Photo by Rob Newell for FLWOutdoors.com (see their great coverage of the event here)
.Brent Ehrler put up one of the most impressive wins in FLW Tour history today on Table Rock Lake. Not only was his 69-11 amazing for four days on a very tough fishery in very tough conditions, but the ease in which he did it was remarkable. Not to mention he just drove back from the west coast where he notched a win out there. So it’s the first week of March and Mr. Ehrler has already made nearly $175,000 for the year. Look for an in-depth interview with Brent later this week on what makes him tick and why his game has elevated so much in recent years.
Think about this for a second. Ehrler beat second place by 13 pounds, 2 ounces. Which Ron Shuffield had an amazing tournament in his own right. Yet, Ehrler beat fifth place finisher Greg Pugh, by 31 pounds. Simply amazing.
Ehrler of Redlands, Calif., caught a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds,
13
ounces Saturday to win $127,500 at the FLW Tour event presented by
Cabela’s on Table
Rock Lake with a four-day catch of 20-bass weighing 69-1
The
catch gave him the win by a solid 13-pound,
2-ounce margin over Ron Shuffield of Bismarck, Ark., who caught a total
of five
bass weighing 17-10 and earned $40,000. For the tournament, Shuffield
caught 18
bass for a total weight of 56-9.
“I found a
magical spot,†said Ehrler, who is on fire with back-to-back wins having
won at
Lake Shasta in January. “I was in a creek on the White River and it was a
perfect pre-spawn area. It was the first creek bend the fish came to and
the
fish seemed to be suspended there just above the trees. I was keeping my
boat
in 30-35 feet of water and then casting to about 12-15 feet.
“I
caught the majority of
my fish using a Yamamoto Curly Tail Grub. I was experimenting a little
bit with
Lucky Craft DD jerkbaits, which is what I caught my 6-pounder on
Thursday
with, but the majority came using the grub.â€
Colder
than normal water
temperatures made the fish do strange things and hide in strange
locations
making one of the best fishing lakes in the country an even bigger
challenge
for some of the best anglers. Ehrler was the only angler at Table Rock
to catch
a limit each day.
Ehrler
opened the tournament
in third place Wednesday with five bass weighing 16-6 while fishing in
the
White River. On Thursday, he added another five bass weighing 22-2 using a
Lucky
Craft DD 100 jerkbait to catch his 6-pounder to capture the lead. He
then
caught five bass weighing 14-6 on Friday to make the crucial top-5 cut
in first
place. On Saturday he sealed his victory using the same 5-inch Yamamoto
grubs he used
throughout the tournament.
The
remaining top-five pros finished the
tournament in:
3rd:
Mike Wurm, Hot Springs,
Ark., 16 bass, 46-6, $30,000
4th:
Bryan Thrift,
Shelby, N.C., 15 bass, 44-1, $20,000
5th:
Greg Pugh,
Cullman, Ala., 13 bass, 38-8, $18,000
