Fantasy Fishing: Fork's best Fantasy picks

Written by

Kyle Jessie

The Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork was an absolute slugfest. Lee Livesay got the victory on his home lake with a total weight of 112 pounds, 5 ounces over four days of competition. The hometown favorite caught a whopping 42 pounds, 3 ounces on the last day, which is the third largest one-day limit in Bassmaster history.

There wasn’t one dominant pattern amongst the leaders, with fish being caught in all different stages of the spawn. Ultimately, most of the Top 10 was fishing offshore in some form or fashion but many anglers were successful catching bedding fish as well.

As far as Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing is concerned, some extremely high percentage players paid off big time, but the same could be said for a few anglers with extremely low player percentages.

Haven’t created a Fantasy Fishing account yet? No problem! Sign up and play for free at BassmasterFantasy.com. Players win prizes at each specific event and there are prizes for overall winners at the end of the season as well. You can still play the remainder of the season even if you missed out on the first two events.

The overall winner at Lake Fork was “GlennB01” who selected three of the five picks that would have made up the perfect roster. Overall Rank: No. 1, Total Points 1,392.

BUCKET A: Lee Livesay

BUCKET B: Brandon Card

BUCKET C: Jeff Gustafson

BUCKET D: Carl Jocumsen

BUCKET E: Chris Zaldain

The perfect Fantasy Fishing team at Lake Fork would have been:

BUCKET A: Lee Livesay

BUCKET B: Brandon Card

BUCKET C: Clifford Pirch

BUCKET D: Quentin Cappo

BUCKET E: Chris Zaldain

Total: 1,453

BUCKET A: LIVESAY

For the first time all season, the playing percentages were relatively evenly spread out in Bucket A. The hometown favorite Lee Livesay was the best pick in Bucket A, scoring 345 points. Livesay was the highest selected angler in Bucket A at 17.9%. In his third Elite Series trip to his home lake, Livesay finally got the win that everyone expected.

Second best selection: I think it’s safe to say that after Day 1 of the event, everyone thought we were about to watch Patrick Walters dominate the field once again on Lake Fork. If it wasn’t for Livesay’s huge final day, we would have. Walters scored 300 points for the 9.7% of Fantasy players who selected him.

Lowest scoring angler: Elite Series veteran Mark Menendez had a tough event at legendary Lake Fork. Menendez only scored 115 points and was selected by 0.3% of players.

BUCKET B: CARD

Brandon Card led the event on Days 2 and 3. The North Carolina native is one of only two anglers to weigh in more than 20 pounds in all four days of competition which landed him in fourth place. Card scored 295 points and was selected by 5.5% of Fantasy players.

Second best selection: For the second event in a row, Taku Ito found himself in the Top 10 in the final day of an event where most wouldn’t have expected him to succeed. Ito scored 272 points for the 3.7% of Fantasy Fishing players who selected him.

Lowest scoring angler: Ed Loughran never got it going at Lake Fork. The Virginian only scored 97 points for the 0.3% that selected him.

BUCKET C: PIRCH

Although Clifford Pirch wasn’t the highest finisher in Bucket C, he did receive bonus points for having big bass. The Arizona pro scored 243 points and was selected by 0.8% of Fantasy Fishing players.

Second best selection: Although Skylar Hamilton was only selected by 0.6% of Fantasy Fishing players, he was the second-best selection in Bucket C with 241 points.

Lowest scoring angle: Clark Wendlandt was the second highest selected angler in Bucket C at 15.1%. Unfortunately, the Texas native never got on the bite that many expected him to. Wendlant only scored 89 points.

BUCKET D: CAPPO

Not only was Quentin Cappo a great value pick in Bucket D at 1%, he was the best overall pick. The Louisiana pro scored 290 points and finished the event in third place. Bucket D had three anglers in the Top 10.

Second best selection: Another one of the anglers in Bucket D who made the Top 10 was Chad Morgenthaler. The Elite Series veteran scored 268 points for the 0.8% that selected him.

Lowest scoring angler: After a good event on the Sabine River, Yusuke Miyazaki struggled at Lake Fork. The Texan only scored 81 points and was selected by 3.8% of Fantasy Fishing players.

BUCKET E: ZALDAIN

No big surprise that Chris Zaldain was able to throw big swimbaits to finish in the Top 10 at Lake Fork. The Texas native was well worth the highest playing percentage of any angler in any bucket at 61.5%. Zaldain scored 280 points

Second best selection: After a rough start to the event on Day 1, Jay Yelas posted big weights back-to-back days to land him in 12th place overall. Yelas scored 254 points and was selected by 3.4% of players.

Lowest scoring angler: David Fritts wasn’t able to figure it out at Lake Fork. Fritts only scored 79 points and was selected by 1.1% of players.

This event was the first event in which Fantasy Fishing players were able to play the new Fantasy format Mercury Bassmaster Drain the Lake Challenge.

The first champion for Drain the Lake was “brad705” who tallied up 2,451 points.

Take a look at Brad705′s roster: