CLAYTON, N.Y. — The SiteOne Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River was a smallmouth slugfest until the very end. While there were some obvious anglers at the top, there were some surprises too.
The obvious picks before this tournament ended up being a pretty good team. Smallmouth experts like the Johnston brothers, Jeff Gustafson, Brandon Palaniuk and last year’s winner Micah Frazier all ended up in the top 10.
But there were also surprises. Paul Mueller, hot off a win in February, almost won the whole event, including catching the largest smallmouth ever weighed in more than 50 years of B.A.S.S. history, a 7-13. And don’t forget Brock Mosley finding his way to third place chasing green fish in a historic brown fish area.
If you missed the first three events, don’t let that stop you from signing up. This year, B.A.S.S. has teamed up with Rapala to increase Fantasy payouts with lots of cool prizes paying out to 20th place at each event. That means you can win some cool gear, even if you just signed up or even forgot to fill out a previous roster or two.
The Fantasy champion for the third event was “skeeterz20” who picked a near-perfect team:
Overall Rank: No. 1, total points 1,495
Bucket A: Clark Wendlandt, 268
Bucket B: Paul Mueller, 390
Bucket C: Brandon Palaniuk, 260
Bucket D: Cory Johnston, 272
Bucket E: Chris Johnston, 305
Total: 1,495
The perfect team was not selected, but here are the anglers that would have paid out the most points:
Bucket A: Clark Wendlandt, 268
Bucket B: Paul Mueller, 390
Bucket C: Micah Frazier, 280
Bucket D: Brock Mosley, 290
Bucket E: Chris Johnston, 305
Total: 1,533
BUCKET A: WENDLANDT
The current AOY leader Clark Wendlandt had another strong tournament, rewarding his relatively small .7% of players with the best of Bucket A.
Second best selection: Jamie Hartman was the second-highest scoring angler in this bucket. He produced 221 points for the 30.6% of players who chose him.
Lowest scoring angler: A shockingly low finish for John Crews led to only 105 points.
BUCKET B: MUELLER
Paul Mueller caught a 7-13 smallmouth, a beast from the border and it made his players quite happy with 390 points. His strong performance almost had him holding up his second Elite Series trophy of the season and looking into reinforced shelving for his trophy case.
Second best selection: Taku Ito has arrived, and even though he admitted it was his first time smallmouth fishing, he made his players (1%!) 276 points.
Lowest scoring angler: Caleb Sumrall ran out of gas on Day 2, and only netted his players 103 points.
BUCKET C: FRAZIER
Micah Frazier won the event last year, and you should have just stuck with that. He netted the 5.4% that chose him 280 points.
Second best selection: The guy who won it in 2013 was second best in Bucket C. Brandon Palaniuk added 260 points for the 21% who chose him.
Lowest scoring angler: Harvey Horne had a tough one on the St. Lawrence, finishing with 125 points for his .2% of players.
BUCKET D: MOSLEY
Listen, this doesn’t make any sense. Brock Mosley’s wife delivered a baby on Wednesday, and he went and fished docks for largemouth bass for the next four days, was in contention and netted his players 290 points. Don’t try to overthink it. I’m impressed 3.3% of players figured this one out.
Second best selection: And now for the Johnston portion of this wrap up. If B.A.S.S. returns to St. Lawrence and you don’t immediately pick Johnstons, you are leaving points on the table. Cory Johnston had 54.2% of players pick him, and he gave them 272 points for it.
Lowest scoring angler: Gary Clouse had a tough tournament and finished with 105 points.
BUCKET E: JOHNSTON
Chris Johnston went out into the big water and came back with the win. 60.2% of the players guessed this right, and got 305 points for their trouble.
Second best selection: The second best angler was Chad Morgenthaler, who had a very strong tournament, finishing in fourth place. His 1% of players netted 285 points.
Lowest scoring angler: Dale Hightower had a tough event and finished 82nd, netting his players 111 points.
