Clausen, Hunter make right move, win tight final Elimination Match
ERIE, Pa. — With anglers not knowing where they’ll be fishing until each morning of competition during the General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops, adjusting on the fly becomes imperative. Tuesday, it didn’t take long for Luke Clausen and John Hunter to realize they needed to make a change.
Representing Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches, the duo started Day 3 of the Elimination Round at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota targeting shallow, man-made structure in Presque Isle Bay, but they fell behind the pace set by Team Kubota (Jacob Wheeler and Dustin Connell) and Team Star Tron (Bobby Lane and Jacob Wall). At the end of the first period, Clausen and Hunter found themselves more than 6 pounds back of the elimination line.
So, Clausen and Hunter scrapped their initial game plan and moved offshore. Once they found a few key clumps of submerged vegetation loaded with largemouth, they made up their deficit and then some.
The pair stacked 17 bass for 25 pounds, 13 ounces onto SCORETRACKER® during the second period, vaulting from third place to first. While the other three tandems pushed them throughout the final period, Team Smokey Mountain maintained the top spot, finishing with 62-1 on 36 scorable bass. They will advance to the Knockout Round alongside Team Star Tron, which narrowly held off late charges from both Team Kubota and Team Knighten Industries (Wesley Strader and Scott Suggs).
“That was fun, especially there at the end,” Clausen said. “It started off rocky though. We figured some stuff out through the day that just made the whole day line out right. If we’d missed a key bite here or there, it could have gone downhill quick.”
Finding the sweet spots
Winding vibrating jigs around submerged milfoil proved to be the winning formula for Clausen and Hunter. Photo by Phoenix Moore
Similar to the first two days of the Elimination Round, most of the teams started Tuesday morning along the Erie waterfront, targeting riprap banks and seawalls with grass blown up around them. However, after two days of competition, the fish in those areas seemed to grow wary, making for a tough bite and forcing anglers to move around to try to find fish.
Clausen and Hunter got keyed into their offshore grass bite after Hunter drew a strike on a vibrating jig — although they initially moved away from the location before realizing the bass weren’t spread across the area but clustered in specific spots.
“We fished (on the bank) this morning and caught a couple but left because the other teams were catching quite a few and we thought we could find something better,” Clausen said. “We scrambled around thinking we were going to find glory, and ironically, we just ran away from a really good place — we just didn’t know it this morning.”
Eventually, Clausen and Hunter keyed in on “clumps of milfoil grass with little openings in them.” They found that, if one of them got a bite, the other could usually throw to the same spot and connect with another fish. Hunter said managing the little sweet spots they found was important.
“Every time we circled back to one of those spots, we’d get another bite or two, but you don’t want to go back to them too quick,” Hunter said. “So, we basically just went through the spots, then worked the outside edge of them, trying to find a new spot or two, then came back through once they’ve had some time to rest.”
Clausen, who led the way with 38-8 on 23 bass, used a Z-Man Tungsten ChatterBait Elite EVO to catch the bulk of his bass. He threw the ChatterBait on a Phenix M1 7-foot, 4-inch medium-heavy rod with a 7:3:1 gear-ratio reel.
“I scored 23 bass, and probably 20 of them were caught on that bait,” Clausen said. “It falls quick coming out of this grass, and it reacts quicker, so you get a lot more movement out of your bait.”
Hunter, too, utilized a bladed jig plenty, but he also caught several fish by pitching soft-plastics behind Clausen after he got bit on the ChatterBait. He’s eager to take their team chemistry to a new setting in the Knockout Round.
“We’d basically stop getting bites every time we’d put the ChatterBait down,” Hunter said. “We’re excited to move on to the Knockout Round in a couple days. Not sure where we’re going, but I’m hoping for some smallmouth. The largemouth are fun, but I’m ready for some brown fish.”
Lane, Wall hold off hard-charging Wheeler, Connell
Bobby Lane and Jacob Wall came through with several clutch late catches. Photo by Phoenix Moore
Consisting of the reigning Fishing Clash Angler of the Year and REDCREST 2024 champion, Team Kubota entered the Challenge Cup as the clear favorite. While Wheeler and Connell’s day got derailed briefly when Connell hooked himself in the palm and Wheeler had to yank it free, the two closed strong, pulling within a catch or two of the elimination line several different times late in the third period.
Every time, though, Team Star Tron had an answer. Lane and Wall combined to boat six largemouth totaling 9-14 in the final 30 minutes to hang on to second place.
The duo did a little bit of everything — winding, flipping/punching and tossing finesse presentations. Their late flurry came pitching a drop-shot to a retaining wall.
“As a team, we spent the day fishing our high percentage areas,” Lane said. “We fished all over today, and just tried to stay where the fish are biting and fish slower. When we were around the fish, we just tried to mix it up. Flipping, throwing a drop-shot rig, spinnerbait, crankbait, bladed jig – you name it, we were doing it today.”
Lane said the duo found four key areas as they moved through the day and eventually decided to cycle back through them.
“All day long, we got bit when we made moves, changed baits, and everything just felt very fluid today,” Wall said. “I felt like we made good, fluid decisions.”
Lane said the changing conditions throughout the day dictated a lot of their decisions.
“It started off a little windy and cloudy, but then it got slick calm, and hot,” Lane said. “Once that happened, we went back through and dropped a big weight on some of these mats where the shade is on the walls. We weren’t just throwing at the walls, we were throwing out to the little corner of the walls, where the shade was, and that really paid off for us.
“We had such a fun day,” Lane continued. “We’d never been in the boat together, but Jacob and I worked so well together. We can’t wait to get back out on the water for the Knockout Round.”
What’s next at the Challenge Cup
Three teams will take the water on an unknown fishery Wednesday for the first of two Knockout Round days. First up will be Team Star Tron taking on the winners from the first two days, Team REDCON1 (Cole Floyd and Andy Morgan) and Team U.S. Air Force (Stephen Browning and Anthony Gagliardi). On Thursday, Team Smokey Mountain will face Team Coign (Matthew Stefan and Drew Gill) and Team B&W Trailer Hitches (Matt Becker and Spencer Shuffield). The top two finishers each day will advance to Friday’s Championship Round.
Catch all the action on the MLFNOW! livestream from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET each day on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and Rumble.
The post Clausen, Hunter make right move, win tight final Elimination Match appeared first on Major League Fishing.
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