Michael Neal Wins MLF Bass Pro Tour Stage Seven
Shop Michael's Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear
Michael Neal cemented himself as a smallmouth expert with his second big win on a smallmouth mecca. This week, he primarily used a drop-shot rig in deep water and mixed in a finesse football jig to claim his second Bass Pro Tour victory.
"The fish were spitting up gobies all week," he said. "To mimic them, I used a green pumpkin Big Bite Baits Quarantine Craw and threaded some skirt material into them. I went to Walmart, bought a sewing needle and cut a banded skirt to get the silicone strands. I put eight of them into the bait, so it had 16 little legs coming out of it, which I think made a difference since I was fishing around guys and seemed to get more bites."
He threaded the bait on a 1/0 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Stinger drop-shot hook and used a 1/2-ounce Denali KOVERT tungsten weight. He fished it on a 7-foot, 6-inch medium Denali KOVERT rod with a 3000-sized spinning reel spooled with 10-pound Sunline Overwatch braid with a leader of 7-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon.
He also caught fish on a 1/2-ounce green pumpkin Beast Coast O.W. Sniper Jig fished on casting gear.
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MLF Bass Pro Tour - Stage 7 - Top 10
2nd Place - John Hunter - 73lb - 12oz - $45,000
Kentucky's John Hunter scored his best-ever finish on the Bass Pro Tour and made a serious run for the win, holding the lead for a good chunk of the final day. He kept it simple all week with a drop-shot, plus a small handful coming on a Carolina rig.
The drop-shot with a green pumpkin Googan Baits Rattlin' Ned was easily his best bait. He fished it with a 1/2-ounce drop-shot weight and size 1 drop-shot hook, using 8-pound P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon and focusing on the stretch of river between McNair Island and Alexandria Bay.
3rd Place - Nick Hatfield - 55lb - 14oz - $38,000
Rookie Nick Hatfield had a solid albeit up-and-down first season on the BPT but ended the campaign with his best finish. He stayed shallow and caught fish with a drop-shot, jighead minnow and a tube in the Alexandria Bay area.
"I had a couple of different baits that were big for me this week," he said. "I caught a bunch the first day on a 3/8-ounce Scottsboro Tackle Hellfire with a gray glimmer pearl belly Strike King Baby Z-Too for fish that were on bait. They were eating small baitfish the locals call 'silversides.' It was good the first day, but I could never get a bite doing it after that."
It was all about the drop-shot and tube the rest of the way for Hatfield.
"I was fishing shallow and deep, but primarily shallow, and I used a 1/8-ounce drop-shot weight and a Megabass Hazedong Shad or Geecrack Imo Kemushi Slim Worm," he said. "I fished them on a #2 Hayabusa drop-shot hook or FPP straight shank when I threaded the bait. I also caught several good fish, including the 6-pounder on the last day, on a tube. I stuck with green pumpkin for all the baits."
4th Place - Drew Gill - 55lb - 6oz - $32,000
Rookie Drew Gill capped off an impressive first year on the Bass Pro Tour with another excellent event, which gave him a runner-up finish in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race to Jacob Wheeler. Gill stuck to his forward-facing sonar strengths and caught his St. Lawrence River bass on a jerkbait, with a drop-shot also contributing.
"I threw the jerkbait most of the week - a medium diver in pro blue - on a 7-foot, medium Ark Invoker Tour rod," he said. "I upsized the hooks on it and went with a lighter line than usual, 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu, to get it down faster. Most of the jerkbait fish were between 6 and 14 feet, and most were in bays or on larger flats. I ran around and fished different spots to keep areas fresh and not beat on them too bad."
Gill went with a smelt-colored Big Bite Baits Scentsation Slim Minnow, a 1/2-ounce drop-shot weight and a size 1 hook when fishing a drop-shot.
5th Place - Matt Becker - 53lb - 12oz - $30,000
Matt Becker, the 2023 Fishing Clash Angler of the Year, is one of the premier smallmouth anglers on the Bass Pro Tour, with much of his success credited to light line and spinning tackle. This time, he threw a curveball to the smallmouth and stuck with baitcast gear and a heavier line.
Throughout the week, Becker threw a Bill Lewis Scope Stik, Megabass Vision ONETEN and O.S.P. Varuna while mixing in a new lipless jerkbait called the Bill Lewis Depth Strike. He also rotated colors, utilizing pro blue, Tennessee Shad and green gizzard shad hues.
6th Place - Chris Lane - 52lb - 1oz - $26,000
Fishing farther downriver than many of his competitors, Chris Lane stuck to shallow water with a power-fishing approach. One of the keys to his success was making plenty of moves in a day and covering water with a vibrating jig. "I was targeting rock anywhere from a foot of water down to about 12 feet deep," he said. "Some areas with rock mixed with grass were also very good. I was fishing heavy current, hitting a lot of spots, and my Power-Pole MOVE trolling motor was spot on for maneuvering my boat, especially after the current picked up with all that rain."
Lane fished a 1/2-ounce green pumpkin Bladed Jig by Z-Man with a black trailer. He fished it on a 7-3, medium-heavy rod, 8.3:1 Baitcast Reel, and 20-pound fluorocarbon line.
7th Place - Brent Ehrler - 42lb - 6oz - $23,000
California's Brent Ehrler secured another Top 10 finish and stuck with a drop-shot rig. He focused on the main river in 20 to 40 feet of water and moved frequently. Ehrler fished his drop-shot rig on a Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler Dropshot Rod - a 7-1 medium model - and used a 4000-sized Daiwa Tatula MQ reel spooled with 12-pound Sunline Overwatch braid and 8-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon for his leader.
His baits included a Tennessee Shad colored Yamamoto Scope Shad or a green pumpkin and watermelon Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm rigged on a size 2 or 4 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Stinger drop-shot hook with a 3/8-ounce ARK Tungsten drop-shot weight.
8th Place - Spencer Shuffield - 40lb - 8oz - $21,000
Spencer Shuffield, the 2022 Tackle Warehouse TITLE winner on these waters, was a pre-tournament favorite and made it to the final day. He utilized a two-pronged approach that changed as the event went on, starting with a jerkbait early before swapping it for a finesse jig. "The first two days, I was catching them over shallow humps with a prototype Yo-Zuri jerkbait in matte shad that will be out in the spring," he said. "It's a mid-depth diver that will get down to 8 or 12 feet deep; I was getting it down 9 or 10 feet on 12-pound line. I switched to a 3/8-ounce green pumpkin Beast Coast O.W. Sniper jig with a little Ned rig bait as a trailer at the end of the second day and caught six good ones in the last 45 minutes. That's all I did for the rest of the tournament."
9th Place - Bryan Thrift - 38lb - 4oz - $19,000
Bryan Thrift had a great start to the event, winning his group, then advancing to the Knockout Round and, eventually, the final day on the strength of his jig bite. He fished a large stretch of about 16 miles yet still believes he ran out of bass on the final day. "I think thatŐs a lot of why they were there. Maybe I caught them all, or the pressure got to them, but they were gone the last day."
Fishing between 25 and 30 feet deep, Thrift plied the rocky cover with a 1/2- and 3/4-ounce green pumpkin yellow Fitzgerald Fishing Bryan Thrift Tungsten Micro Jig with a green pumpkin 3-inch Damiki Stinger as the trailer. He fished the jig on his signature series 7-3 medium Fitzgerald Fishing Micro Jig rod, a 7.2:1 Fitzgerald Fishing VLD10 reel and 12-pound P-Line 100% fluorocarbon line.
10th Place - Marty Robinson - 34lb - 12oz - $16,000
Marty Robinson was another angler who stuck to the shallows. He caught both smallmouth and largemouth, often mixed in the same areas. He used a trio of baits and focused on the mid-section of the tournament boundaries.
"I stayed shallow, and the most fish came on a drop-shot with a couple of different baits - a little 3-inch swimbait and a Zoom Z Drop," he said. "I also caught a few on a Strike King Bitsy Tube and a few on a Buckeye Lures Spot Remover head with a Zoom Trick Worm. All of the colors were green pumpkin or goby colors."
