he’s only caught a fish today. It was a good one thought at 6-8

Felix is having a real good day. He’s got 5 for 17-12 and has moved all the way up to 5th place.

Seth Feider looks to be having a slow small fish day so far. Only has 3 fish for 2-12 and is in 49th place. Hopefully he can get on a hot afternoon bite and jump up the leader board some.

Josh Douglas has made a real nice recovery in his first event at the elite level. He only caught 1 smaller fish yesterday, but has 4 fish for 14-13 today. Hopefully he can add a nice 5th fish and move up into the cut to fish tomorrow.

Only the top 47 fishermen move on to fish on Sat. with the top 10 then moving on to fish on championship Sunday. Right now its looking like all of them may be able to fish tomorrow and several of them fish on Sunday. Its great to see that midwest fishermen can do well even on Southern Waters.

Some of the craziest things have happened while watching the tourney coverage today.
A owl swooping down from a tree and trying to grab a fish almost right out of a guys hand.

A guy gets his Draw string on his hoodie caught up in his reel handle and trying to hand land it and ends up loosing the fish because of it.

A guy sight fishing a bedding bass while standing on his trolling motor – He sets the hook and misses the fish and ends up falling out of his boat into the water. A few minutes later he catches the fish and its only a 1 Lb. fish.

fishthumper wrote:

A guy sight fishing a bedding bass while standing on his trolling motor

Standing on the HEAD of the bow mount? Seems like a pretty small surface area to stand on!

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
A guy sight fishing a bedding bass while standing on his trolling motor

Standing on the HEAD of the bow mount? Seems like a pretty small surface area to stand on!

I think it was the Arm. It was way out front and his feet were close together. He spun around and tried to step back towards the boat and end up falling in. Felt bad for the young man

Moynagh moved up today and made a little extra cash, which was his goal. Downey and Felix made the final day cut.

It was crazy that Downey only came up 1-4 short of the win and he only weighed in 16 fish. Just one more small fish on day 2 and he would have won it. Good start for both Him and Felix. The next one on the Harris chain should be a good one. My guess is the weighs will be way up. If they get some warm weather prior to Thur. the bed bite should be on fire and lots of big females caught.

I think this next one will be good for all the MN and WI guys. It won’t surprise me if there are multiple fishing on Day 4 again.

The weights so far at this current event are not as high as some expected. The weigh in is not complete yet but nearing the end. So far there are 10 bags over 20lbs. with the leader at 23. So far the bedding bite has not turned on like some expected it to. It may still happen in the next 3 days with more warm stable temps on the way. The wind made some of the sight fishing tough today and sounds like it will for the remainder of the tourney as well. A far # of the leaders were fishing is a real communal area today. I don’t think that area will hold up for all those guys for 4 days. It will be interesting to see some of the adjustments some of them make. The local guys are not having a overall good tourney so far. Feider is in 16th currently. Felix in 60th, Downey 72nd and Douglas has not weighed in ( Although basstrakk had him way back in the standings ) Hopefully some of them can make a big rebound tomorrow and get into the top 40 cut for Sat.

Yeah pretty close weights today. Plenty of opportunities for anglers to move a lot of spots tomorrow. Scott Martin was a train wreck today. Can’t say I minded watching that…..