Googan Baits Pro Catches 25 Scorable Bass Weighing 96-12 to Win
Third Career Title – Second in 2023 – and Earn Top Payout of
$100,000
In a week where largemouth bass made up more than 80-percent of
all of the fish caught on and weighed by the 80 anglers that
competed in the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour on Cayuga
Lake, Googan Baits pro Dustin Connell, stuck with smallmouth and
bested them all. The Clanton, Alabama pro caught 25 scorable
smallmouth bass weighing 96 pounds, 12 ounces, to win the Bass Pro
Tour Fox Rent A Car Stage Six on Cayuga Lake Presented by Googan
Baits in Union Springs, New York on Thursday. The victory was the
third Bass Pro Tour win of Connell’s career – second of the season
– and earned him the top payout of $100,000.
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Pro angler Dustin Connell of Clanton,
Alabama, caught 25 scorable smallmouth bass weighing 96 pounds, 12
ounces, to win the Bass Pro Tour Fox Rent A Car Stage Six on Cayuga
Lake Presented by Googan Baits in Union Springs, New York on
Thursday. Connell won the top payout of $100,000 for his victory.
(Photo: Business Wire)
Link to Hi-Res Photo of Stage Six Winner Dustin Connell
Link to Photo Gallery of Day 6 Championship Round Highlights
Link to Video of Fish Catch Highlights from Day 6 at Cayuga
Lake
“I am shook up. This is unbelievable,” an emotional Connell said
in his post-game interview. “I worked so hard for this tournament
man. I sat out here and battled these waves, every day, and I
practiced so hard, from daylight to dark. It’s so special to win
two in one year. This is just nuts.
“I’d only been here once before – I came here a couple of years
ago for an MLF Cup event on Cayuga,” Connell continued. “I only
caught two bass, all day long. And now we’re holding the trophy up.
And to win it with smallmouth – this is unreal.”
Connell spent the tournament drop-shotting a variety of baits,
using his Lowrance ActiveTarget forward-facing sonar to follow the
roaming schools of smallmouth.
“I caught all of my fish this week on a spinning rod. I had
seven or eight of them tied up every day,” Connell said. “I was
using 12-pound Gold Label Seaguar (fluorocarbon), and a variety of
different baits. I was using a (Googan) Drag N Drop in
green-pumpkin. I caught a bunch of key fish on it around all of the
structure. For the suspended fish, I caught them on a shad bait.
Just following them around. They love to roam during the summer and
that’s the best way to catch them.”
The victory tied Connell with Tennessee pro Ott DeFoe for
second-most career wins on the Bass Pro Tour all-time list with
three. Academy Sports + Outdoors pro Jacob Wheeler, who finished
runner-up to Connell this week, has the most Bass Pro Tour wins
with five.
“I look at guys like Jacob and Ott, and to even be mentioned in
the same conversation with them, as that type of fisherman… my
gosh,” Connell said. “I’m just a kid out here, living his dream. I
am so blessed to get this win.”
The top 10 pros from the Fox Rent A Car Stage Six on Cayuga Lake
Presented by Googan Baits are:
1st: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 25 bass,
96-12, $100,000 2nd: Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn., 27 bass, 80-9,
$45,000 3rd: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 17 bass, 49-7,
$38,000 4th: Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla., 17 bass, 48-13,
$32,000 5th: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 14 bass, 46-10, $30,000
6th: Dakota Ebare, Brookeland, Texas, 11 bass, 46-10, $26,000 7th:
Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 14 bass, 43-12, $23,000 8th: Cody
Meyer, Star, Idaho, 14 bass, 41-8, $21,000 9th: Alton Jones,
Lorena, Texas, 11 bass, 32-14, $19,000 10th: Michael Neal, Dayton,
Tenn., eight bass, 32-14, $16,000
Full results for the entire field can be found at
MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 158 scorable bass weighing 519 pounds, 13
ounces caught by the final 10 pros on Thursday.
Brookeland, Texas pro Dakota Ebare earned Thursday’s
Championship Round $1,000 Berkley Big Bass award, and the $3,000
Berkley Big Bass award for the overall largest bass of the event,
with a massive 7-pound, 10-ounce smallmouth that bit a Strike King
Baby Z-Too during Period 1. Ebare’s giant smallmouth was just 10
ounces shy of the New York state record that was set on Cayuga Lake
in late June.
After six regular-season events in the 2022 Bass Pro Tour
season, reigning Bally Bet Angler of the Year (AOY) Jacob Wheeler
leads with 459 points with just one event left in the regular
season, while Jordan Lee is in second place with 394 points.
Dayton, Tennessee’s Andy Morgan sits in third with 373 points.
Texas pro Alton Jones currently sits in fourth place with 356.5
points, while Randall Tharp rounds out the top five with 352
points.
The Fox Rent A Car Stage Six on Cayuga Lake Presented by Googan
Baits featured 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.
This six-day event was hosted by the Village of Union Springs
and showcased 80 of the best professional anglers in the world
competing for a purse of more than $805,000, with a top payout of
$100,000. The tournament was livestreamed each day at
MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MOTV app, and also filmed for
television broadcast later this fall on the Discovery Channel.
Television coverage of the Fox Rent A Car Stage Six on Cayuga
Lake Presented by Googan Baits will premiere as a two-hour episode
at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Nov. 12 on the Discovery Channel. New
MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on the Discovery
Channel, with additional re-airings on the Outdoor Channel. Each
two-hour long reality-based episode goes in-depth to break down
each day of tournament competition.
The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 80 of the top professional
anglers in the world competing across seven regular-season
tournaments around the country, competing for millions of dollars
and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy
Hitters all-star event and REDCREST IV, the Bass Pro Tour
championship, which will be held next March on Lake Norman in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
Proud sponsors of the 2022 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 13
Fishing, Abu Garcia, A.R.E. Truck Caps, B&W Trailer Hitches,
Bally Bet, Bass Cat, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Covercraft, Favorite
Fishing, Garmin, General Tire, Googan Baits, Grundéns, Guaranteed
Rate, Humminbird, Lowrance, Luminox, Mercury, Minn Kota, Mossy Oak,
Nitro Performance Boats, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Power Stop,
Rapala, Starbrite, Toro, Toyota, Wrangler, Yellowstone Bourbon and
Zoom.
For complete details and updated information on Major League
Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For
regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s
social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
YouTube.
About Major League
Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest
tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events
annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world,
while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, the Discovery
Channel, the Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, the World Fishing
Network, and on-demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, with offices in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster
of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000
competitors in all 50 states and 13 countries. In 2019, MLF
expanded its portfolio of catch, weigh, and immediately release
events to include the sport’s strongest five-biggest-fish format
tournament circuits. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced
the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television
broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the
quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries
enhancement, and fish care.
Major League Fishing – WE ARE Bass Fishing™
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