Strader Finishes on top of Elimination Round 1 at Conroe

February 15, 2019

Courtesy of Major League Fishing

CONROE, Texas (Feb. 14, 2019) – With the first Elimination Round of the Major League Fishing® (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Huk Stage Two presented by Favorite Fishing officially in the books, Wesley Strader can take a quick breath of relief and rest up for Saturday’s Knockout Round.

Even more importantly, he can let his best water rest, too.

After adding 23 pounds to to his Shotgun Round total of 33-0 – bringing his two-day total to 56-0 – Strader heads into the semi-final round on top of the 40-man Group A, exactly 1 pound ahead of Bobby Lane (55-0). But Strader is quick to acknowledge that the competition has now become as much a game of strategy as of picking apart the water at Lake Conroe.

The East Tennessee pro summed it up best right after he put his last fish of Period 2 – a 4-4 – on SCORETRACKER®: “I don’t care who passes me, I’m out of here,” Strader said as he Power-Poled up and backed his way out of the narrow creek he had been fishing to go scout new water.

Strader would eventually add another three fish to his total in Period 3 to claim the top spot in the group, but used the entire period as a scouting exercise, hoping to find “the juice” for Saturday, when the weights zero.

“I looked around more than I fished today,” Strader admitted. “I have a real specific (condition) I’m looking for – when I see it, I catch one about 75 percent of the time. But this thing I’m looking for is really hard to find, and I have to cover a lot of water on the trolling motor to find it. I feel like I can go behind guys and catch them, though, because I have a

Bobby Lane finished the Group A Elimination Round 1 in

2nd place with 55-0, exactly 1 pound behind Strader’s 56-0.

real specific bait that they really like. Hopefully I can make that work again on Saturday.”

The majority of the Top 10 – most of whom were in good shape on SCORETRACKER when competition began, anyway – followed Strader’s lead.

Brent Ehrler, Adrian Avena, Jason Christie and Bradley Roy all spent a good portion of their Elimination Round sniffing around Conroe in search of conditions and spots that they could exploit in the Knockout and Championship Rounds.

Surviving the Elimination Line

The handful of anglers battling for survival around the Elimination Line, though, had no such flexibility. Skeet Reese powered his way into the semi-final with a 25-pound day to finish 17th while Kevin VanDam clawed his way to 7-1 to stay just inside the Top 20 at 18th.

Greg Hackney and Dean Rojas claimed the final two spots in the Knockout Round, pushing Mike Iaconelli, Aaron Martens and Gerald Swindle out of the competition.

Elimination Round 2 set to be a brawl

The 40 anglers from Group B now get their second shot at Conroe for Elimination Round 2. This group – led by Jordan Lee, Andy Montgomery, David Walker, Jared Lintner and Randall Tharp – will see much milder weather conditions than Group A, with daytime highs hitting the 80-degree mark.

That means that bigger fish will likely be moving in. And with a tight grouping around the 20th spot – anglers 14 through 25 are separated by roughly 5 pounds – this race will likely see plenty of movement in the middle of the 40-man field.

“There are so many great anglers stacked up close together – with (the MLF) format and the ability to catch as many fish as you can, it’s going to be a battle,” said Randy Howell (18th with 11-4).

How/where to watch

Official live scoring updates are available via SCORETRACKER from the start of competition at 7:30 a.m. CT. The MLF NOW! live stream begins at 10 a.m. CT, with on-the-water coverage following the action until the end of competition at 3:30 p.m. The MLF Berkley Postgame Show begins at 5 p.m.

Group A

Place	Angler	Day 1	Day 2	Total Weight	Day 1	Day 2	Total # Fish	Avg Weight	Largest Fish
1st	Wesley Strader	33 – 00	23 – 00	56 – 00	18	11	29	1 – 15	4 – 04
2nd	Bobby Lane	28 – 05	26 – 11	55 – 00	13	14	27	2 – 01	3 – 02
3rd	Mark Rose	17 – 12	31 – 03	48 – 15	10	10	20	2 – 07	7 – 03
4th	Fletcher Shryock	16 – 12	26 – 06	43 – 02	7	12	19	2 – 05	5 – 10
5th	Brent Ehrler	33 – 12	8 – 01	41 – 13	15	5	20	1 – 15	2 – 02
6th	Jason Christie	29 – 11	11 – 16	41 – 11	10	5	15	2 – 11	3 – 03
7th	Adrian Avena	29 – 02	12 – 04	41 – 06	15	7	22	1 – 14	3 – 02
8th	Alton Jones Jr.	15 – 06	26 – 00	41 – 06	8	10	18	2 – 04	5 – 12
9th	Justin Atkins	16 – 01	24 – 02	40 – 03	8	8	16	2 – 08	5 – 00
10th	Bradley Roy	29 – 04	10 – 03	39 – 07	12	5	17	2 – 04	2 – 14
11th	Boyd Duckett	27 – 00	11 – 08	38 – 08	17	8	25	1 – 08	1 – 14
12th	Alton Jones	18 – 06	19 – 09	37 – 15	7	9	16	2 – 06	4 – 00
13th	Todd Faircloth	17 – 13	20 – 00	37 – 13	11	10	21	1 – 13	2 – 08
14th	Jeff Kriet	26 – 03	9 – 13	36 – 00	13	6	19	1 – 13	2 – 06
15th	Jonathon VanDam	18 – 03	16 – 16	35 – 03	7	6	13	2 – 12	4 – 00
16th	Jeff Sprague	17 – 07	17 – 05	34 – 12	10	9	19	1 – 13	4 – 04
17th	Skeet Reese	8 – 02	25 – 04	33 – 06	5	13	18	1 – 12	3 – 14
18th	Kevin VanDam	25 – 12	7 – 01	32 – 13	14	5	19	1 – 10	1 – 13
19th	Greg Hackney	17 – 02	14 – 09	31 – 11	8	7	15	2 – 02	2 – 10
20th	Dean Rojas	12 – 14	18 – 08	31 – 06	6	8	14	2 – 04	3 – 06
Elimination Line
21st	Mike Iaconelli	15 – 15	13 – 01	29 – 00	8	5	13	2 – 05	4 – 09
22nd	Aaron Martens	11 – 02	16 – 03	27 – 05	5	6	11	2 – 07	6 – 05
23rd	Gerald Swindle	21 – 03	5 – 10	26 – 13	7	2	9	2 – 15	3 – 03
24th	Cliff Pace	14 – 10	11 – 14	26 – 08	9	5	14	2 – 00	3 – 14
25th	Dustin Connell	5 – 08	20 – 07	25 – 15	3	7	10	2 – 06	4 – 10
26th	Shaw Grigsby	12 – 14	12 – 07	25 – 05	7	7	14	1 – 13	3 – 04
27th	Cliff Crochet	11 – 07	13 – 11	25 – 02	6	8	14	1 – 13	2 – 10
28th	Anthony Gagliardi	13 – 02	11 – 01	24 – 03	5	6	11	2 – 04	2 – 07
29th	Marty Robinson	8 – 14	13 – 16	22 – 14	5	7	12	1 – 14	2 – 13
30th	Luke Clausen	8 – 14	10 – 15	19 – 13	4	5	9	2 – 03	2 – 11
31st	Britt Myers	10 – 14	8 – 07	19 – 05	7	5	12	1 – 10	2 – 00
32nd	Josh Bertrand	9 – 04	8 – 07	17 – 11	3	4	7	2 – 10	3 – 14
33rd	Jacob Powroznik	11 – 10	5 – 07	17 – 01	6	3	9	1 – 14	2 – 08
34th	Scott Suggs	5 – 15	10 – 04	16 – 03	3	6	9	1 – 13	2 – 09
35th	Brent Chapman	8 – 11	6 – 05	15 – 00	5	4	9	1 – 11	2 – 06
36th	Terry Scroggins	7 – 11	4 – 01	11 – 12	4	2	6	1 – 16	2 – 06
37th	John Murray	4 – 12	5 – 10	10 – 06	1	3	4	3 – 05	2 – 02
38th	Paul Elias	7 – 00	1 – 10	8 – 10	5	1	6	1 – 08	1 – 10
39th	Brandon Palaniuk	7 – 03	0 – 00	7 – 03	3	0	3	2 – 06	2 – 13
40th	Jesse Wiggins	0 – 00	2 – 11	2 – 11	0	2	2	0 – 11	1 – 06