Ehrler Continues Dominance with Win at Chevy Open

5/29/2010 9:02:24 PM

California pro Brent Ehrler wins his third tournament in six events
<

National Guard and Wired2Fish pro Brent Ehrler of Redlands, Calif., caught a five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 11 ounces Saturday to win $127,500 at the FLW Tour’s Chevy Open on Lake Ouachita with a four-day catch of 20 bass weighing 58-1. Ehrler has been on a terror this year definitely putting himself in the talks of the greatest angler in the sport. He's fished six professional bass tournaments this year and he's won three of them, putting his earnings for this year alone at just shy of $350,000. What he's accomplished in such a short time is something amazing in the sport of bass fishing.
 
Today's catch gave him the win by a 1-pound, 6-ounce margin over Folgers & Wired2Fish pro Scott Suggs of Bryant, Ark., who caught a total of 20 bass weighing 56-11 and earned $36,356.
 
“I didn’t think I had it today,” said Ehrler, who has won more than $1.5 million in FLW Outdoors events. “I really had a tough time. The water really dropped today and my hat’s off to the top five.
 
“I’m just so fortunate to be up here,” Ehrler added. “I’m shocked. I don’t know what to say.”
 
Ehrler said he began the tournament throwing topwater baits in the hopes of catching big fish early and then slowed down and used a shaky-head rig or a Senko to catch lethargic bass. He said he was using a Lucky Craft Gunfish 115 for his topwater fish.
 
“The second day I didn’t get any bites on topwater,” Ehrler said. “I started struggling on the outside stuff. I was fishing main lake. Finally, later in the day, I went up shallow and started looking around and started seeing a few fish and I caught one. Then I caught another one. I had a decent limit.”
 
Ehrler said his topwater bite held up on the third day of competition.
 
“They kept biting it and biting it and I made up my mind right then and there that’s all I was going to do the rest of the tournament was throw topwater,” Ehrler said. “All my big fish on the first day came on that.”
 
Ehrler said the other bait he relied on during the tournament was a Brian’s Bee Prop Bait. He said he threw the prop bait in the backs of pockets where bluegill were spawning. He said the prop bait was effective in calm water, but when the wind picked up or he wanted to cover water he switched back to the Gunfish.
 
Ehrler opened the tournament in 13th place Wednesday with five bass weighing 14-0. On Thursday he added another five bass weighing 13-11. He then caught five bass weighing 18-11 on Friday to make the crucial top-5 cut in first place. On Saturday he sealed his victory.
 
“I thought I needed the one big bite (to win),” Ehrler said. “I never had a good bite today — you know a 3- to 6-pound bite. I thought if I got one I could win the tournament, but I didn’t. I really didn’t think that I had a shot.”
 
Suggs said he approached the Chevy Open the same way he did when he won the Forrest Wood Cup in 2007.
 
“I ran a lot of brim beds — the ones I knew people couldn’t find,” said Suggs. “A lot of the lake didn’t have grass in it, and I went and put green brush piles in it. I put them a lot shallower than people would normally put them and normally more (shallow) than I would put them. That’s how I caught my big bags this week.”
 
Suggs said he caught his limits early in 40 to 70 feet deep over timber on a Berkley Hollow Belly Swim Bait.
 
The remaining top-5 pros finished the tournament in:
 
      3rd:   Castrol pro David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 20 bass, 56-2, $27,223
      4th:   Keith Monson, Burgin, Ky., 20 bass, 51-14, $18,090
      5th:   Ishama Monroe, Hughson, Calif., 20 bass, 51-6, $16,263
 
A complete list of results can be found at FLWOutdoors.com.
     
Overall there were 25 bass weighing 51 pounds, 13 ounces caught by pros Saturday. The catch included five five-bass limits.
 
David Tierney of Fayetteville, Ark., won the Co-angler Division and $25,000 Friday with a three-day total of 10 bass weighing 31 pounds, 1 ounce followed by Brad Roberts of Nancy, Ky., in second place with 13 bass weighing 25-12 worth $9,098.
 
National Guard Pro Ehrler and Cumberland Pro Lures co-angler Brad Roberts of Nancy, Ky., each won a $2,500 gift card as part of the new Cabela’s Angler Cash program. In 2010, Cabela’s is offering pro and co-anglers the opportunity to register and win a $2,500 gift card for being the highest qualified finisher in each division at all FLW Tour events, making the stakes even higher in an already rich payout.
 
blog comments powered by Disqus