By MLF Communications Staff

The old saying “records were made to be broken” certainly held true for anglers on the first day of the MLF Bass Pro Tour event on the St. Lawrence River in Massena, N.Y., as nearly every major single-day standard was shattered on an incredible day of fishing.

Jacob Wheeler grabbed the early lead in Group A, catching 47 bass totaling 165-01 – a new BPT record for the heaviest single-day weight. The former record of 141-09 held by Justin Lucas was also broken by the 2nd- and 3rd-place anglers – Alton Jones Jr. caught 49 bass weighing 147-10 and Brent Ehrler caught 43 bass totaling 141-12.

Overall, there were 918 bass weighing 2,894-08 caught by the 40 pros on Friday – a new Bass Pro Tour record for the heaviest total weight caught in a single day of competition.

The 40 anglers in Group A will now enjoy a day off on Saturday, while the 40 anglers in Group B will conduct their first day of competition. Group A will be back in action on Sunday.

“Goodness gracious, what a day of fishing. I can’t even express how unbelievable today was. My knees hurt, my back hurts, I feel like an old guy,” joked the 31-year-old Wheeler. “But the guys right behind me are dang good and I know that I’m going to have to do that every single day I’m out here. I’m looking forward to getting back out on Sunday, but I’m also glad we get to chill and take a break tomorrow.”

Wheeler’s record-breaking day was achieved with just a couple of different baits.

“I caught a lot of fish on a pink Ned Bait, and a lot on a (Googan Baits) Blue Penny (Rattlin’ Ned Bait) on a Ned rig,” Wheeler said. “That was pretty much the deal for me, just switching it up between the Rattlin’ Ned and a couple of other different Ned baits. It was pretty typical smallmouth fishing, just not a typical day.”

Jones Jr. relied on a dropshot rig.

“That was such a fun day that I will never forget,” Jones said. “I caught 147 pounds and finished the day in 2nd. I don’t even know what to say. Good job to Wheeler. But there is always another day, and I’ll be ready.

“I used two different baits – the 3.8-inch Gee Crack Bellows Stick and a Gee Crack Revival Shad. I ran waypoint to waypoint and literally relied on my Garmin units. Every single place that I stopped today I had a fish marked on the bed. Some of them were gone, but a lot of them weren’t.”

Like Jones, Ehrler did the majority of his damage on a dropshot rig, but he also added a few fish on a Ned rig.

“I knew the fishing was going to be pretty good, but man, they absolutely caught them today,” Ehrler said. “I caught them on a dropshot rig, with the bulk of my damage coming on a rod that I designed for Daiwa – the Tatula Elite dropshot rod – with a Tatula LT reel. I used a Roboworm with an Ark Tungsten weight, 12-pound Sunline Xplasma braided line to an 8-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon leader. That’s really standard for me on all spinning outfits and I caught the bulk of them today on that.

“I also caught a few on a Ned rig using the same setup, just with a BOSS Ned head and a Roboworm NED Worm and that was it. I found some good fish in practice and just went back and fished those areas and it paid off today.”

Lucas won Friday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award, weighing in a 6-13 smallmouth on a Ned rig during Period 2. Berkley will award $1,000 to the angler who weighs the biggest bass each day and a $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the largest bass of the tournament.

The 40 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day qualifying round on the St. Lawrence on Friday and Sunday – the 40 anglers in Group B on Saturday and Monday. After each two-day qualifying round is complete, the anglers who finish in 2nd through 20th place from each group advance to Tuesday’s Knockout Round, while the winner of each group advances directly to Wednesday’s Championship Round.

In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed and the remaining 38 anglers compete to finish in the Top 8 to advance to the Championship Round, where weights are again zeroed and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers will take off from the Massena Intake Boat Launch Ramp, located on Route 13 in Massena, at 9 a.m. ET each day of competition. Takeouts will be held in the same location beginning at 5:30 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all takeoff and takeout ceremonies and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW! livestream and ScoreTracker coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The MLF NOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney break down the extended action on all six days of competition from 9:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. MLF NOW! is live-streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.



Group A Qualifying Round – Day 1

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish for the round)

1. Jacob Wheeler -- 165-01 (47) -- 6-06

2. Alton Jones Jr. -- 147-10 (49) -- 5-01

3. Brent Ehrler -- 141-12 (43) -- 5-13

4. Josh Bertrand -- 135-03 (41) -- 4-09

5. Jeff Sprague -- 132-09 (45) -- 4-08

6. Justin Lucas -- 125-08 (36) -- 6-13

7. Cody Meyer -- 121-11 (40) -- 4-10

8. Bradley Roy -- 115-12 (37) -- 5-03

9. Adrian Avena -- 115-00 (34) -- 5-06

10. Jonathon VanDam -- 94-04 (29) -- 5-03

11. Dean Rojas -- 86-06 (30) -- 4-05

12. David Dudley -- 85-02 (26) -- 5-13

13. Jordan Lee -- 84-04 (25) -- 5-11

14. Skeet Reese -- 81-12 (28) -- 4-10

15. Kevin VanDam -- 78-07 (23) -- 5-12

16. Brandon Coulter -- 72-11 (21) -- 5-03

17. Stephen Browning -- 70-15 (25) -- 4-08

18. Wesley Strader -- 67-03 (22) -- 4-08

19. Roy Hawk -- 66-11 (22) -- 5-00

20. Greg Vinson -- 66-10 (23) -- 4-11

21. Jesse Wiggins -- 63-13 (19) -- 4-15

22. Shaw Grigsby -- 62-09 (18) -- 5-01

23. Alton Jones -- 62-08 (20) -- 5-02

24. Ish Monroe -- 62-06 (17) -- 5-00

25. Marty Robinson -- 59-05 (20) -- 5-05

26. Casey Ashley -- 59-01 (17) -- 5-04

27. Cliff Crochet -- 52-15 (16) -- 4-13

28. Mark Davis -- 49-14 (19) -- 4-01

29. Randy Howell -- 43-13 (16) -- 4-02

30. Ryan Davidson -- 40-11 (16) -- 4-06

31. Russ Lane -- 38-13 (13) -- 4-09

32. Jeff Kriet -- 36-15 (11) -- 5-05

33. Keith Poche -- 34-15 (11) -- 4-09

34. Trevor Fitzgerald -- 34-01 (12) -- 5-05

35. Kelly Jordon -- 29-04 (7) -- 5-06

36. Mark Rose -- 27-10 (10) -- 3-08

37. Todd Faircloth -- 27-02 (9) -- 3-12

38. Andy Morgan -- 25-13 (10) -- 3-01

39. Boyd Duckett -- 20-04 (6) -- 4-10

40. Paul Elias -- 12-05 (5) -- 2-15