By MLF Communications Staff

Justin Lucas caught 15 scorable bass that combined to weigh 50-02 to grab the early lead in Group B after its first Qualifying Round day of the MLF Bass Pro Tour event at Lake Champlain. Lucas will take a lead of nearly 6 pounds into the group's final qualifying day on Sunday.

In 2nd place is Brandon Coulter, who held the lead for most of the day before Lucas overtook him in the third period. Coulter boated 18 bass totaling 47-15. Rounding out the Top 3 was Jeff Sprague who caught 17 bass for 44-01.

The 39 anglers in Group B will now have a day off on Saturday, while the 34 anglers in Group A will complete their two-day Qualifying Round.

“It was a good day today, especially considering that I didn’t catch anything in the first hour and a half,” Lucas said in his post-game interview. “We’ve got a lot of work left to do, though. We’re only halfway done to win this round. If I can win on Sunday and advance straight to the Championship Round, well, you never know what can happen there.”

Lucas said that he dropshotted throughout the day, targeting smallmouth in 20 to 35 feet of water.

“It’s no real secret what I’m doing,” Lucas said. “I’m drop-shotting on these big smallmouth with a Berkley (PowerBait) MaxScent Flat Worm, of course. I’m fishing a bunch of different mixture-type spots – some have gravel, some have rock, some have sand, and some even have a little bit of grass. But the key is the bait. And they’re not far from where they spawn.

“When you get in those areas, if you can hit those little windows when they’re in there biting, you can put a bunch of weight up quick, like we did today,” Lucas went on to say. “Hopefully these spots can get some rest and not get pounded too hard tomorrow. There really wasn’t that many guys fishing them today, so that kind of has me excited. Hopefully the sun will warm that water up and keep moving these fish out. That’d be really, really nice.”

While Lucas gained the lead late in the day with his afternoon smallmouth bite, Coulter had held the lead for most of the day on the strength of largemouth.

“I had a good day, I just came out of the gate really hot,” Coulter said. “I’ve been doing that a lot lately. I think I led early on most of the days at St. Lawrence. I’m just having trouble closing it out and I’m frustrated right now. I had the chance to really put some distance on 2nd place today, and instead I let Justin come in and take the lead. And kudos to Justin. I mean, that kid is phenomenal. But a lot is going to come into play in these next two days.

“The good news is, despite my frustrations I was blessed today, and I love this place. This is my favorite place in the world to fish. I guess we’ll just have to see how things play out on Sunday morning. I had elbow surgery last year and it ended my season early. To be able to come back and be hammering them now on a 7-foot, 11-inch Savage Gear Black Ops Heavy Flipping Stick, not on a spinning rod, is awesome. The elbow is good, it’s healthy and it sure feels good to set the hook on a few.”

Shaw Grigsby won the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award for the day, weighing in a 5-14 largemouth caught on a worm during Period 3. Berkley will award $1,000 to the angler who weighs the biggest bass each day and a $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the largest bass of the tournament.

MLF announced earlier this week that the normal 80-angler Bass Pro Tour field would be reduced to 73 for this event, as seven anglers withdrew from competition, most due to COVID-19 cases. After consulting with the MLF Angler Advisory Board, a slight change was made to the Qualifying Round cut lines due to the unbalanced angler groupings.

After each two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers who finish in 2nd through 17th place from Group A (50 percent of field) and 2nd through 20th place from Group B (50 percent of field) advance to Monday’s Knockout Round, while the winner of each group advances directly to Tuesday’s Championship Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed and the remaining 35 anglers compete to finish in the Top 8 to advance to the Championship Round. Weights will again be zeroed for the final round and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers will take off from the Plattsburgh City Marina, located at 2 Dock St., at 8 a.m. ET each day of competition. Takeouts will also be held at the launch ramp beginning at 5 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all takeoff and takeout ceremonies and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW! live tream and SCORETRACKER coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

MLF officials have divided the lake into two zones in which anglers will compete – Zone A (north) and Zone B (south). Anglers choosing to fish in Zone B must go through the normal takeoff procedure at the Plattsburgh Boat Launch and then trailer to a public ramp within Zone B. Anglers will depart the Boat Launch at 8 a.m. and competition will start with “lines in” at 9 a.m.

The event features anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

Group B Qualifying Round – Day 1

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish of the round)

1. Justin Lucas -- 50-02 (15) -- 4-08

2. Brandon Coulter -- 44-03 (17) -- 3-09

3. Jeff Sprague -- 44-01 (16) -- 4-05

4. David Dudley -- 38-00 (15) -- 3-12

5. Russ Lane -- 37-09 (13) -- 4-02

6. Mark Davis -- 37-00 (13) -- 3-14

7. Kelly Jordon -- 36-03 (13) -- 3-14

8. Stephen Browning -- 33-11 (13) -- 3-14

9. Boyd Duckett -- 32-00 (10) -- 4-15

10. Jacob Wheeler -- 31-04 (11) -- 4-07

11. Wesley Strader -- 29-04 (10) -- 4-08

12. Mark Rose -- 28-11 (9) -- 4-02

13. Skeet Reese -- 28-03 (10) -- 3-06

14. Shaw Grigsby -- 27-12 (10) -- 5-14

15. Josh Bertrand -- 27-11 (10) -- 4-01

16. Jesse Wiggins -- 27-07 (8) -- 5-04

17. Andy Morgan -- 26-04 (8) -- 4-11

18. Alton Jones -- 23-11 (8) -- 3-11

19. Alton Jones Jr. -- 22-14 (8) -- 3-08

20. Casey Ashley -- 21-06 (7) -- 3-09

21. Jordan Lee -- 20-13 (7) -- 3-14

22. Adrian Avena -- 20-03 (7) -- 4-05

23. Jonathon VanDam -- 18-07 (6) -- 4-02

24. Roy Hawk -- 18-01 (6) -- 3-10

25. Ricky Robinson -- 17-10 (6) -- 4-06

26. Kevin VanDam -- 17-03 (6) -- 3-13

27. Greg Vinson -- 17-03 (5) -- 4-01

28. Paul Elias -- 15-15 (5) -- 4-06

29. Brent Ehrler -- 15-13 (5) -- 4-02

30. Todd Faircloth -- 15-09 (6) -- 3-04

31. Jeff Kriet -- 14-06 (6) -- 4-03

32. Bradley Roy -- 14-01 (4) -- 4-00

33. Ish Monroe -- 13-06 (5) -- 3-12

34. Marty Robinson -- 12-04 (5) -- 3-03

35. Keith Poche -- 12-04 (5) -- 3-01

36. Cody Meyer -- 11-02 (4) -- 3-08

37. Dean Rojas -- 8-14 (4) -- 2-08

38. Justin Cooper -- 8-02 (3) -- 3-09

39. Cliff Crochet -- 2-04 (1) -- 2-04