By MLF Communications Staff

It was a back-and-forth battle at the top for pretty much the entire third period Sunday between Brandon Coulter and Justin Lucas at the MLF Bass Pro Tour event on Lake Champlain. The duo swapped the lead five times during the period before Lucas boated a 3-13 smallmout with 60 minutes left in the round to pull away and win the two-day Qualifying Round for Group B.

Lucas’ two-day total of 31 bass weighing 101-10 earned him the victory by a slim 9-ounce margin over Coulter and advanced him directly into Tuesday’s Championship Round.

Coulter caught a two-day total of 41 bass weighing 101-01to finish the day in 2nd place. In 3rd place was Jacob Wheeler, who caught 32 bass weighing 89-14.

Stephen Browning, who caught a two-day total of 29 bass totaling 82-13, and David Dudley, who boated 28 bass weighing 79-06. rounded out the Top 5 finishers for the round.

The remaining 35 anglers – 16 from Group A and 19 from Group B – will square off Monday in the Knockout Round, where weights are zeroed and the anglers compete to finish in the Top 8 to advance to the final day. Tuesday’s Championship Round will feature Group A winner Matt Lee, Group B winner JLucas and the eight advancing anglers from the Knockout Round competing in a final-day shootout for the top prize of $100,000.

“That was a hard fight and was a lot of fun. I can’t believe we won it, honestly,” Lucas said in his post-game interview. “I felt like things weren’t really going our way, today, but I ended up catching more fish than the first day. And to win by just 9 ounces – that was insane.”

Like Friday, the majority of Lucas’ catch came from dropshotting deep-water smallmouth.

“I caught two key fish on a swimbait today and 16 more on a Berkley (PowerBait Max Scent) Flat Worm,” Lucas said. “I worked my fricking butt off. I am beat bad, and I am really looking forwardvto a day off. I’ve got to get my stuff together, it’s a disaster right now.”

Kelly Jordon won Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 5-09 specimen that bit a frog during Period 1. Berkley awards $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 for undisclosed reasons (primarily COVID-19). 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.

The 34 Anglers in Group A competed in their two-day qualifying round on Lake Champlain on Thursday and Saturday and the 39 anglers in Group B on Friday and Sunday. Now that each two-day qualifying round is complete, the anglers who finished in 2nd through 17th place from Group A and 2nd through 20th place from Group B advance to Monday’s Knockout Round.

Anglers will take off from the Plattsburgh City Marina, located at 2 Dock St., in Plattsburgh, N.Y., at 8 a.m. ET each day. Each day’s Takeouts are also held at the marina 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! livestream 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 tournament 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.

MLF NOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney breaks down the extended action on each competitionj day from 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. MLF NOW! is live-streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.



Group B Qualifying Round – Day 2

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

1. Justin Lucas -- 50-02 (15) -- 51-08 (16) -- 101-10 (31) -- 4-08

2. Brandon Coulter -- 44-03 (17) -- 56-14 (24) -- 101-01 (41) -- 3-09

3. Jacob Wheeler -- 31-04 (11) -- 58-10 (21) -- 89-14 (32) -- 4-13

4. Stephen Browning -- 33-11 (13) -- 49-02 (16) -- 82-13 (29) -- 4-14

5. David Dudley -- 38-00 (15) -- 41-06 (13) -- 79-06 (28) -- 4-04

6. Jeff Sprague -- 44-01 (16) -- 33-08 (12) -- 77-09 (28) -- 4-13

7. Jesse Wiggins -- 27-07 (8) -- 48-12 (16) -- 76-03 (24) -- 5-04

8. Andy Morgan -- 26-04 (8) -- 46-13 (15) -- 73-01 (23) -- 4-11

9. Kelly Jordon -- 36-03 (13) -- 30-05 (10) -- 66-08 (23) -- 5-09

10. Mark Rose -- 28-11 (9) -- 35-06 (11) -- 64-01 (20) -- 4-14

11. Josh Bertrand -- 27-11 (10) -- 34-10 (11) -- 62-05 (21) -- 4-08

12. Alton Jones -- 23-11 (8) -- 37-01 (13) -- 60-12 (21) -- 4-06

13. Brent Ehrler -- 15-13 (5) -- 42-13 (13) -- 58-10 (18) -- 4-02

14. Russ Lane -- 37-09 (13) -- 20-08 (7) -- 58-01 (20) -- 4-02

15. Wesley Strader -- 29-04 (10) -- 26-09 (11) -- 55-13 (21) -- 4-08

16. Boyd Duckett -- 32-00 (10) -- 22-05 (8) -- 54-05 (18) -- 4-15

17. Skeet Reese -- 28-03 (10) -- 22-09 (8) -- 50-12 (18) -- 3-08

18. Kevin VanDam -- 17-03 (6) -- 33-00 (12) -- 50-03 (18) -- 3-13

19. Mark Davis -- 37-00 (13) -- 12-09 (5) -- 49-09 (18) -- 3-14

20. Alton Jones Jr. -- 22-14 (8) -- 26-03 (9) -- 49-01 (17) -- 3-11

The following anglers did not make the cut and will not advance to the Knockout Round)

21. Casey Ashley -- 21-06 (7) -- 27-10 (10) -- 49-00 (17) -- 3-14

22. Jordan Lee -- 20-13 (7) -- 25-05 (9) -- 46-02 (16) -- 4-08

23. Roy Hawk -- 18-01 (6) -- 24-05 (8) -- 42-06 (14) -- 4-00

24. Cliff Crochet -- 2-04 (1) -- 39-12 (13) -- 42-00 (14) -- 4-11

25. Cody Meyer -- 11-02 (4) -- 27-08 (9) -- 38-10 (13) -- 3-14

26. Shaw Grigsby -- 27-12 (10) -- 10-08 (4) -- 38-04 (14) -- 5-14

27. Jonathon VanDam -- 18-07 (6) -- 19-11 (7) -- 38-02 (13) -- 4-02

28. Greg Vinson -- 17-03 (5) -- 17-09 (6) -- 34-12 (11) -- 4-01

29. Todd Faircloth -- 15-09 (6) -- 18-15 (7) -- 34-08 (13) -- 3-04

30. Adrian Avena -- 20-03 (7) -- 13-05 (5) -- 33-08 (12) -- 4-05

31. Jeff Kriet -- 14-06 (6) -- 17-15 (6) -- 32-05 (12) -- 4-03

32. Keith Poche -- 12-04 (5) -- 18-15 (8) -- 31-03 (13) -- 3-01

33. Ricky Robinson -- 17-10 (6) -- 13-09 (5) -- 31-03 (11) -- 4-06

34. Justin Cooper -- 8-02 (3) -- 21-12 (8) -- 29-14 (11) -- 3-09

35. Paul Elias -- 15-15 (5) -- 13-13 (5) -- 29-12 (10) -- 4-06

36. Dean Rojas -- 8-14 (4) -- 18-08 (6) -- 27-06 (10) -- 3-14

37. Marty Robinson -- 12-04 (5) -- 13-14 (5) -- 26-02 (10) -- 3-04

38. Ish Monroe -- 13-06 (5) -- 11-10 (5) -- 25-00 (10) -- 3-12

39. Bradley Roy -- 14-01 (4) -- 10-11 (3) -- 24-12 (7) -- 4-04