Lake Murray MLF BPT

[treble hook]

That was an intense last few minutes 

[Jar11591]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I don’t think I could make a cast under a dock with minutes left and $100K on the line.  

Me either. I would probably forget how to cast all together. 

[KHNC]

On 3/8/2025 at 9:24 AM, A-Jay said:

Wheeler doing Wheeler things with a 5-12.

Seems better that sitting this one out.

A-Jay

He was fishing in the cove in front of our house all day Saturday. Very cool! Its uplake in the more stained water areas. He did better than i typically do! HAHA!

21 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Everyone they asked, commentators included,

" After a few great days on the water, why did it turn so tough?"

I love when they all said "I don't know".

Mostly because I never do either. 

A-Jay

Because its Lake Murray!! Look at how Gagliardi finished up. Murray is the most finicky lake in all of South Carolina in my opinion!! No spotted bass (Thank God) yet. Once those largemouth decide not to eat , it shuts down. Weather seems to be a huge factor on Murray. I'm lucky enough to be able to take a couple days off this week to fish with my son. He is on break from med school in Columbia. The weather Wed-Thurs looks perfect!! I hope it comes together. 

On 3/7/2025 at 6:08 PM, A-Jay said:

We get what we pay for, which is to say this whole deal is free for the viewer.

Apparently, MLF ownership doesn't feel the need to give up their advertising $$$ for more coverage. 

Would you pay a subscription fee for better coverage ?

A-Jay

Well, I do actually pay for MOTV annual subscription. The guys that stayed at our house will likely be moving to the other trail next year as well. They are both tired of scoping. 

[JHoss]

On 3/9/2025 at 1:40 PM, Pumpkin Lizard said:

I just finished listening to the latest Bass After Dark where they talked about Practice.  Drew Gill said on Thursday night at the end that during practice, the Blue and White Academy boat looms large because Wheeler will seemingly be everywhere.

I was dying when Ken Duke realized they had him on the show the night before he was set to fish in the knockout round. 

 

On 3/9/2025 at 12:19 PM, Pumpkin Lizard said:

I disagree. Kid is sharp as a tack, he’d be successful in any series. He’d probably be successful in anything he chose to do.

 

He’s just smart enough to know that if his FFS is dialed then he doesn’t need to do much else.

Listening to him on that show and another recently made me realize how smart he is. You're right, he could be successful at anything he chose. When he started talking about the mind games he plays with people in practice and during the tournament... at 22 years old... dude is going to be a threat for a long time to come. 

[Tennessee Boy]

I'm also very impressed with how smart Drew Gill is.  He knows that FFS is his strength and he relies on it heavily.  He caught fish with it on the Harris Chain when no one else could and was one position out from making the finals.  His non FFS period performance is sub par compared to guys like Wheeler.  He's averaging 5.49 lbs per period without FFS where Wheeler is averaging 10.09 lbs per period.  The field is averaging 7.7 lbs per non FFS period.

[Team9nine]

7 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I'm also very impressed with how smart Drew Gill is.  He knows that FFS is his strength and he relies on it heavily.  He caught fish with it on the Harris Chain when no one else could and was one position out from making the finals.  His non FFS period performance is sub par compared to guys like Wheeler.  He's averaging 5.49 lbs per period without FFS where Wheeler is averaging 10.09 lbs per period.  The field is averaging 7.7 lbs per non FFS period.

 

This is one of the most important observations that most haven't realized yet from all the discussions I've seen/heard. In the MLF format, being a great scoper will get you in position to make the Championship round, but to finish in the Top-10 or win, you actually have to have a good non-Scope game to back it up. For example, if you look at the first event on Conroe, the Top-5 in weight during their Scope period were not the final Top-5 in the standings. The Top-5 ended up being the 5 guys with the highest non-Scope weight over those 2 periods. Likewise, there were a lot of guys who never even utilized their Scope period option on certain days during the second event.

 

In regard to Gill, in particular, since he is such an exceptional Scoper and bases (nearly) his entire approach around it, it would make a lot of sense for him to move to the Bassmaster trail at some point since they don't restrict usage at any time during an event (at least at this point). He can easily adapt to the hybrid MLF format, and I predict he and Wheeler will have an impressive rivalry going while they're both still fishing that trail, but he could likely dominate at BASS, kind of like Wheeler does presently at MLF. He (Gill) would do horrible at NPFL.

[JHoss]

He's 22 years old. He's only had so many hours in his life to work on his craft and I would imagine a lot of that has come in the last 5 years... which is about the same timeframe as FFS. I'd say he was smart to spend the bulk of his time focused on FFS seeing as it's made him one of the best anglers on the planet. Now that he's mastered scope, he can focus on rounding out his game with some shallow techniques and still have a great shot to Top 10 every derby he enters while he's "learning". I doubt he'd be at the same place in his career if he spent as much time practicing flipping or cranking as he spent with FFS. 

[Team9nine]

37 minutes ago, JHoss said:

He's 22 years old. He's only had so many hours in his life to work on his craft and I would imagine a lot of that has come in the last 5 years... which is about the same timeframe as FFS. I'd say he was smart to spend the bulk of his time focused on FFS seeing as it's made him one of the best anglers on the planet. Now that he's mastered scope, he can focus on rounding out his game with some shallow techniques and still have a great shot to Top 10 every derby he enters while he's "learning". I doubt he'd be at the same place in his career if he spent as much time practicing flipping or cranking as he spent with FFS. 

 

Yeah, different routes to the same place. Wheeler was 20 y.o. when he won the All-American and 21 when he won the Forrest Wood Cup, both well before FFS. He's had the non-Scope game down for a long time, but was able to master the Scope quickly and is now considered one of the Top-10 Scopers across all tours. Makes for a potent combination. If Gill stays with MLF and they stay with their hybrid format, he'll be forced to put a little more effort into bringing up his non-Scope game. It kind of sounds like he almost doesn't want to go there by his many little (snide-like) comments throughout the day when he doesn't have it to use. That's why I could see him making the move to BASS where he wouldn't be FFS restricted. Might be easier in the short run than trying to learn the non-Scope game. Will be interesting to see. Kind of like when, if at all, will Wheeler get bored with his MLF records and decide to jump to BASS to cement his resume and be considered one of the sport's GOATs, a discussion his name already gets brought up in when had.

[ryanerb]

On 3/9/2025 at 12:58 PM, A-Jay said:

Everyone they asked, commentators included,

" After a few great days on the water, why did it turn so tough?"

I love when they all said "I don't know".

Mostly because I never do either. 

A-Jay

fishing & boat pressure? How many guys were out there day after day pounding all this. Unless there were 20,000 docks with fresh ones each day to hit... 

[Pumpkin Lizard]

22 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I'm also very impressed with how smart Drew Gill is.  He knows that FFS is his strength and he relies on it heavily.  He caught fish with it on the Harris Chain when no one else could and was one position out from making the finals.  His non FFS period performance is sub par compared to guys like Wheeler.  He's averaging 5.49 lbs per period without FFS where Wheeler is averaging 10.09 lbs per period.  The field is averaging 7.7 lbs per non FFS period.

 

And yet he beat Wheeler in P3 when they both didn't have FFS. 

[KHNC]

On 3/11/2025 at 1:42 PM, Pumpkin Lizard said:

 

And yet he beat Wheeler in P3 when they both didn't have FFS. 

Well, it wasnt that difficult when Wheeler only caught one fish in 2.5 hours in the 3rd period. Literally would have won had he caught a 2-4. Drew was VERY fortunate that Wheeler couldnt make it happen. Drew didnt catch much of anything in 3rd period either. He skated by on pure luck that fishing got tough the last period. 

[Pumpkin Lizard]

1 hour ago, KHNC said:

Well, it wasnt that difficult when Wheeler only caught one fish in 2.5 hours in the 3rd period. Literally would have won had he caught a 2-4. Drew was VERY fortunate that Wheeler couldnt make it happen. Drew didnt catch much of anything in 3rd period either. He skated by on pure luck that fishing got tough the last period. 

Salty