Daniels Hangs On To Claim Group A

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

The water was a bit dirtier, the air a bit chillier and as a result, the fishing at Lake Fork today was considerably tougher.

After putting up some prodigious totals during day 1 of competition on Friday, the 40 competitors in Group A returned to the water Sunday for the conclusion of their Qualifying Round. There was a significant dropoff in the number of bass caught and weights as anglers jockeyed for position in an effort to advance to the Knockout Round.

Mark Daniels Jr. managed to stave off all challengers and hold on to finish atop the group and assure himself a berth in the Championship Round. Daniels caught seven – he carded 24 on Friday – that weighed 27-00 and he finished the two-day Qualifying Round with 111-15 (31 fish).

“That’s a super great feeling. I’m excited,” Daniels said. “The incentive to win is huge because guys now never let off the gas and are trying to catch as much as they can.”

Jeff Sprague made a late charge, but fell short after catching 33-08 (nine fish) today to finish with 106-04. Jason Christie maintained his hold on third place, adding 28-15 to his ledger to finish at 97-11 (25 fish).

There were three anglers who climbed into the top 20 today and earned another day at Fork – Josh Bertrand, Luke Clausen and Terry Scroggins. All three said they didn’t veer far at all from their day-1 strategies.

Bertrand made a 16-spot jump up to seventh by catching a day-3 best 43-06 (11 fish) to bump his total to 82-03. Clausen caught more than half of today’s weight in the second period to climb from 25th to 13th with 78-01 overall. Meanwhile, Scroggins jumped five slots to 17th behind a 32-02 (nine fish) effort.

Brett Hite, James Elam and Bradley Roy, who occupied the 18th, 19th and 20th spots, respectively, entering today, all slipped out of contention and missed the cut. Only three anglers caught more fish today than they had on Friday, but they all missed the cut.

Local fishing pressure around the lake continued to be a storyline for competitors despite the cooler air temperatures and sporadic rain. Water temperatures dropped a few degrees, which likely prevented another wave of fish from moving into spawning areas. There seemed to be enough left over, though, as most of Group A seemed intent on targeting spawners or those on the cusp of it.

Count Daniels among them. While he mixed in a few spots where he felt he could pick off a few pre-spawners on staging points, he relied mostly again on fishing for bedding fish.

“I knew a good group of fish had committed to beds or shallow and when that happens, what’s there is there,” he said. “That was my primary focus. From an efficiency standpoint, I knew spawners would be best for me.”

His most productive area from Friday attracted a few more locals today – Daniels counted 14 other boats in the vicinity – but he was able to come away with three fish on his scorecard, including a 5-12 to start the day.

“There was one fish in particular that I found Friday on bed that I didn’t think anyone else would find and she was still there,” he said. “Catching that one was a great way to kick things off.”

Bertrand started strong as well with a pair of 4-pounders to begin the day. They were part of an 18-14 first period that saw him move up to 16th place after the first 2 1/2-hour segment.

“It’s funny the difference in how you feel being in 19th versus 21st,” Bertrand said. “Early in the day, it doesn’t mean anything, but mentally if you have that monkey on your back you feel like to need to catch up. That 4-pounder in the first minutes really helped get my head above water.”

From there, he focused on staying in areas where he got bites on day 1. With a cold front moving through, he tried to keep himself in high-percentage spots.

“Maybe I learned more about the areas I was fishing,” he said. “In practice, I was spread out and fished a lot of dead water on Friday. I had some pretty long lulls. Today, I stayed out of those areas.”

Bertrand went the last two hours without a bite and still managed to stay in the top 10. His last fish was a 6-05.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” he said. “I was just hoping to be in the mix to have shot at the cut. I’m not fishing any magic areas. It’s just a good lake with a lot of fish. I’m just trying to tell myself to catch enough to have a good day and I needed to do that.”

Based on the day-1 results, Clausen figured he’d need a big day to keep himself in the mix for the Knockout Round. Turns out, he just needed to keep up his pace from Friday.

“I felt like I needed to match day 1 to have a chance,” he said. “I was surprised the weights fell off like they did.”

Clausen was one of two anglers in the top 20 who exceeded their day-1 weight today. Bertrand was the other. Clausen said he followed the same general program from Friday and scratched out the same number of bites.

“I’m happy about it,” he said. “I don’t really know what to expect. There’s so much pressure here. You don’t ever have a place you have to yourself. You have to fish around people and hope things go your way. I threw three or four different baits and fished the same general kind of areas. To say I can go out and do it again, I’m not sure I can. I had 11 bites in 8 hours. I wouldn’t say that’s anything to really depend on.”

Scroggins said he could rely on a vibrating jig and little else today. He caught all but one of his nine fish on a ChatterBait.

“I fished pretty much the same areas and expanded a little bit,” he said. “There’s so much boat traffic here you can’t really get in to fish anywhere, so I just stuck in the area where I’d caught them on Friday.”

Weather Forecast

> Mon., March 16 – Rain - 65°/58°
- Wind: From the ESE at 5 to 10 mph

> Tue., March 17 – Scattered Thunderstorms - 73°/62°
- Wind: Light and variable

> Wed., March 18 – Thunderstorms - 75°/65°
- Wind: From the SSE at 5 to 10 mph

Group A Qualifying Round Results

1. Mark Daniels, Jr. -- 24, 84-15 -- 7, 27-00 -- 31, 111-15

2. Jeff Sprague -- 20, 72-12 -- 9, 33-08 -- 29, 106-04

3. Jason Christie -- 17, 68-12 -- 8, 28-15 -- 25, 97-11

4. Keith Poche -- 21, 58-15 -- 7, 30-11 -- 28, 89-10

5. Greg Hackney -- 14, 48-01 -- 11, 39-10 -- 25, 87-11

6. Andy Morgan -- 18, 67-04 -- 5, 19-05 -- 23, 86-09

7. Josh Bertrand -- 11, 38-13 -- 11, 43-06 -- 22, 82-03

8. Bobby Lane -- 19, 55-06 -- 6, 24-13 -- 25, 80-03

9. Ott DeFoe -- 18, 55-10 -- 9, 23-16 -- 27, 79-10

10. Greg Vinson -- 16, 65-13 -- 5, 13-13 -- 21, 79-10

11. David Dudley -- 15, 63-04 -- 4, 16-05 -- 19, 79-09

12. Shin Fukae -- 13, 47-08 -- 10, 31-12 -- 23, 79-04

13. Luke Clausen -- 11, 38-04 -- 11, 39-13 -- 22, 78-01

14. Alton Jones -- 16, 55-00 -- 8, 22-10 -- 24, 77-10

15. Andy Montgomery -- 11, 47-10 -- 6, 24-03 -- 17, 71-13

16. Chris Lane -- 16, 55-09 -- 6, 16-02 -- 22, 71-11

17. Terry Scroggins -- 10, 39-00 -- 9, 32-02 -- 19, 71-02

18. Mark Rose -- 12, 44-09 -- 7, 26-07 -- 19, 71-00

19. Fletcher Shryock -- 15, 57-12 -- 4, 12-11 -- 19, 70-07

20. Aaron Martens -- 13, 50-01 -- 6, 18-15 -- 19, 69-00

The following anglers missed the cut and will not advance to the Knockout Round.

21. Skeet Reese -- 6, 22-08 -- 9, 42-10 -- 15, 65-02

22. Cody Meyer -- 9, 38-13 -- 5, 24-04 -- 14, 63-01

23. Randall Tharp -- 9, 35-08 -- 6, 27-03 -- 15, 62-11

24. Takahiro Omori -- 8, 26-10 -- 10, 34-11 -- 18, 61-05

25. Brett Hite -- 10, 42-06 -- 5, 17-14 -- 15, 60-04

26. Adrian Avena -- 10, 30-14 -- 5, 25-14 -- 15, 56-12

27. James Elam -- 12, 41-06 -- 3, 9-09 -- 15, 50-15

28. Timmy Horton -- 10, 39-08 -- 3, 9-12 -- 13, 49-04

29. Bradley Roy -- 11, 40-11 -- 3, 6-14 -- 14, 47-09

30. Mark Davis -- 6, 22-05 -- 6, 22-00 -- 12, 44-05

31. Jeff Kriet -- 8, 26-01 -- 4, 13-15 -- 12, 40-00

32. Ish Monroe -- 8, 33-09 -- 1, 4-11 -- 9, 38-04

33. Paul Elias -- 8, 30-10 -- 3, 7-03 -- 11, 37-13

34. Stephen Browning -- 4, 13-05 -- 6, 23-05 -- 10, 36-10

35. David Walker -- 7, 22-12 -- 4, 13-06 -- 11, 36-02

36. Britt Myers -- 9, 31-03 -- 0, 0-00 -- 9, 31-03

37. Russ Lane -- 5, 15-15 -- 2, 8-12 -- 7, 24-11

38. Tommy Biffle -- 4, 11-07 -- 2, 4-15 -- 6, 16-06

39. Jonathon VanDam -- 1, 2-08 -- 4, 13-03 -- 5, 15-11

40. Jason Lambert -- 2, 6-10 -- 2, 8-09 -- 4, 15-03