Tharp Sticks 16-02 To Claim First Elite Series Title

By BassFan Staff

A few years ago, Randall Tharp became enamored with the idea of qualifying (again) for the Bassmaster Elite Series where he could measure himself against the likes of Kevin VanDam, Skeet Reese, Aaron Martens and others.

He’d made a name for himself on the FLW Tour, winning at each level the organization had to offer, including the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup, which came with a $500,000 payday. Still, he was curious about “the other side.” He’d qualified two previous times for the Elite Series, but didn’t feel that he was ready. That same year, he punched his ticket to the Elite Series again for 2014 via the Opens and fished both the Elite Series and FLW Tour that year.

Last year, while competing only on the Elite Series, he struggled throughout, cashing two checks en route to finishing a disappointing 76th in the Angler of the Year points.

He’s come back with a vengeance to start 2016 and today, he captured his first Elite Series victory under perhaps the most unique tournament format ever employed by B.A.S.S. Competing on two lakes on two different river systems in northern Arkansas, Tharp came out on top. He took a simple approach, catching all 20 fish he weighed at Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes on a jig he designed, adjusting the size when the conditions called for it. His 16-02 stringer today at Lake Norfork was the heaviest among the 12 finalists and included a last-minute kicker that helped him lock up the win.

He was the only angler to crack 60 pounds and his 61-10 total edged Reese by a margin of 2-02. It is Tharp’s third career tour-level victory – he’s also won three B.A.S.S. Opens – and he’ll carry a 16-point lead over Greg Hackney in the AOY standings into next week’s event at Wheeler Lake in his home state of Alabama.

“It was a good week,” Tharp said. “This was really unexpected because I’ve never had a great track record around here. I’d always have one good day, then one bad day and most times, I was just thankful to get a check.

“This week, it just worked out. My whole season has so far. I’ve been able to fish to my strengths at every event.”

Reese, who charged up the standings on Saturday with a tournament-best 19-02 stringer at Bull Shoals, added 14-11 today to finish 2nd with 59-08. Chris Zaldain, who held a share of the day-2 lead and went out today 6 ounces behind Tharp, bagged 13-10 to finish 3rd with 58-12.

Matt Herren tacked on 14-15 to close with 58-10 in 4th, his best showing since BASSFest at Lake Chickamauga in 2014. Bill Lowen bagged 14-11 to run his total to 58-05 and continue his strong start to the season with a 5th-place finish.

Here's how the rest of the finalists finished up:

6. Jacob Powroznik: 56-10
7. Steve Kennedy: 55-09
8. Adrian Avena: 53-09
9. Mike McClelland: 53-01
10. Brian Snowden: 52-07
11. Brandon Palaniuk: 51-13
12. Koby Kreiger: 51-05

With the finalists separated by less than 4 pounds entering the final day, it was a see-saw affair from the start with several unofficial lead changes taking place throughout the morning. As the wind picked up, each of the leaders experienced bite flurries and lulls as they tried to milk their areas for every big bite possible.

Before it started, not many were sure what to think of the tournament format that saw the event start and finish on Norfork with the middle two days playing out at Bull Shoals. Norfork was mostly an unknown. It was a challenging event from a strategy standpoint, but the fishing was excellent with fish at both lakes acting on April’s full moon to get into their spawning ritual.

That put a lot of fish shallow and forced competitors to decide between trying to coax bedding fish to bite or go hunt for bigger fish with big baits. Jigs, Texas-rigged plastics and swimbaits were among the offerings that hauled in the bigger fish all week, but finesse presentations also were productive in the clear water.

With the third event now in the books, practice for the Wheeler Lake Elite Series begins Monday morning.

Dramatic Finish for Tharp

> Day 4: 5, 16-02 (20, 61-10)

Tharp returned to the same creek that he fished Thursday when he caught 15-08 and stuck with the jig all day again. He’d used a half-ounce version earlier in the event, but switched to a 5/8-ounce for the last 2 days.

“There were dry spells and flurries, but I got off to a solid start,” he said. “The bite progressed as the day went on.”

About halfway through the day, he exchanged words with Herren on the water as the two were fishing the same stretch of water. According to an eyewitness account posted on Bassmaster.com’s blog, the two anglers took turns moving in front of each other before Tharp drove close enough to Herren’s boat so they were within speaking distance. They eventually went in separate directions.

“It was a judgment thing,” Tharp said. “He felt he had every right to fish the same stretch I was on and I felt like he cut in front of me. Matt’s a great fisherman and it was just something that happened that’s part of the game. We’re going on to the next one and he’ll try to beat me and I’ll try to beat him.”

He figured he caught more than 30 keeper-quality fish today, but it was the last one that he’ll remember most. Later in the day, he hit another flurry and knew his stringer was in the neighborhood of what he thought he’d need to contend.

“I call it fishing unconscious,” he said. “I don’t remember catching them. I don’t think about i. I just catch them. From about 1:30 until 2, I hit a flurry and it was just awesome. Down in my gut, I knew it was going to be close. I knew if I caught 15 I might be okay and I was being conservative thinking I had 15.”

He figured one more good cull would seal it and would force the other finalists to have a superb day to beat him. He started to look at the clock to determine when he had to leave to make it back to check-in. As he did that, he made one last pitch.

“I was still looking at my clock and when I looked up my line was 5 feet over from where it’d hit the water,” he said. “I set the hook and boat flipped it in and all heck broke loose in my boat. I was jumping up and down. I broke my rod in half. I lost some culling tags in the process of trying to get rid of the smallest one.

“Then I realized my line was frayed for 3 feet up from my jig from where that fish ran me across some rocks. I don’t know how it didn’t break. To win a tournament, you need something like that to happen.”

He got himself sorted out and made it back in time, but it was an emotional ride down the lake.

“I cried like a girl going in because I knew I’d done enough,” he said.

Details of Tharp’s and the other top finishers' patterns will be published at a later date.

2nd: Reese Had Fun

> Day 4: 5, 14-11 (20, 59-08)

This was Reese’s 7th career runner-up finish in a full-field Elite Series event and one he didn’t expect considering he wasn’t too sure about the two-lake format.

“To be honest, when I first heard about it, I thought it sucked, but after going through it I kind of like the format,” he said on stage Sunday. “I’m a creature of habit being a tournament fisherman for 25 years. You get it into your system of fishing one lake and coming up with a game plan and build as you go. To be able to have two game plans and two bodies of water, it definitely added a new twist and element to the sport. As worried about it as I was, it worked out pretty good.”

He focused on wind-blown rocky banks today and caught fish on a Lucky Craft 3/5 squarebill crankbait and a 6-inch hollow-belly swimbait.

“I’ve had a great week,” he said. “This was a fun week for me. I fished the way I wanted to fish. I fished two completely different styles at both lakes.”

3rd: No Regrets for Zaldain

> Day 4: 5, 13-10 (20, 58-12)

Zaldain said there was no second-guessing how he approached this tournament or how he executed his game plan. He stuck with a swimbait tight to rocky banks on Norfork after employing a dropshot around buck brush the last 2 days at Bull Shoals.

“I’m not disappointed by any means,” he said. “I did exactly what I imagined I had to do to win.”

After catching an early limit today, he noticed a lot of fish would follow his 6-inch Megabass swimbait or nudge it or nip at the tail and miss the treble hook. He eventually went to a spinning rod to try to pick off those fish toward the end of the day.

“I caught a decent bag and I’m happy with a top-3 finish, no doubt,” he added. “I came up with a good game plan from start to finish. I kept it simple with a swimbait on Norfork and dropshot on Bull Shoals. I stuck to it. I felt like it was a winning program and I came darn close. I have zero regrets.”

4th: No Kicker for Herren

> Day 4: 5, 14-15 (20, 58-10)

On Thursday, Herren was the beneficiary of a big bite at Norfork, a 6-01 brute that helped him to the lead after day 1. He knew he’d need a similar fish today to get back to the top of the leaderboard.

While he wasn’t able to rouse a kicker-quality bass, he kept himself in the hunt all week with a jig and finesse worm combination.

“Today was alright,” he said. “I caught a lot of fish. I punched one in the tongue with a hook early on and it died. That probably cost me 8 ounces total between the 4-ounce penalty and the weight it lost after it died.

“I had a good tournament, though. I had a blast. I caught so many fish it was ridiculous. I had a good day. I just didn’t get the bites I needed.”

He said his tournament turned on Friday when he spent too much time targeting bedding fish at Bull Shoals.

Regarding his run-in with Tharp today, Herren declined to comment.

“I am not going to talk about it,” he said. “I’m going to deal with it when I get to Wheeler. It’ll be between he and I.”

5th: Lowen Pleased With Top 5

> Day 4: 5, 14-11 (20, 58-05)

Lowen knew his game plan wasn’t going to produce a 100-percent success rate on getting fish in the boat, but he made the most of his four days in the Ozarks and was pleased with how today went.

“I’m thrilled with the way it went,” he said. “My game plan worked well. I just needed to get a few more bites in the boat. I had some bad breaks. Some of the fish I lost, anybody would’ve lost them. You have to have some luck in these tournaments. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

He went back through the area that produced his fish on Thursday and when he got there he realized the shad were in the midst of their spawning ritual.

“I wish I’d have known that was going on,” he said. “I caught two keepers quick and then a bunch of shorts. That lake is slap full of 14 1/2- to 14 3/4-inch fish, full to the point of frustration. I wish I’d figured out the shad spawn earlier so I could’ve keyed on it.”

He split up his weigh fish this week on a jig and flipping a Texas-rigged tube.

Notable

> Day 4 stats – 12 anglers, 11 limits, 1 four.

Final Standings

1. Randall Tharp -- Port St. Joe, FL -- 20, 61-10 -- 110 -- $103,000
Day 1: 5, 15-08 -- Day 2: 5, 13-12 -- Day 3: 5, 16-04 -- Day 4: 5, 16-02

2. Skeet Reese -- Auburn, CA -- 20, 59-08 -- 109 -- $25,000
Day 1: 5, 13-04 -- Day 2: 5, 12-07 -- Day 3: 5, 19-02 -- Day 4: 5, 14-11

3. Chris Zaldain -- Laughlin, NV -- 20, 58-12 -- 108 -- $20,250
Day 1: 5, 16-02 -- Day 2: 5, 14-12 -- Day 3: 5, 14-04 -- Day 4: 5, 13-10

4. Matt Herren -- Ashville, AL -- 20, 58-10 -- 107 -- $15,750
Day 1: 5, 17-00 -- Day 2: 5, 11-06 -- Day 3: 5, 15-05 -- Day 4: 5, 14-15

5. Bill Lowen -- Brookville, IN -- 20, 58-05 -- 106 -- $14,250
Day 1: 5, 13-10 -- Day 2: 5, 17-04 -- Day 3: 5, 12-12 -- Day 4: 5, 14-11

6. Jacob Powroznik -- Port Haywood, VA -- 20, 56-10 -- 105 -- $13,500
Day 1: 5, 12-09 -- Day 2: 5, 15-08 -- Day 3: 5, 16-04 -- Day 4: 5, 12-05

7. Steve Kennedy -- Auburn, AL -- 20, 55-09 -- 104 -- $13,000
Day 1: 5, 13-12 -- Day 2: 5, 13-09 -- Day 3: 5, 14-12 -- Day 4: 5, 13-08

8. Adrian Avena -- Vineland, NJ -- 20, 53-09 -- 103 -- $12,500
Day 1: 5, 14-00 -- Day 2: 5, 15-15 -- Day 3: 5, 11-15 -- Day 4: 5, 11-11

9. Mike McClelland -- Bella Vista, AR -- 20, 53-01 -- 102 -- $12,000
Day 1: 5, 11-01 -- Day 2: 5, 16-10 -- Day 3: 5, 14-08 -- Day 4: 5, 10-14

10. Brian Snowden -- Reeds Spring, MO -- 20, 52-07 -- 101 -- $11,500
Day 1: 5, 12-06 -- Day 2: 5, 14-08 -- Day 3: 5, 16-01 -- Day 4: 5, 9-08

11. Brandon Palaniuk -- Rathdrum, ID -- 19, 51-13 -- 100 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 11-12 -- Day 2: 5, 15-13 -- Day 3: 5, 15-10 -- Day 4: 4, 8-10

12. Koby Kreiger -- Bokeelia, FL -- 20, 51-05 -- 99 -- $10,500
Day 1: 5, 12-08 -- Day 2: 5, 13-13 -- Day 3: 5, 16-07 -- Day 4: 5, 8-09