Friday’s Championship Round field set, Team B&W Trailer Hitches (Becker/Shuffield), Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff (Clausen/Hunter), Team Star Tron (Lane/Wall) and Team U.S. Air Force (Browning/Gagliardi) to compete for Challenge Cup
ERIE, Pa. (Aug. 29, 2024) – It was a runaway second match of the Knockout Round on Chautauqua Lake, Thursday at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota. Two teams – the B&W Trailer Hitches duo of Matt Becker and Spencer Shuffield , and the Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches pair of Luke Clausen and John Hunter – had great days on the water, catching more than double the amount of fish that teams competing in the first Knockout Round match caught on Wednesday, while the Team Coign duo of Drew Gill and Matt Stefan struggled and never really found the quality of bass that they were looking for.
Although it was an anticlimactic finale to the Knockout Round, it was still an exciting day of fishing on the MLFNOW! live stream in the first event of the 2024 MLF General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops. Team B&W Trailer Hitches caught 44 bass weighing 99 pounds, 6 ounces to advance in the top spot, while Team Smokey Mountain weighed in 32 scorable bass totaling 74-11 to finish the round in second.
Chautauqua Lake was the big X-factor on the day, as the lake seemed to turn on Thursday after a tough day of fishing on Wednesday. The three teams boated 86 bass weighing 191-5 today – a stark contrast to the 36 bass weighing 70-9 caught on Wednesday.
“We wacked them today - that was such a fun day of fishing,” said Becker, who caught 17 bass for 35-14. “We got to go on a tour of Lake Chautauqua. We fished the north end, the south end and everywhere in between. We caught some on topwater, caught some under boat docks, caught some flipping – it was a hodge podge. Crackin’ 5-pound smallmouth on topwater… Man, what an awesome day.”
“Anytime you can catch smallmouth on topwater, it’s incredible. And we had an absolute blast today,” said Shuffield, who led the team with 27 bass weighing 63-8. “I didn’t expect to catch as many 3½- to 4-pounders, and I was really impressed with the caliber of fish here. I’d definitely take what we had today tomorrow and feel pretty good about it.”
Becker was one of the only anglers in the field with experience on Chautauqua Lake, and that experience paid off in a big way. The team did the majority of its damage fishing a single grass flat on the north end of the lake.
“We caught a lot of fish in the morning – nearly half of our weight came off of that one flat,” Shuffield said. “We caught three or four smallmouth over 4 pounds, and that got us off to a really good start.”
Shuffield’s topwater of choice was a Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil in sexy shad color, thrown on an Ark 7-foot, 3-inch medium-heavy Reinforcer rod with an Ark Gravity G8 7:1 gear ratio reel, spooled with 40-pound Yo-Zuri Super Braid line.
“I feel like the clouds really helped us out with the smallmouth in the morning,” Becker added.
“We’ve got some momentum rolling, and I like our chances heading into the Championship Round, tomorrow,” Becker went on to say. “I don’t know where we’re going – probably somewhere completely new – but we are excited and looking forward to hopefully breaking down a new fishery.
A 48-pound second period propelled the Team Smokey Mountain duo of Luke Clausen and John Hunter into the Championship Round. They caught a few scorable bass on a topwater bait and on bladed jigs, but most of their bass came on stick worms. Hunter threw a weedless Texas rig with no weight, while Clausen threw his worm on a wacky rig. At one point during the second period, they Power-Poled down and caught more than 30 pounds off of one area with their soft plastics.
The top two teams advancing from Knockout Round Match 2 to the Championship Round at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota are:
1st: Team B&W Trailer Hitches, 44 bass, 99-6
Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 17 bass, 35-14
Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 27 bass, 63-8
2nd: Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches, 32 bass, 74-11
Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., seven bass, 34-1
John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., four bass, 40-10
Eliminated from competition are:
3rd: Team Coign, 10 bass, 17-4
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., six bass, 11-11
Matthew Stefan, Junction City, Wis., four bass, 5-9
Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 86 bass weighing 191 pounds, 5 ounces caught by the three teams Thursday in Match 2 of the Knockout Round on Chautauqua Lake. In addition to the most weight and most fish caught, Shuffield also caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a chunky 4-pound, 15-ounce smallmouth that crushed a walking topwater bait in the first period.
The B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota is hosted by VisitErie and takes place over six days in Erie, Pennsylvania. The competition water for each day is top secret and is only revealed to the anglers after they arrive at the host hotel each morning.
The final day Championship Round will take place Friday featuring Team B&W Trailer Hitches (Matt Becker/Spencer Shuffield), Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches (Luke Clausen/John Hunter), Team Star Tron (Bobby Lane/Jacob Wall) and Team U.S. Air Force (Stephen Browning/Anthony Gagliardi). Anglers will depart the host hotel in Erie at 4:30 a.m. ET on Friday. They are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 7:45 a.m.
The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live every day of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
The Challenge Cup features 12 two-man teams, divided into three groups as they entered the one-day Elimination Rounds. Each of the three Elimination Round matches featured four new teams, with the top two teams from each match of the Elimination Rounds advancing to the Knockout Rounds on Days 4 & 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams competed each day, with the top two teams from each Knockout Round match moving on to the Championship Round on Day 6. In Friday’s Day 6 Championship Round, the final four teams will compete in a one-day shootout to determine which team will win the 2024 B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota.
The 2024 General Tire Team Series is comprised of four events – Challenge Cup, Heritage Cup, Patriot Cup and Summit Cup – featuring two-man teams of MLF Bass Pro Tour pros competing from the same boat. Each event features a roster of 24 anglers, teamed up and working together to claim part of a season purse of more than $720,000. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2024.
Television coverage of the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota will premiere on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour episodes starting in January 2025. New MLF General Tire Team Series episodes will premiere each Saturday morning on Outdoor Channel and posted to MOTV.
