By MLF Communications Staff


Conditions were very different for the 40 pro anglers competing Saturday in Group B at the MLF Bass Pro Tour season finale at Lake St. Clair in Michigan. However, after the anglers had battled through the strong winds and the final bass had been tallied, the results were remarkably similar to Friday, with an east Tennessee angler sitting atop the leaderboard.

Wesley Strader boated 34 bass weighing 93-04 to grab the early lead in Group B after day 1 of their two-day Qualifying Round. Strader will take a 12-04 lead into the second day on Monday.

Fred Roumbanis, who was near the top of the leaderboard for most of the day, will start the group's second day in 2nd place. Roumbanis boated 29 bass totaling 81-00. Rounding out the Top 3 was Favorite Fishing pro Zack Birge, who caught 27 bass for 75-14 .

Local pro Scott Dobson of Clarkston, Mich., weighed 17 bass totaling 44-08 to land in 5th place, while Kalamazoo’s Jonathon VanDam boated seven bass weighing 20 pounds even to sit in 23rd.

The 39 anglers in Group B will now have an off day on Sunday, while the 40 anglers competing in Group A will complete their two-day Qualifying Round.

“Well, today has been a really, really good day,” Strader said in his post-game interview. “I really only needed about five of these Powell rods on my deck today and that was it.

“This morning I started out throwing a 3/8-ounce white (Z-Man) ChatterBait Jack Hammer with a Zoom Z-Swim behind it,” Strader said. “I threw that on a Powell Endurance 755 CB rod with a (Lew’s) Pro TI reel, spooled with 20-pound Sunline Sniper line. I also caught quite a few punching – I ran out of Zoom Z-Hogs, but I punched with a Powell Endurance 806 rod and a Lew’s Custom Pro reel, using 50-pound Sunline FX2 braided line, a 1 1/2-ounce weight and a 5/0 TroKar TK130 hook.

“The thing that really got us going towards the end, though, was a Zoom Zlinky,” Strader continued. “I wacky-rigged it with a 2/0 Neko-style Trokar Hook and a 1/8-ounce Eagle Claw nail weight in the nose of it. All in all, I’ve got a couple of things figured out for Monday. I have a couple of areas that I couldn’t even get to today – it would have beat us to death with the wind. I also didn’t want to leave my fish biting. I’m excited to get back out there and see how it all shakes out.”

Roumbanis also raved about the fun he had on the water Saturday even though he lost multiple key fish.

“I had an amazing day, despite the fish that I couldn’t get in the boat,” Roumbanis said. “I must have lost six 4- or 5-pounders today. But it was exciting – I almost gave up on the spot where I fished, but when I slowed down I really started catching them.

“I’ve got absolutely no complaints – I think I may have finally broken the curse that this place has had on me for all of these years. I think I’m in great shape to make the Knockout Round – I’m just going to have to catch a couple of more fish. But man, it’d be so nice to win and automatically advance to the Championship Round. Wesley (Strader) and Zack (Birge) are crushing them, but I’m going to give those guys everything that I’ve got.”

Andy Morgan won Saturday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award, weighing in a 5-08 largemouth that he flipped up 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.

After each two-day qualifying round is complete, the anglers 2ho finish in 2nd through 20th place from both groups advance to Tuesday’s Knockout Round, while the winner of each group advances directly to Wednesday’s Championship Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed and the remaining 38 anglers compete to finish in the Top 8 to advance to the Championship Round, where weights are again zeroed and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers will take off from the 9-Mile Ramp, located in St. Clair Shores, at 8 a.m. ET each day of competition. The takeout ceremonies will also be held at the 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 stream and ScoreTracker coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

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.

The MLF NOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action on all six days of competition from 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. MLF NOW! will be live-streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.

Group B Qualifying Round – Day 1

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

1. Wesley Strader -- 93-04 (34) -- 4-14

2. Fred Roumbanis -- 81-00 (29) -- 4-10

3. Zack Birge -- 75-14 (27) -- 5-02

4. Andy Morgan -- 65-03 (23) -- 5-08

5. Scott Dobson -- 44-08 (17) -- 5-06

6. Mark Davis -- 41-00 (14) -- 4-11

7. Matt Lee -- 39-14 (14) -- 4-07

8. Scott Suggs -- 39-10 (13) -- 4-04

9. Ott DeFoe -- 39-05 (14) -- 4-05

10. Alton Jones -- 37-08 (12) -- 4-06

11. Justin Lucas -- 34-08 (13) -- 3-10

12. David Dudley -- 33-10 (11) -- 5-05

13. Dean Rojas -- 33-00 (13) -- 3-04

14. Alton Jones Jr. -- 31-03 (10) -- 4-02

15. Brandon Coulter -- 31-01 (12) -- 3-11

16. Bobby Lane -- 30-00 (11) -- 4-01

17. Britt Myers -- 29-07 (8) -- 4-15

18. Greg Vinson -- 28-06 (10) -- 4-12

19. Cody Pike -- 27-08 (9) -- 3-13

20. John Cox -- 22-13 (8) -- 4-06

21. Shaw Grigsby -- 21-13 (7) -- 4-13

22. Jason Lambert -- 21-11 (7) -- 5-00

23. Jonathon VanDam -- 20-00 (7) -- 4-06

24. Andy Montgomery -- 18-09 (7) -- 3-13

25. Edwin Evers -- 18-00 (6) -- 4-13

26. Mike McClelland -- 17-08 (6) -- 3-15

27. Stephen Browning -- 17-04 (7) -- 3-05

28. Cody Meyer -- 17-04 (6) -- 4-02

29. Dustin Connell -- 15-10 (5) -- 5-00

30. Jeff Kriet -- 15-08 (5) -- 4-07

31. Boyd Duckett -- 10-10 (4) -- 3-08

32. Mark Rose -- 9-08 (3) -- 4-08

33. Cliff Crochet -- 9-03 (3) -- 3-10

34. James Elam -- 7-06 (3) -- 2-09

35. Timmy Horton -- 6-09 (2) -- 4-03

36. Terry Scroggins -- 6-07 (3) -- 2-04

37. Jordan Lee -- 5-11 (2) -- 3-03

38. Dave Lefebre -- 0-00 (0) -- 0-00

39. Kelly Jordon -- 0-00 (0) -- 0-00