Major League Fishing

The following is an Outdoor Channel original production.

Previously on Jack Link's Major League Fishing.

I was kind of expecting to hear Bobby Lane, Bobby Lane, Bobby Lane.

- My plan was to pay attention to what Bobby Lane did.

- You put your seven five in the boat, life gets way better.

That's a game changer.

- He takes the lead. Are you kidding me?

No, man.

And when people are watching this,

you think the monkey is on his back, he's struggling.

- From eighth to fourth place was one bite, all day long.

Oh, God.

I missed one.

- Is try to make sure I make enough points to stay ahead

of Timmy Horton and Jason Quinn.

Oh he came off!

When you're not getting any, it's heavy.

Come here, come here.

Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and on is still anybody's game.

- I mean I jumped from tenth all the way up to seven.

I'm only seven pounds out of fourth now.

Tight match.

Mark Rose was nipping at my heels.

Boyd Duckett was nipping at my heels.

- I thought I was gonna catch and pass Bobby.

I was within 13 ounces of him.

- Hairs change in October. Poet and the estate, folks.

Woohoo!

- Jack Link's Major League Fishing.

It's the Shell Rotella Challenge Cup,

from Lake County, Florida.

The only advantage, anytime we go somewhere we've been before,

it does speed up the process a little bit.

I expect it to be challenging.

I probably am as nervous as I've been, ten years of doing this.

I need to make the cut.

- Obviously in this ballgame you gotta figure it out pretty fast.

Don't really have any preconceived notions on how I'm gonna catch 'em.

You gotta be positive, from the time you launch the boat

til the very end of the third period.

- If we can get 13 points, we will not get knocked out.

- I got 10. - Well I got eight.

I just gotta beat you.

- Welcome to Jack Link's Major League Fishing

for the final elimination round from beautiful Lake County, Florida.

At the end of the day, four more anglers will move one step closer to becoming

a Shell Rotella Challenge Cup champion.

The pressure on the anglers today has never been greater.

Fail to perform and you could find yourself on the outside looking in.

Let's meet our final ten anglers.

Coming in highest ranked for the day, at number three, Greg Hackney.

Next in line, at number five, Aaron Martens.

Ranked number nine, Mike Iaconelli.

In at number 11, Skeet Reese.

Holding number 16, Mark Davis.

Next in line, at number 17, Takahiro Omori.

Ranked number 22, Denny Brauer.

And rounding out the Cup anglers, at number 23, Jeff Kriet.

And joining us from the selects, from Blacksburg, South Carolina,

Andy Montgomery.

And from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Scott Ashmore.

Let's take look at angler rankings based on points and average event finish.

We have four top 12 anglers on the water.

A win in today's elimination round adds 10 points,

while a last earns just one.

All the anglers wanna win, but for the bottom of the field it could prove critical.

At the end of this two-year cycle,

the bottom two in points will lose cups status

to make room for the two select points qualifiers.

Jeff Kriet needs to perform well today to avoid being cut.

Denny Brauer needs to place higher than Jeff to do the same.

Once again, our anglers had no idea where they'd be fishing until

they pulled up to the ramp this morning.

For more on that, let's head over to Sheli Sanders and today's lake breakdown.

Thank you, Stephen.

With 1400 lakes to choose from in this county alone,

you understand why they call it Lake County, Florida.

Now with that many choices, we decided to take our focus right here

on the Harris chain of lakes, and today, for elimination round three,

we've sent our anglers back out to Lake Harris.

Now that includes both Little and Big Lake Harris.

There's 11 miles of water from end to end.

Now remember, we keep our anglers in the dark until the moment they get to the boat ramp.

We had a talk with Skeet Reese about this very topic.

Have a listen to our General Tire Anywhere is Possible.

- Florida throws a monkey wrench in everything.

When you look at a map of the area,

we are surrounded with little lakes and ponds all throughout this area.

That's how I look at it. Anywhere is possible.

So I had 15 rods rigged.

All my tackle preparation was based on a reaction bite.

Shallow crankbaits, I'm gonna be fishing soft plastics.

I get up this morning, they say be in the boatyard, ready to go at 6 AM.

We never know where we're gonna go.

Our boat officials, they'll drive, like, out of the way.

They'll take a long way around to get a short distance just to mess with us.

All of a sudden I see, okay, signs.

I'm like, Harris Lake.

Ah, got it!

Ding ding ding ding ding!

- Love hearing from our pros on that perspective.

All right, let's send it over now to Marty Stone,

our on-the-water analyst, for a closer look at the features of Lake Harris.

- Elimination, round number three.

What the anglers are gonna find in their ride-through with their 18-foot Z18 Nitros

is a lake that they're very familiar with, Big Harris and Little Harris.

And in the past it's always been about the grass,

lily pads, buggy whips,

but in the previous rounds, boat docks and cypress trees have come into play.

The lake's up ever so slightly,

and it's pushed these fish back to the back wall,

and that's why these cypress trees are factoring in.

But today's round, we've got a true south wind,

and if there was ever a day designed for some of these bigger fish later in they day

to bite the grass, today's it.

The numbers, we know who's gonna come up the hard cover.

But what angler will be brave enough to venture out into the Kissimmee grass

and the bull rushes and have an opportunity at some of these true giant Florida bass.

- Somebody catch 'em out in the middle.

Somebody who knows where a shale bed is or something.

- I'm basically just gonna make a quick idle in this.

That's the big flat point that comes out, and I know there's some brush out here.

I remember from before.

It's pretty unique for this lake, because most Florida lakes are like a bowl.

They don't have much contour change.

Fishing like this is tough, in this format, because you don't have a lot of time to find stuff.

You almost gotta fish with your eyes more than your graph in this kind of format.

- I'm seeing something chasing. Something's chasing right there.

I saw one jump, bait run outta the water.

It's a little bit of hydra.

This whole deal was a big hydrilla bed last time I was here.

All this indentation.

There's some scruff out there in like 6 or 7.

- What I like about this is it's got the wind pushing in on it right now.

And boy, on some of these windy days you can catch 'em on a spinnerbait early,

that's what I'm gonna try to do, anyway.

- I'm the only guy get this side of the lake, looks like.

I got nobody behind me or nothing.

I don't know what they thinking.

- That's called the dead river, and that runs to another lake.

And it necks down, so you have current.

And if the mouths of these, pretty much all deals like this in Florida, they're shale.

And in the mornings these fish like shale.

- Looks like Kriet's stopped on it, but that's kinda where I wanted to start,

but I'll let him have have it.

First thing I'm gonna start here, and if it doesn't pan out we'll go up there and fish the mouth.

You know, I'm mean there's gonna be guys that are gonna, you know, get on the bank, and that's good too.

But if I can hit one of these shale bays,

I mean, who knows, you can win in the first 30 minutes.

- Jack Link's Major League Fishing

- You know, this is a lake I've fished before.

So I have some history.

But you know at the end of the day, you don't wanna let your history hurt you.

- It has a lot of big fish in it, they're just hard as hell to catch.

- It's the third and final elimination round of Jack Link's Major League Fishing.

The third group of ten anglers have taken to Lake Harris and are ready for lines in.

This round requires one thing, finish fourth or better and move closer to the championship round.

Anything less will result in a disappointing departure

from the Shell Rotella Challenge Cup

here in Lake County, Florida.

They have claimed a starting spot.

Major League Fishing elimination round three, begins now.

3, 2, 1, lines in.

- All right, this is an important day, right here.

7:30, lines in.

Here we go!

- If you look at the way it's set up, it's got deep water all around it,

it's got wind blowing into it,

and a final feature, which is really key on this lake,

is it's got a shale bottom.

And, you know, it's a typical Florida lake.

You got a lot of soft bottom here.

So anytime you get a lake that has

some shale in it, it becomes an attractor to the fish.

- Well, this is one of those past history spots.

Got the mouth of the river here.

- Most of these shale bays are gonna be at the mouths,

actually I'm in a shale right there, are gonna be at the mouths of these canals and stuff like that.

And you get a lot of grass in Florida.

- Early morning bite's key for two reasons.

One is the schooling fish tend to be at their most active in the morning.

Second thing is momentum.

You know, you want momentum.

Everybody wants to catch a couple, you know, the first hour of the event.

Got one!

- While Takahiro Omori gets his first bass on the scale, let's go over today's scoring rules.

Every scorable bass counts.

A bass must measure at least 12 inches.

The top four anglers at the end of period three

will advance, the bottom six will be eliminated.

One pound, three ounces.

I take it. Thank you.

Start it.

There he is.

We on the board!

Score tracker update for ya.

Skeet, Tak has a bass weighs one pound three ounces,

Andy Montgomery's on the board with 15 ounces.

That's special.

- I know, a long way to go, though.