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Sunline Strong Performer: Mississippi River

<b><font color=green>Sunline Strong Performer: Mississippi River</font></b>

Scott Suggs' chances of qualifying for the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup were real bleak after day 1 of last week's FLW Tour event at the Mississippi River in Wisconsin. The 2008 Cup champion was in 124th place after weighing a four-fish, 9-14 stringer and was set to plummet far down the points list barring a big turnaround the following day.

His Cup hopes are alive and well thanks to a 14-02 stringer on day 2 that moved him up 50 places in the standings. Such a leap is a tough task on a venue like the Mississippi, which harbors a ton of fish, but very few that reach the 4-pound class.

"That first day was the lowest of lows – I felt like I'd killed my year," he said. "And then to make a rebound ... it's like playing crappy golf all day and then hitting a great shot on the last hole. You're ready to go again tomorrow."

The veteran from Arkansas is 45th in the points heading into next month's regular-season finale at the Potomac River. He'll likely need to move up five or six positions to garner a Cup berth.

His rally at the Mississippi actually started late on day 1. He had only one fish in his box (all the fish-holding places he'd discovered in practice were muddy and fully exposed to the powerful wind) when he decided to fish some small eddys on the way back to the ramp. If he hadn't caught three solid keepers doing that, he'd have been buried much further down the standings.

He ran that program throughout the second day and caught a stringer that was among the best in the 160-angler field.

The main-channel eddys could be formed by sand, dirt, rock or vegetation – that was immaterial. The only criteria was that the current turned back around on itself for a short distance.

"When the river's rolling like that, they don't have a lot of places to go to get out of the current," he said. "There were so many fish moving around, and I think some of them were moving in while I was sitting there fishing them.

"I had three places where I was able to go back and catch one to three fish three different times during the day."

For baits, he alternated between a Berkley Havoc Rocket Craw and a tube, both black with red flake.

"I'd pick up one of them and go down the stretch, and then if I felt like there was another fish there, I'd turn around and go back down it with the other one."

The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses on the angler who makes a significant upward move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.

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