After the worldwide coronavirus outbreak scuttled a busy year of professional bass fishing events nationwide, America’s three major circuits — the Bassmaster Elite Series, Major League Fishing’s Bass Pro Tour, and the FLW Pro Circuit — continue to reboot their abbreviated 2020 schedules.
That includes a busy few days last weekend when two events took place in the smallmouth bass rich North Country.
In upstate New York, Brandon Palaniuk, who competed on Major League Fishing’s Bass Pro Tour last year, made good on his return to the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2020 with his fourth career B.A.S.S. win and first since 2017. That blue-trophy victory came during last weekend’s Elite Series stop at Lake Champlain.
The Idaho angler topped runner-up Seth Feider, a noted Minnesota smallmouth specialist, by less than two-pounds as Palaniuk used a five-fish, final day limit weighing 21 pounds, 6 ounces to post a four-day total of 80-01. Palaniuk, the 2017 B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year, boosted his career earnings to $1.3 million with the $100,000 winner’s paycheck.
Meanwhile, further to the west, Lacrosse, Wis. angler Tom Monsoor outlasted a star-studded field at the FLW Pro Circuit / MLF Bass Pro Tour Super Tournament held in Wisconsin last weekend on the Mississippi River.
His four-day total of 54-10 was good enough to top runner-up Jacob Wheeler (52-14) and earn the $125,000 payday. In what proved to be Monsoor’s second career FLW Pro Circuit win, the event marked the second of three Super Tournaments in the 2020 season revamped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Incidentally, in losing by a little more than two pounds last weekend, the runner-up finish for Wheeler continued a torrid pace for the Tennessee pro, who is ranked No. 1 in the current BassFan.com world rankings.
Wheeler won the first FLW / MLF Super Tournament in late June on Lake Chickamauga to go along with a Bass Pro Tour win in February on Lake Eufaula. That 2020 success for Wheeler follows a 2019 season that saw him win another BPT event as well as the made-for-television Major League Fishing World Championship.
More Pro Bass Action in August — As professional bass fishing continues at a sizzling pace in the COVID-19 pandemic forced schedule reboot, August will remain red-hot for anglers with three more events remaining in the month.
Next up is the Aug. 11-14 FLW Pro Circuit / MLF Bass Pro Tour Super Tournament on Lake Erie. After that, the Bassmaster Elite Series is back in action with an Aug. 20-23 stop at Michigan’s Lake St. Clair.
And near month’s end, the biggest event on the busy schedule will take place when the FLW Pro Circuit Title Championship (formerly known as the Forrest Wood Cup) takes place from Aug. 24-29 on Wisconsin’s Sturgeon Bay.
To learn more about the events and various bass fishing circuits, please visit www.basmaster.com, www.flwfishing.com, and/or www.majorleaguefishing.com .
Fall Hunting Shows — In a normal year, mid-August marks the annual appearance of the Texas Trophy Hunters Association’s Hunters Extravaganza in Fort Worth. With this year’s 43rd such show canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hunters will have to wait for next year’s Aug. 13-15, 2021 show at the Fort Worth Convention Center (visit www.ttha.com for information).
And while the annual Bass Pro Shops / Cabela’s in-store Fall Hunting Classics are different this year — there are no how-to seminars or special in-store celebrity appearances — that event is still taking place in something of an in-person/online hybrid event for stores in the DFW Metroplex area.
In fact, the stores themselves are open for business and holding huge sales on all kinds of hunting gear as autumn’s hunting seasons for doves, ducks, and deer approach in Texas.
To see what’s on sale during the Aug. 6-29 event, visit Bass Pro Shops’ locations in Grapevine and Garland or Cabela’s locations in Allen and Fort Worth. To see the huge online sale circular, visit the various websites at www.basspro.com or www.cabelas.com.
Hagerman Deadline Approaches — In years gone by, the application deadline for bowhunters hoping to draw a permit for one of three special deer hunts held at the local Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge has occurred during May.
But not this year, not in a year when few things seem normal. With refuge personnel shifting the hunt’s application process to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Drawn Hunts program, there’s a new deadline in town. And that’s the most holy day of the year for Texas hunters, September 1, the annual start to the Lone Star State’s immensely popular dove hunting season.
If you’re interested in applying for the Hagerman NWR bowhunts this year, please visit the TPWD Drawn Hunts page at https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/public_hunt_drawing.
Amazon Adventure Fishing Show — Missing adventure travel and fishing trips in 2020 as the COIVD-19 pandemic continues?
Well, consider watching a special outdoors television program early next week that details an incredible Xingu River journey into the Amazon region last year by Ross Purnell, publisher and editor of Fly Fisherman magazine, and Rodrigo Salles of Untamed Angling.
That 2019 trip for payara (also known as vampire fish) will be shown in a 90-minute long documentary entitled Blood Run: Fly Fishing with Amazon Warriors, which will have its worldwide premiere on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020 at 6 and 9 p.m. CST on Outdoor Channel.
You can also join Purnell and Salles for a special Outdoor Channel / Fly Fisherman Facebook live event at 8 P.M. CST to discuss the film and ask all kinds of jungle-fishing questions.
To learn more about the trip and fishing for the sharp-toothed piscatorial creatures in South America, visit www.flyfisherman.com.
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